I don't think it is all gloomy. When we send a very young team with limited experience to the field we should expect these things to happen. Friendlies are good for this. This team needs to play more to find the chemistry and organization. They are basically the core of our 2018 WC team and beyond. The only good point about this match was that it reaffirmed my doubts that Taremi is not a Team Melli striker material. He is a very wasteful striker. He should be playing as CM or winger.
we are simply deficient in the striker department. daie. hashemian. gucci. azmoun. these are the only competent strikers we have had in the past 25 years. we are lucky that we have azmoun right now. in the asian level we can largely get away with scoring without proper strikers, but in games against the top 4, and in the world cup, it is a disadvantage because we will have few scoring opportunities (especially since CQ is defense minded). asian cup 2004 semifinal vs china, we did not have a proper striker (daie was too old). if we did we probably would have beaten china despite their cheating. world cup 2006, no proper striker (hashemian was injured and also playing out of position). we would have beaten angola or maybe gotten a draw vs portugal if we had one. we might have even scored more in the mexico game which would have made mirzapour+rezaies horrendous double mistake less significant on the outcome of that game. in both of these games/tournaments we had a strong team but lack of a proper striker cost us.
Our performance against India was subpar. It could be because they were out of sync, but against India it shouldn't be an excuse. Really disappointed by the low scoreline although the Indian GK was sublime. I'm hoping for a better day against the Omani's.
My line up against Oman: Beiranvand Ghafouri, Hosseini, Pourghaz, Mohammadi Dejagah, Ezatolahi, Shojaeian Torabi, Gucci, Hajsafi From this line up, six players did not play against India.
Beiro (he is young and future of TM but needs more experience. He is more reliable than the other two atm) Ghafouri (fast attacker, solid defense) - Hossieni (old but solid CB and captian) - Pourgaz (good CB, and need him to hold the line when Milad run for the goal) Milad Mohammadi (great speed, excellent passes, the best LB we have atm) Omid Ebrahimi (since Ando is injured we need a good DM with some experience like him to lead the midfield line), Ezatollahi (he is getting better and better, needs to control his anger, but his passing and hustling in MF is greatly appreciated, another Nekonam in making) Shojaeen (a some how good CM and play maker but needs more experience to fill up this gap in our team) First Half: Ashkan Dejagah (as RW to see how much he has to offer in this department) - Azmoun (as our striker to see if he can get in sync with Dejagah and score some fast goals) - HajiSafi (we need him in LW and possible for FKs along dejagah, his best place is LW not LB, he can score from long shots and can run fast making Omani defenders restless) Second Half: Second Half: Jahanbakhsh (comes in in min 55 in RW to run fast and create opportunities in right side) - Gucci (comes in min 60 to use opportunities created by JB and Torabi while Omanis get tired) - Torabi (comes in min 55 to replace tired HajiSafi and starts his destructive moves in left side) If we can avoid one substitution due to good performance I suggest bring Karim in min 70 to add to our fire power up in front when Omanis get tired.
I did not say Pourghaz is above average. In fact, I think someone like Hadi Mohammadi is more deserved to be given a chance than Pourghaz. I put him in the line up because we need to rotate the line up against Oman. 4-3-3 formation can be changed into different formations such as 4-1-4-1. Torabi and Hajsafi are my wingers in that line up. Hajsafi can play as left winger in that line up.
I'd go with this This first 11 can hurt Oman badly on quick counters especially on the wings, with Dejagah and Torabi, our energetic full backs Ghafouri and especially Milad Mohammadi. Shojaeian has amazing skills, great vision and passing and can create multiple chances. I still think Azmoun should start, our players will have 4/5 days of rest I think that's enough, we'll just keep Montazeri, Ezzatollahi and Azmoun who started for the India game, the rest will be 100% fresh. Despite his average game vs India (where he still got a goal nonetheless) Sardar is the best striker we have, Gucci is out of form right now as opposed to Ansarifard, so I would bring Karim early in the second half. With Taremi, Gucci and Ansarifard as backup strikers we never had that much solid depth in that position which is always nice to see Gucci could be very useful in the next round as he is always very opportunistic and composed. He is the ideal striker to start vs teams like Qatar/UAE/Saudi Arabia etc...
And also would be nice to see Beiranvand in goal for his 4th cap, perhaps he can grab an assist in this game?
GROUP D 29 March: India v Turkmenistan, Iran v Oman With a superior goal difference by 15, Iran are almost certain to finish on top even if they lose their three-point lead with a defeat to second-placed Oman at the Azadi Stadium. The Omanis are currently seventh in the rankings of the runners-up but, with only three points separating second from eighth, could make a final day surge by beating Iran. The other Group D game sees Turkmenistan visit India at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium with both sides guaranteed to finish third and fifth respectively. http://www.the-afc.com/asian-cup-20...sia-2018uae-2019-qualifiers-md10-a-look-ahead
Good to see you all back here. Since we were sure to qualify I did not watch the match. But I know we won:-D
how would you all rate our performance in this round? i think it has been poor. we had only 1 challenging game (oman in oman) and we could not win. furthermore, we messed up against turkmenistan in turkmenistan which should never happen. a mistake like that in the 2nd round will cause our disqualification. hopefully we can pick ourselves up for the next round. this time it will be harder to qualify because there is an extra team in the group, which means we have to be more consistent. we simply cant afford to lose points against the smaller teams, and we need to do better than the 3rd pot team in head to head. of course, if we get points from 2nd pot team we will have some room for error in these matches, but that will be tough.
Very normal. I think we didn't do particularly well but we weren't poor. We are in a transition phase and in this round we did that perfectly, and smoother than predicted. Lots of young blood were injected so results like Turkmenistan draw are expected. Oman in Oman is always tough, they are better than couple of teams that qualified in the final round. I don't think there is any need to worry at all and this team has high chances of qualifying
i know oman in oman is tough but we cant afford to drop too many points against the likes of oman. last time this happened we missed out on WC2010. our lack of points against UAE eliminated us even though we did better against the teams (except the saudi loss) that finished ahead of us.
Don't worry Oman is always a tricky team for us for some reason and you saw how we completely controlled them in Azadi. They are better or as good than almost half teams in the final round. This team will also only become better, did you check the average age of the squad? Ezzatollahi, Jahanbakhsh, Azmoun, Torabi, Taremi, Mohammadi etc.. will become even better and real Asian stars that will probably play in top leagues quite soon. We should not have that many problems qualifying. I would give quite high chances of finishing top 2 for sure, our team looks very hungry to qualify
The next round will be tough. Since Iran and Japan are the top teams in the FIFA ranking we will not be in the same group. But we will be in the same group with at least one of these teams: Australia, Saudi, and Korea. I prefer Korea over Australia. I don't think we will have much trouble qualifing
You are wrong about final seeding. They will use April Fifa ranking not March. Iran and Australia are in pot 1. Korea and Japan are in pot 2. Check the following thread: Final Seeding and Discussion of Your Favorite Draw (AFC WCQ 2018-Round 3)
No I think you are wrong. Australia is 67th in FIFA ranking. There is no way they are in pot 1. Iran and Japan will be in pot 1