Thing is with Iraq, after leading they start to miss a lot of chances and take the piss. Against Saudi I was like no way they would lose, but Iraq were wasting chance after chance. Anyway let's look on, we should of had 7 points by now :/
We dominated Saudia tbh , it was Radhi's Subs and late 2nd half tactics + Natiq that made us lose. The Saudia coach made 2 subs for the wings and he changed the game putting pressure on us .
11, 10 or 9 players they did not threaten iraq's goal the defence had thai players covered the obnly difference was iraqs fitness dropped n second half
Yea but there's seems to be a issues with Radhi's 2nd half tactics +his weird defensive subs . It's happened in every game now.
well show me, give me one exmaple of a goal attempt that the Iraqi keeper had to make a save (goal bound)?
Number 10 1v1 with the keeper, plus 3 other chances, that's all in 20-25 minutes before the red card came, I don't think you are getting the idea here , I didn't like radhi tactics of sitting back , Thailand could of scored they only need 1 chance and penalty to tie the game .
fitness dropped in second half what else can you do but they didnot have a clear opening, have a look at every game and iraqs players fitness drop in the second half they concede all goals in the second half thats six goals in the last three games clearly some players cannot stay or are able to play 60 or 70 mins at the same level as start of game this game was won before the red card the red crd was not a turning point in the game
Guys why so negative? Do you expect a perfect performance? We just won 4-0 in a World Cup qualifier and our striker scored all 4 goals, when was the last time we could say that? Thailand aren't a great team but if you look at their last games, they have only lost by fairly small margins. It wasn't long ago that we almost lost to Thailand if it wasn't for a last minute own goal from their player. Our team is improving step by step, yes we missed chances but the fact that we still scored 4 goals despite missing so many chances is a positive thing. We all know we 99.9% won't qualify for the World Cup, let's just stay positive now because there is a clear sign of improvement in my opinion since Radhi joined. Do you think our team under Yahya could hold Japan (albeit a declining Japan) until the last minute with the referee on their side or score 4 goals in a game against a decent team? This isn't a polished team but there are positive signs especially with a win like today. The negative attitude that Iraqis seem to have isn't going to help us. Like even when we win 4-0 there are people who aren't satisfied saying it should have been 7-0. Just be grateful and take the win!
The problem is that we kind of have a complete team bar a CB. We should now be able to compete against Japan and Australia, but we don't. We're playing with a lot of long balls and we start to play horribly after taking the lead. This is not the same style of play we used in the AFC where we played tactically sound but had glaring weaknesses (set piece defense). I'm happy for Muhannad and the win, but I'd be more happy with better tactics yet lower scores. Better team organization and passes. I'm not saying we should play Tiki-taka but I'm saying we should play with proper tactics which we didn't. The game today looked amateurish.
I think we are working towards that. Lots of good link up play by the team today. They overdid it a few times, but there was a lot less balls being sent up to muhannad. I wouldn't say the game looked amateurish, but we were definitely sloppy. Certain parts of the game we were utterly dominant, but then there were parts where we went back to panicky long balls from the defense. Lets see how we progress tactically over these qualifiers. We aren't going to the world cup, and Radhi is staying no matter what, so we can only look for step by step developments. We saw some good things against Japan, and this continued today, so hopefully these games give the players confidence for the next games and we build on this. I just want a strong team for the next asian cup.
The first half was the best Iraq had played and they were about to win until minute 80 and that foul from Saad Natiq even the Saudis said it, those penalties handed the win to them - two poor tackles cost Iraq the performance was good but revise history as you say
Sure, but that doesn't change the fact that we were poor as soon as we got the opening goal. Radhi's tendency to have the team drop back and defend punished us in that game, and nearly hurt us again today. We were barely holding onto that 1-0 score until the penalties. I don't see how we were playing well in that first half. Everything after the goal was a mess.
I don't know what people expect. 6-0 wins against every team? We are building a new team, and we are getting there step by step. I'm happy that we finally scored a lot of goals, and kept a clean sheet for the first time in this final round. I always had faith in Mohannad, and now the coach is giving him confidence and it shows.
You're right, we're taking steps towards a better NT. Having said that I wish that we start to play organized and disciplined football. There are times where the players look like they're asleep and that is not ok. The team still seems in disarray and I want that to stop. Radhi is the same man who took Hakeem Shakers team and made them an actual organized team. Why can't he do that now? EDIT: Watching the highlight now. It's been so long since our striker ran behind the defenders and actually managed to do it. That's a positive I suppose.
Count how many days Radhi has had complete squad together and it is less than two weeks around 12 days, tells you the story, Saad, Ahmed, Ahmed Ibrahim, Justin, Ali Adnam, Dhurgham, Ali Faez, he has these players available two days before each game its not enough he needs them longer to work with his time with them started two days before the Australia game
We also need to consider this; what national team coach has this kind of time? That's international football; coaches don't get much time to work with their players and that's normal. The coach needs to know the types of players he has available and call up the ones who fit the system he wants. It's unreasonable for a national team coach to expect constant training camps with all the best players to work with them. It doesn't happen.
I agree but while Radhi was named coach in the summer he only started working with all players 48 hours before the Australia game it takes time and the iraqi league does not help non of players in that league are fit enough to play 90 minutes against the top sides in AFC which is what Iraq is playing aganst nations of Australia, KSA, Japan and the UAE all these teams have played at top clubs in Europe or in the AFC, they train and are professional, iraqi league is not the same, they dont train each day, lack good pitches and this is not good for a footballer to stay fit and compet at the top level even if its asian football other nations have that over iraq most of iraqs mistakes have been from individual players saad natq, alaa mhawi, waleed salem etc
What federation appoints a coach for a few months and sacks him after a few matches? For once we need to be patient and give the man time to do his work. I'm sure we will see more improvements over time. The mistakes we made could have been avoided if we had more time to prepare this team.
I'm in full support of giving the coach time to work. My question is whether we hired the right guy from the beginning. I said this a few times now, if the coach is not good, then no amount of time will make him good. We don't really have a choice right now. FA wants an Iraqi coach and Radhi's the best Iraqi coach (even though that means very little). Unless a good foreign coach is available, we should just hold onto Radhi. I just wish we could have Harris Mohammed involved.
screw the afc screw our ifa and everyone else, why the ******** build basra sports city if your aren't going to use it. we had 2000 fans today compared to 50,000 everyone else has. imagine if we play in basra, i swear to even if we field 10 year olds we will win. once the other team sees our fans they will shit in there pants.