LSW's goal reminded me of PJS's winner against Wolverhampton. Two dekes and a nice finish. If JWH can't play, that will be a big blow. Hopefully nothing serious.
This was actually Iran’s U21 team. Few of the starters were 17-18 and part of Iran’s U17 team at the 2017 U-17 World Cup. The Korean players were on average 3-4 years older and much more experienced because Korea’s intentions were to win Gold for military exemption, while Iran sent a team that would be eligible for the Olympics in 2 years, to gain experience for 2020 Olympics qualifiers. Otherwise, the real Iran U23 team would include half of our World Cup squad and would be on a different level.
There are only 4 players above 21 on our squad if you exclude the wild cards. Most of our key players from last game, such as Kim Jinya, Hwang Inbeom, Lee Seungwoo, & Kim Minjae are U21 and we brought along and played 18 year old Kim Jungmin as well. Not AS unfairly matched as you might perceive it to be.
It's not even "unfair" anyway. It's fking stupid to whine about something that is allowed to do for every single country.
Hwang Ei Jo really proved his worth this match. I honestly believe he may be our best option for the NT up top now
Experience is not just age though. You guys had your foreign-based players and plus the wild cards that included 3 of your national team’s best players, and we didn’t even have our best domestic players in the 20-21 age bracket, because the clubs wouldn’t release them, not to mention that we were missing at least 7 Europe-based players who are under 21 and would later join the Olympic squad like Reza Shekari, Ali Gholizadeh, Mohammad Naderi, Omid Noorafkan, Saeid Ezatollahi, Majid Hosseini, Sadegh Moharrami etc. None of this makes Korea’s win “unfair” though. You won fair and square. Your federation, whose priority was winning Gold here , sent your best selection, ours didn’t or couldn’t. I’m just setting the record straight that this wasn’t Iran’s best U23 squad, far from it. Heck, technically , even Azmoun is still eligible for our U23 team. The real Iran U23 team would have at least 9 Europe-based players.
What the fk is the point of whining about this? You guys didnt select your "best" players. No one stopped you from doing so.