This thread is about Iranian Clubs in ACL 2017. 1. Persepolis Tehran 2. Esteghlal Khuzestan 3. Zob Ahan Esfahan 4. Esteghlal Tehran
Esteghlal training in Dubai. There is no trace of SS Tehran coach Alireza Mansourian. He doesn't have a professional license so he can not sit on seat of SS head coach according to AFC rules, but our news papers are reporting he has to pay his taxes before he get an exit permission.
Persepolis training http://video.varzesh3.com/video/134101/تمرین-امروز-پرسپولیس-در-عمان-(95-12-01) Persepolis in their way to Oman http://video.varzesh3.com/video/134056/از-تهران-تا-مسقط-همراه-با-تیم-پرسپولیس
SS Khuzestan 1-o Al Fateh KSA SS Tehran 1-2 Al Ahli Dubai Upcoming matches: Zob Ahan vs Al Ain Persepolis vs Al Hilal KSA Perspolis news: It doesn't look good for now. Persepolis is supposed to be the host in Oman but Al Hilal fans have bought thousands of tickets and will be cheering for their team in Masqat. The old weakness of the team in defense is still our problem. The player who was going to cover that gap, Mahini, has got food poisoning! He must be a total idiot not watching what he eats prior such an important match specially when he has a key role in the team. Now the replacement is the weakest player in our team and famous for horrendous back passes. One mistake by him and that can seal the fate of this match. Our team has been in a rough path since Tehran Derby, but we hope they pull themselves together and show a decent football. I am sure they pick up their momentum by next 2 or 3 matches and show their quality eventually. So at this moment I don't expect too much from them. We will probably witness a better quality of football in away match against Al Hilal when our team will pick up a momentum and we cover our weakness in defense line. I just hope Rabihkhah doesn't play today! And please no Ahmad Zadeh as LB! Let us see how our coach arranges the team! I hope Persepolis shows some decent football so everyone enjoy old attacking Iranian football style (prior to CQ era).
Persepolis should get rid of Mahdi Taremi. He is a disaster for Persepolis by losing so many 1x1 chances with opposite goal keepers. It is like 5 to 6 100% chances in each match. We need a CB to send Mohamad Ansari to his original position in LB. This season has gone but for next season Sasan Ansari or someone even like Chaab is better than Taremi. Taremi is Rasool Khatibi of Persepolis. Branko is also showing, he has no depth in his team and tactics. His substitutes are radical and usually not good. His second halves are shaky at best. Persepolis always play good in first half and somewhat hold back or retreat in second half under Branko's guidance.
I always said Taremi is a below average forward. I think I said that to you before. IMO Kaveh Rezaei is much better than him. I am not saying that because I am Esteghlal fan. That is really my non-bias opinion. Kaveh Rezaei played at youth world cup and scored there. He is my favorite IPL forward at the moment. Taremi scored good number of goals in IPL but that is because he gets more opportunities than any other Central forwards in IPL. His teammates feed him a lot unlike other forwards. Scoring good number of goals in current Perspolis team against the likes of Siah Jamegan, Machine Sazi, Saba, Naft Abadan, etc. does not mean that you are a decent forward.
In first two ACL matches, Zob Ahan was the biggest disappointment but Esteghlal Khuzestan was a big surprise for me. Perspolis and Esteghlal were what I expected in terms of both result and performance. I am fine with Oman as host whenever our clubs play against the likes of Al- Taawoun, Al-Fateh, etc. and we really thank Oman FA for hosting the matches of our clubs against Saudi Arabia clubs, but I am not ok with Oman as the host when our clubs play against the like of Al Hilal, Al Ahi, etc. For the games against the likes of Al Hilal and Al Ahli, it would more fair if they can choose one of the Central Asia countries.
Taremi is an average forward and it is a fact that Persepolis has the best MF/Wingers in PGPL who create many opportunities. It is a blessing for any forward to have this amount of perfect passes in each match. Kaveh Rezai is not much better, he is also wasteful and almost at the same level. Kaveh was invited to NT but didn't show any spark to convince CQ using him even on the bench. Here is Zob Ahan defeating Bunyondkor in Uzbekistan. Zob 2 - 0 Bunyondkor http://video.varzesh3.com/video/135318/خلاصه-بازی-بنیادکار-0-2-ذوب-آهن
I sum up the matches today. Esteghlal Khuzestan draw with Lekhwiya 1-1 Persepolis lost a rather easy match 1-3 to Al Rayyan. Basically we lost it to our stubborn coach who uses a useless player who gives wrong back passes and doesn't cover his area in LB as we have witnessed this season in PGPL. We have said it 100 times but this coach doesn't listen instead of using our best LB, Mohamad Ansari, he uses the most useless player in entire team, Rabihkhah. I don't know if he was some sort of relationship with this guy or he has paid our coach to be in the pitch. Otherwise, he is sup bar and can not even defend in an average PGPL club. All three goals we conceded was directly or indirectly his fault. First goal: He didn't help CB Second goal: He was out run by Qatari player and didn't cover his spot, so our CB should cover for him and committed a PK. Third goal: He couldn't stop Qatari player who passed the ball and scored the goal Our forward Taremi scored one goal and didn't score 3 sitters! Amiri lost 1 sitter and was very careless in passing. Our goal keeper has not recovered yet from his injury (broken hand). Beiranvand was #1 Iranian goal keeper but now he can not take any PK, and seems very risky in regular shot on targets. We should use our second goal keeper for time being. With this show I think we know Persepolis doesn't have a chance for even Semifinal because our coach doesn't have any clue for our biggest weakness in LB/CB position. He brought our best LB when we already conceded goals from that spot and this is the usual case ever since the half season even in PGPL matches.
He is still among most wasteful CF in PGPL and ACL. I counted he could score 3 goals with no effort vs Al Rayyan but scored one decent goal! It is really hard to follow him you like him then you hate him and it goes on and on ...
SS Tehran got fined by AFC because of SS fans using laser during Al Sad vs SS and SS vs Locomotiv matches. http://90tv.ir/news/378890/استقلال-...رانش-نقره-داغ-شد؛-جریمه-سنگین-afc-برای-آبی-ها AFC set their fine as 51K dollars.
Here I go again repeating myself! Same ole problem with no visible solution from our coach. Earlier this week our coach expelled our best RB and one of our most in form national team player for his previous feud and non resolved matters. Persepolis played vs Al Rayan in Azadi. Our coach listened to us and didn't play our garbage LB, Rabihkhah, that was the only relief we got. No Rabihkhah means no wide open left back position and no horrendous back passing. The team kept pushing and pushing and Al Rayan were defending most of the match. Same usual story of our forwards being careless and losing opportunities one after another. We got a PK which our wasteful striker, Taremi, decided to score with a chip kick! It wasn't even on target, went out and all the fan were upset. The match continued until almost the end with same story of Persepolis keep attacking and Al Rayan keep defending with 8 -10 players. Finally Al Rayan defender committed another obvious penalty which was totally ignored by the Japanese referee Mr. Sato. (This penalty was so obvious that it could be a class case for referees in training courses. Even a fan could recognize this but not Mr. Sato!). In last five minutes, our coach decided we didn't want to score any more goal so he took out our CMF play maker and brought the famous garbage LB, Mr. Rabikhah (his closet lover). There, Qataris saw the gap in our LB position and had two perfect opportunities to score goal. Soria was in 1vs1 position with our goal keeper but luckily hit one right into our goal keeper's hand and the other one to the post! The Qatari goal keeper pulled a Manuel Neuer today and was great for Al Rayan. He simply saved his team in at least 5-6 occasions single-handedly. Finally the match ended 0-0 and with it our hope to advance to the next round almost faded away. Another chance for an Iranian strong team to grab ACL title got away with bad team management and wrong subs. If we could keep Maric and Omid Alisha, our team could have a better chance and not fail in defense and offense respectively. This team has declined immensely compared to last season PGPL and the only reason we are on top of PGPL this season is that we had a good start in first half of the season and some of our previous players were still in our team. Now we are missing another 3 good players whom two were key to our success in last year. (Rezaian and Alisha) Good luck to the rest of Iranian teams. I know they don't advance beyond Semi but let us hope they play good football.
Here is Persepolis vs Al Rayan match highlights. (0-0) Check 4:30 min to see if it was a penalty or not. Mr. Sato was very kind to Qatari player. SS Khuzestan vs Lekhwiya (1-2) Lekhwiya apparently had SS Khuz in a tin can!