Man I've seen "ungracious in victory," but "ungracious in a draw" is just hilarious . In any case, most of the Iranians here (if not all) were talking about a route, and I think Mani in particular was "predicting" 3-0, yet you're treating this 1-1 like you just won the World Cup final, and if someone read your comments without knowing the score they really *would* think it was 3-0! Also, having watched the game again, I didn't see any of the "time-wasting" that some of the Iranian members spoke of, except from the Iranian goalkeeper. Typically, some of our Iranian brothers are letting their emotions get the better of them. Anyway, I think this match showed that, man for man, Iran has a better pool of talent at the moment, but as we know talent isn't everything otherwise Argentina or Brazil would win every tournament they enter. This match was very winnable, but really the coach lost the plot. Not just with his bad substitutions, but also his failure to bring up the team's fitness levels and to train them to defend against set pieces. Best case scenario for me, is to keep getting draws (or wins) against S. Korea and Iran, but to lose to N. Korea and UAE. That way we fail to qualify, but still have some pride intact. But seriously, I think it's better for Saudi football at this point in time NOT to qualify for the World Cup.
Spot on. Perhaps that would give somebody a good and final reason to "retire" Mr. Scientific Studies.
Come on guys, the Saudi team need more experience at the World cup. And some of the players may also get the chance to display their talents in the worldcup too and hopefully some European clubs might be interested in them.
I was watching the game with a bunch of Iranian and Arab friends from my old University. It's interesting all of my KSA friends were wondering why did the coach leave this guy out of the list? http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=yQqBFIG200E Watch his clips the guy could of been a difference maker for them. Also I didn't know why did KSA coach sub in #7 Bin Sultan remove the playermaker "Shalhoob" with defensive MF? That coach really droped the ball I'm sorry but a 1-1 tie in yoru own home is not a result you want to get if you are the KSA coach. Big props to Ali Daei and TM especially Javad Nekounam for comming through for Iran. This was a statement game for Ali Daei and although there is a long road ahead this was a great result. I'll take a 1-1 tie @ KSA any day of the week.
Nobody knows why Shamrani was booted out. Probably club politics, as his club doesn't have a lot of support. Yassir should not have come on; he just wasn't ready. The decision reeked of crowd-pleasing. As for taking off Bin Sultan and Shalhoub; I guess the coach just panicked. He's been under a LOT of pressure from the media and the fans, so his judgment I guess was not what it should have been. His subs reminded me of Pekerman's against Germany in the WC. Still, I really liked the way we played for the first 60 minutes, and if Al-Johar was responsible, then I think he should be given another chance to get his subs right the next time.
Its funny how no one mentions the uncalled penalty in the first half. Had it happened to Iranians... it would be bribing the referee, etc and etc.
Al shamrani wasn't that good, had it been club politics, Al Sultan from Al shabab and he is a sub not a starter in shabab wouldn't have started against Iran. Overall we weren't lucky, and we still have lots of games left. Let us not forget 2002 WCQs we tied at home first game against Bahrain, and we'll see who will have the last laugh.
Al-Shamrani should have played instead of Yassir or Saad, not instead of Al-Sultan. Al-Sultan is more of a support striker, the way I look at it. Look, they had to placate the Fagrawis, so they brought in Al-Shahrani and Al-Bahri (but only after Al-Nasr was done with the Gulf tournament, of course), and Al-Shamrani was one of those who had to be sacrificed. The fact that Al-Sultan stayed doesn't negate that (just because some decisions are motivated by club politics doesn't mean ALL decisions are). It's funny, all the Nasrawis on kooora suddenly became all patriotic after that decision, even though a day before they were calling for Sultan ibn Fahad's head . Don't get me wrong, I think all fans are being appeased right now. The decision to bring on Yassir was to satisfy the Hilali fans (look at how the crowed came to life when he was about to come on), but it was a stupid decision. There was no good tactical reason to bring back Abdul Ghani, who was one of the worst players against Iran (and I think he conceded the corner that led to the goal), but they wanted to score some brownie points with the Ahlawis, and so on. That's my theory at least. There's certainly no good reason to kick out Al-Shamrani when our two first-choice strikers were not available.
Man I just watched that again. No way that was a dive. The ref also missed a spectacular kung-fu elbow-kick combo against one of our players, but oh well. Same ref who oversaw the sectarian ambush against our players in the Asian Cup, so I wasn't really surprised at all. Still, having watched the game again, Iran have some really fine players and deserved a point, but we really could have had this match wrapped up if Al-Sultan was a better finisher.
He Was the same ref in 2-0 Iran 2002. When the Iranian player didn't beleve he got penalty! He was the same ref in the AC final. He was the same ref in 2-2 WC with tunisia. He really have something aginst Saudi Arabia and I don't know what is it.
Yeah well ... Enough about this match. The League starts in 4 days. Aren't you guys going to start a thread on that?
I have no problem with referees screwing us in the first game in the WCQs, but what pisses me off is how all Asians espicially Iranians come before and after every game for Saudi Arabia and mention timewasting tactics and ref bribing etc, even though in our last game IRAN was the only team wasting time and benefited alot from the ref's bad calls, also in the AC final 2007 the same ref didn't call the obvious Khaled Aziz penalty. abdullah AlHarby on ART mentioned how this referee wasn't liked by Saudis, and no wonder!!
Thats our problem, everyone brings clubs into the NT. Player alflan was brought to appease alflan team, etc. ******** these clubs if they are hurting our NT, whats the use of them?
ouch. you must be hurt to make up stuff like that. saudi arabia was clearly happy with the 1-1 draw and was afraid we would score the winner so they started rolling. they also rolled after they went up 1-0.
I think you've let your imagination run a little wild, my friend. You're the guys who started celebrating like you won the World Cup.
not imagination my friend. scenes from the match... obviously we were happy with the 1-1 away result just as you would be if you achieved such a score in azadi stadium. BUT even after we scored we pushed for the win while you guys were scared of conceding again because you clearly ran out of gas.