Keep it on topic- or don't post. Last warning to all posters, otherwise you will start getting cards. Thanks.
Guam moved their home match to their ow turf, apparently they asked Iran FA to host their game in Azadi Stadium first but they reconsidered their decision. They certainly believe that they have a home advantage after the first two games so it's quite understandable.
Let them be happy for time being. They looked good at defending against Turkmenistan but I can not see any challenge for our defense against them. We need to send a team with decent half backs and forward to just score few goals possibly a 2-0 is enough for us.
Khalatbari should have been there against Turkmenistan. Our aspect lays too much on psychical performances and against teams who bumper the bus in hope of a result we need creativity. Khalatbari is one of these players who can contribute with his speed and skills that disorient tight defence just like against Lebanon in Tehran.
Khalatbari will not be invited as long as CQ is the head coach, because of his interviews against CQ before the start of last AC.
That is my suggestion too. CQ should use some creative players in our CMF or AMF positions. Physical fitness in not enough here. We need creativity and less physicality. We are playing against Asian teams not African or European team and all of them are going bunker against us, so we need to bring our naturally gifted players like Khalatbari to do the job for us as it has been done always and worked beautifully for us.
^ Spot on, and I would suggest using the two-striker system as well with Azmoun and Gucci up front for a change. Both are goalgetters so why not using them at the same time?
That's something I dislike about Queiroz he holds grudges. Khaltabari is always a nice player to have and I still think if Rahmati was the goalie in Brazil things could have ended differently. But I think the conscription players are free to play now lile Soroush rafiei and Abdollahzadeh and Rahmani. If Soroush and Abdollahzadeh can play like they did last season before they were forced to stop people are gonna be surprised at how good those two are.
Rahmati was a total beast and saved Iran during many WCQ's, but his attitude is crap and he is easy to beat on set-pieces. Still, Haghighi is just average and his performances haven't convinced me at all. We need a keeper who can single handily save us during important games, and Beiranvand is a candidate IMO.
Agreed he's never shown anything that much above average. He only became tm goalie because he was the least riskiest option for the World Cup. It might be a blessing in disguise that haghighi will be second goalie in Rubin because I think it's Beiranvands time to take over.
Regardless of Ramati weaknesses, Rahmati > Haghighi. Haghighi does not deserve to be number 1. Did you see how Haghighi conceded the first goal against Iraq? We would not have conceded that goal if we had Rahmati or any other keeper. Haghighi has other weaknesses too. Rahmati mistook but CQ should have invited him at least for AC IMO.
Like it or not Rahmati and Khalatbari can't play in NT as long as CQ is the manager and we have better goalkeepers like Beiranvand and Akhbari. Rahmati went out of the team camping side himself and left the team in most vulnerable time. I never forget that ever, we had to win our last 3 matches to qualify for WC 2014 and he couldn't handle the pressure. People like him should stay away from team melli, even if they are good players. Khalatbari's case is a little different. He helped the team a lot to qualify and later was tossed out by CQ simply because of his physical fitness, which cost us dearly during the WC 2014 against Bosna!
Since we are supposed to be on topic I ignore your last comment about me being an Afghani. LOL I had a nice comment prepared:-D Haghighi is way better than Rahmati in my oppinion. Rahmati is a good goalkeeper but I think he doesn't deserve a spot in TM. I am totally with CQ on this. This is what I love about him. He doesn't care how big a player is. The team is always bigger than players. In WC 2014 Haghighi was amazing. If it wasn't for him we would leave the cup with 0 points. He made mistakes against Bosnia though. But there is no guarantee Rahmati wouldn't. For all I know we would have lost to Nigeria if it wasn't for Haghighi. despite all this, I completely support every decision CQ makes. He knows better than you and I;-)
Looking forward to September 3rd. Things should become clearer in a very intriguing group (or perhaps they'll become less clear- and the intrigue will increase). Iran should be able to beat Guam but it's a litmus test to see how far this team has actually progressed. AJ De La Garza (LA Galaxy) is a really good defender but that's all I know about the bunch. The rest of the squad plays for teams like Payless Shopping Strykers!
In some cases you need that big player no matter the attitude. That's not true haghighi wasn't amazing at the World Cup. For the most part any decent ipl goalie could have made the same saves and he didn't even make any good saves against Nigeria it was pooladi who was the best player that game. You can't deny that if Queiroz had called up Rahmati and better offensive players like khalatbari, karimi, azmoun etc things could have turned out a lot differently especially vs Bosnia.
Watch his saves in the Argentina game (eg. vs Higuain), i'm pretty sure no average IPL goalie could pull off those. But admittedly, not calling up Azmoun was a massive blunder by CQ.
I still believe Rahmati does not deserve to be in TM. About Khalatbari and Azmoun I can say if I was the coach I would have called them. But we have to respect CQ's decisions. He is the coach and he calls the shots. Let's face it. No matter who he calls up, there will always be unhappy people. So whatever choices he makes, I completely trust him. After all, he is the great CQ
Haghighi was only good vs Argenitina and whole team was defending which helps the goalie a lot. CQ is a good defensive minded coach but he has his own weakness. Even Mourinho is not flawless so I do question him when he screws ups! As the other guy said. Haghighi did nothing special against Nigeria and he was unreliable vs Bosnia. Instead of many back ups for defense line CQ should have taken at least Sardar even no Khalatbari then. We could win the match against Nigeria and at least draw with Bosnia if he had done so. Btw, I read your old comments . You are Azerbaijani.
No one is without flaws. I hate Mourinho so it wan not a good example:-D Kudos! Good job Sherlock. I am from Ardabil. It is in the north-west of Iran. I have even uploaded photos from my neighborhood.
Haghighi was great against Nigeria and Argentina but average in most other matches. Rahmati badly saved our asses consistently throughout several years but recently kinda past his prime, I would say arguably that he is the third best Iranian goalie after Beiranvand and Haghighi
Wow!! you think Haghighi is better than Rahmati even when Rahmati was in his prime ?????!!!!!!! Haghighi did not make any amazing save against Nigeria as Football Asia said. We would have gotten that one point even if we had other keepers in that game.. Do you remember how Haghighi conceded the first goal against Iraq? We would not have conceded a goal like that with other keepers. I do not support every decision the coaches make. He may know better than you and I but the coaches may make worse decision sometimes. Rahmati was way better than both of those keepers when he was in his prime but when he is past of his prime he is not better than those two keepers. Every keeper has good days too. Rahmti made much harder saves in his career compare to the saves Haghighi did against Argentina. Do not think that I am Rahmati fan. I am not but I can not deny the fact that If we had someone like him in the WC and AC the outcome would have been different. For now, Rahmati is getting old, and we need to invest on younger keepers. I d not like Haghighi as number 1 and I think he is not deserve to be number 1 IMO.
First, yes I believe Haghighi in his prime form is better than Rahmati in his prime form. Not just better, way way better. If we want to give instances yahoo posted a stupud mistake by Rahmati on it's first page and used the title: Worst keeper in the world! Remember Persepolis vs Esteghlal match where Rahmati made another stupid mistake on a corner kick. So Rahmati has made more stupid mistake than Haghighi will ever make! So if I was the coach, Rahmati would have never been the goalkeeper in the first place. So I see Rahmati at best a mediocre goalkeeper. He could be good but he isn't. He had some good games but more bad ones.