Everything Bahrain did was fine. But if you want to be taken seriously.. wave your own flag when you win. Waving Saudi's just solidified to me that most Arab countries outside Egypt and Jordan are temporary and frankly should be absorbed into other countries. Are you a child? Im happy Australia went to playoffs. If anyone gets Asia the 5th spot its them.
The part of me that hates Saudi Arabia isn't happy with the fact that they qualified. But in some sense, I am happy to see Australia in the AFC playoffs. I guess that will make the likely encounter between them and Concacaf's 4th place team more viable for the AFC to win. I should mention,incidentally, that Saudi Arabia is indeed the one team in the AFC that has often been bad news for Iran. They are also the only team in the AFC that has a winning record against Iran, thanks to the last match against the 2 sides in the 2010 qualifiers which the Saudis won, giving them 6 wins (albeit 2 on penalties) to 5 wins for Iran and 3 draws between the two. But even that record, which by itself is unmatched by any other Asian team, doesn't properly reflect how much trouble Saudi Arabia have caused for Iran in the past. At crucial moments, Iran has simply witnessed its football fortunes drastically altered or impaired by unfortunate circumstances which have put the Saudis above us in many of the competitions which saw them in our group or as our opponent. If their politics wasn't enough for me to hate them, the fact that they have simply been bad news for Iran even in football wouldn't endear them to me. So I certainly can't cheer them even if I preferred to see Australia in the playoffs rather than to get an automatic ticket to the World Cup.
I felt happy for Saudi Arabia for a second when they scored, but after watching their grassrolling for a half hour after that I'm thinking "what have we done letting them in the world cup?".
Saudis got momentum when our football went to dormant mode post 1978 revolution and Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). But I admit they were a good representative for AFC at least in 1994 world cup. Despite their time wasting tactics and off the pitch tricks I enjoyed our encounters when they were still powerful at end of 90s and early 2000s. We had a tense rivalry back then and our team should sweat its socks off to beat all odds (AFC, referees, influence, anti football, hostile crowd) to beat them. I want it back if they can take their shit together. Iranian-South Korean rivalry is like a dead horse to me now.
penalties dont count as wins! according to FIFA head to head our record with them is 4 wins 6 draws 4 losses, 19 goals for us, 13 goals for them. so they dont have a winning record against us. no asian team has a winning record against iran. we have a winning record against almost all asian teams.
I take the official stats against Saudis. But the games they didn't win statistically (won on penalties instead) were crucial losses that were even more important than our wins. The Saudis, overall, have been bad news for Iran. Even when we would beat them, they would somehow manage to leapfrog in front of Iran. For instance, we beat the Saudis 3:0 in the group stage in the 1996 Asian Cup but lost to them on penalties in the semifinal. The penalty loss was more significant than our win as it denied us the chance to win the Asian Cup trophy. Or in the 2002 qualifiers, we beat the Saudis 2:0 in Tehran, drew them 2:2 in Riyadh, but after the Bahrain fiasco in our last match, it was the Saudis that advanced instead of Iran. Or in 2010, we ended up 4th in our group despite the fact that neither of the 2 teams that advanced (South Korea or North Korea) managed to beat Iran. Even in those abysmal qualifiers, Iran suffered only one loss throughout its qualifying campaign. That one loss was against the Saudis and was enough to basically ruin our campaign.
So classy from the ex-moderator! Cry moar bitch lol. Still butthurt from the saudi youth hammering of your little persians team last year, eh? hahahaha So Japan is not a top Asian side anymore?! so delusional from the ex-mod. Be thankful you weren't grouped with the Saudis or you will get your ass kicked in front of your people like in 2009. And mark my words, your team will finish dead LAST as usual in their WC group. Keep dreaming of advancing to the 2nd round in the WC. lol.
they were, but in many cases we only have ourselves to blame. in 1994 they beat us by a goal in 1 match, but we sucked against all teams in 1998 they won 1 and 1 draw, they did better than us head to head, but again, we were forced into playoffs because we lost our last game against qatar, if we beat qatar we would finish on top of saudi in 2002 we won 1 and 1 draw, yet we lost against bahrain and got pushed into playoffs, if we beat bahrain we would have finished on top of saudi in 2010 they won 1 and 1 draw, but we sucked against all teams, our poor finish was due to too many draws against weak teams, ie we were the only team to not get 3 points from UAE. if we got 3 points against UAE we would finish on top of saudi. so even with our losses to them, we would have still finished on top of them had we won routine games against other teams. we only have ourselves to blame, it is not like saudi knocked us out. our problem was ourselves: inconsistency, weak defense, psychologically weak, and incompetent coaches. CQ has fixed these problems, which is why we are now performing at the level we should always have. as for asian cup: 1984 they beat us on penalties (luck) 1988 they beat us by a goal. 1996 they beat us on penalties after questionable offside against our goals but in group stages we beat them 3-0. this was ridiculous. we were the best team in that tournament. so just once, in 1988 they knocked us out. the other 2 times it was lottery (penalties). so yes, saudi has been bad news for us, but they definitely cant make the claim that they are responsible for knocking us out. they literally only knocked us out once without luck (penalties) and that was 1988 asian cup. also, an interesting fact is that they have never beaten us by more than 1 goal. saudi were a really lucky team and their asian cup wins and world cup qualifications are inflated due to their lucky penalty wins, favouritism by the ref, and other teams mess ups/misfortunes.
I wish you would try to abide by your admonition about class and not say silly things. The Saudi win over Iran in 2009 in Tehran was the one and only time Saudi Arabia have defeated Iran in Iran. Indeed, actual results against Iran by the Saudis (despite the record I mentioned) are rare. The fact is that no team in Asia can get results against Iran easily or often. All the teams in Saudi Arabia's group (Group B) have a losing record against Iran historically. Saudi Arabia is the only exception, with our official record tied but the scales favoring the Saudis because of their penalty shoot out wins. But I am the first to admit: Saudi Arabia is bad luck and bad news for Iran. Saudi Arabia don't need to beat us to be bad news. They just are.
Competitive match means a match whose result is meaningful to both sides. Japan had nothing to play for, and unlike Iran in Group A in a similar situation, they did not even bother fielding their main team with all the starters. When was the last time Saudi Arabia defeated a top five ranked Asian side in a competitive match? I'm pretty sure it was in the last decade, back in 2009 against Iran, which is apparently a national holiday in Saudi Arabia and Saudis' only moment of footballing glory in the last decade.
and that 2008-2012 Iran team was one of our worst teams in history. i dont remember when was the last time Iran had such a weak team, probably early 90s. saudi is lucky that they played Iran when saudi was at their peak. they got lucky that they did not play Iran from 2002-2005 and 2010-2015. they would have been destroyed.
True. Our football team in the period you mention wasn't really all that good. But even that team only lost to Saudi Arabia. That was our only loss throughout the preliminary and final qualifying rounds for 2010 World Cup qualifiers.
Most teams will time-waste in some way, but only a handful of teams(mostly from a particular region) will act like they got shot every single time they lost the ball
It was pretty close to the main team though. Only 4 players changed, but 3 of them (Honda, Haraguchi, Okazaki) have been starters recently. And Captain Hasebe came out but he was crap in the last match. Really the coach should have started Asano again. They just looked so slow up top.
1. If you think someone is trolling, try your best to ignore him. I know you guys were deserve it and congrats. Hope you guys can do well in the WC. 2. True although Iran never could qualify to the WC by winning the group or finishing above first tier Asian national teams from 1979-2012. The biggest disadvantage we always had was coach. We always had a local coach unlike KSA. You guys always had decent foreign managers. If we had someone like CQ in WCQs 1998 we would have topped the group IMO. We had an Iranian coach for WCQs 1998 who only coached Iran Futsal team before his appointment! Another example is 2010. If you guys did not replace Johar with Peseiro and we replaced Daei with a good foreign coach, did not it change the outcome? The answer is yes most likely. Having a decent foreign manager along with coaching stability is very important. A lot of Iranians including me are scared for future of Iran NT because CQ is not going to stay forever. IMO Australia needs a well known foreign coach for its future like Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and China. I hope not although I do not expect anything from us at WC 2018. So if it happens I will get over it very quickly. Bro no. We were mad of the way Bahrain played (Time wasting and using psychological wars during the game many times) and their reaction after the game not the result. I was very young at that time and It is my worst football memory until now. Peace.
Damn these Iranian Posters: We get into World Cup , they start crying about there own fixtures with them and history and penalties etc etc...If we beat them fair and square then they say , they should have faced them in this year as it was our peak and the year we lost was not our peak and all shit ..They always fail to realise that one time rises when other teams fall and that's what happened in AFC when Australia came in and disrupted the flow. Otherwise if we closely look again, its the generic top 4 teams in Asia - KSA, Japan , SK and Iran who have qualified .. And now if you say no Uzbekistan is the top then again you are wrong coz they were not top anytime..Its again fall of KSA NT made them in headlines otherwise they are still the best outside top 4 generic Asia sides.. Talk about embarrassment , yes we did we accept it for the 2006 fiasco, but we are more proud of our NT who have qualified and played in WC with all home grown players playing in local leagues unlike the others who have players playing in top European leagues..Won 3 Asian cups and finalist for couple more times again with local based talent and its a achievement of its kind.. You talk shit , we progress and leave you behind like always. Grow up with leaving behind your ego, embarrassing nature and attitude...If you really think we will embarrass as always in WC then why don't your team carry the AFC flag and make Asia proud??
In what universe, is Saudi Arabia poised or projected to leave Iran behind? You're not even close to Iran's level to compare yourself with Iran. Check the results, the rankings, the player stats. Not even close. It will take at least a generation or more for you to just close the gap with Iran. Keep in mind that Iran's starting eleven now is 23 years old on average, and 90% of them play in Europe. We have so much depth in our team, that we didn't have enough space in our squad to invite the top forward of the top team in Belgium who just scored two goals last week, or the captain of the second best team in Greece, both of whom would be starters in Saudi Arabia or most Asian teams. We have like 20 players in Europe now, and can easily field a B team that is as strong as our A team. We're set for at least another 10 years with our young yet experienced team. So for you to compare yourself to Iran, you need to first (1) get at least within 10 ranking spots of Iran (2) win a competitive match against a top Asian side (3) send maybe just one player to Europe. Once you did any of those, then maybe you'll be taken seriously as a challenge to Iran or the other elite Asian sides. For now, it is Iran that's keeping the AFC flag up by breaking WCQ records left and right and being the only Asian team on verge of breaking into the Top 20 of the FIFA rankings.
Did we play Iran last night? Why are they all butt hurt and just could not help themselves to pour the tears in our thread? GUYS BE REAL!
Mani Dzjaman, I feel sorry for you, I really do. You are physically and mentally challenged. I try to avoid harsh words to put you down. But apparently you only understand the language of the boot. You fat, blind, and hateful freak.
What? Saudi won? I better go troll on their thread, and start my own diet therapy (to eat a lot)! waaaa
That's exactly what a troll looks like. I feel sad though he is mentally and physically ill. He's pathetic.
His name is Mani Djazmi. And he's an accomplished sports journalist and host on BBC. Unfortunately though, that's not me. You're a lousy stalker, as I live in a different continent and while you could say I'm also accomplished and somewhat famous, I'm an artist, not a radio host. Ultimtitly though, you're just mad because you know what I'm saying about Saudi Arabia, is the truth. And the truth hurts. Saudi Arabia is still not a top Asian side, and hasn't been for a decade.