Saturday 28 Mar 2009 AZADI Stadium, Tehran 07:00 PM IRAN Time,Tehran 07:30 PM Saudi Arabia Time, Riyadh 07:30 AM Western Time, L.A, Vancouver 10:30 AM Eastern Time, New York, Toronto 03:30 PM UK Time, London 04:30 PM Centeral Europe, Berlin 02:30 AM Australia Time, Melbourne (Sunday 29 Mar 2009)
I wanna know what would be the result of the game. Normally, Saudi Arabia is better team. But this time Iran seemed to be a bit stronger.
We've arranged a couple of decent friendly matches to prepare us for the Saudi Arabia game in Tehran. We play Qatar on March 15th and Kuwait on March 23rd. The Saudi match is on March 28th, and we have a friendly match against Morocco on April 1st. Qatar is a great friendly for the Saudi Arabia match, and Kuwait is decent, too. I wonder what kind of line-up Daei will use against Saudi Arabia? To everyone's surprise, he played a 4-2-3-1 against S.Korea, even though we've been playing a 4-4-2 for months now and in the Singapore and Thailand matches we practiced our 4-4-2... Daei was afraid of conceding goals to S.Korea, so he played a more conservative formation and included Kazemi in the line-up (I was furious when I discovered that, but Kazemi was ultimately one of the best players on the pitch that day). I doubt Daei will play so conservatively against Saudi Arabia, but I wouldn't be completely surprised if he played 4-2-3-1 again. In my opinion, it was evident that we lacked decent scoring opportunities, and every time we play 4-4-2 we perform exponentially better and create far more chances than we do when we play a 4-2-3-1. Although the list of players won't be released for another few weeks, I would personally love to see this line-up: ---------------------------Rahmati--------------------------- ------Kaebi-------Hosseini-------Aghili-------Ashjari------- ----------------------Kazemi---Nekounam------------------- ---------------Rezaei--------------------Khalatbari----------- ----------------------------Shojaei--------------------------- ----------------------------Borhani-------------------------- I think this formation provides a great blend of attack and defense. Since KSA will be looking to attack relentlessly (think our UAE match ), we can't afford to play with only one DM. Furthermore, while I've never liked Kazemi, he impressed everyone against S.Korea, and if he keeps his good form up, he deserves to start again. The problem is that Bagheri and Hashemian might still play. While Karim is clearly slow, I think he can still be effective and his presence in the starting line-up is not all that worrying. Hashemian, though, simply cannot perform anymore. He was completely out of sync with the rest of the team, and he could barely get off the ground to win balls, which is his main objective in the first place. Borhani is far from an excellent striker, but he's undoubtedly our best option at the moment (I await Khalili's return...). This is actually my ideal line-up, but unfortunately we have to play some defense against KSA : ---------------------------Rahmati--------------------------- ------Kaebi-------Hosseini-------Aghili-------Ashjari------- --------------------------Nekounam------------------------- --------------------Jabbari--------Shojaei------------------ -------------Rezaei-----------------------Khalatbari--------- ----------------------------Borhani--------------------------
The Qatar match is a good warm-up for Saudi Arabia. Morocco will be a great friendly that Iran needs to play more of. I wish the Egypt friendly would not have fallen apart. That would have been a good match. I liked the 4-4-2 formation as I thought it brought balance but then agian I've never been much on line-ups.
I just realised that I'll be in Iran for this game! Might be able to go see it in the stadium. Never been to Azadi either!!
Rumors have begun to spread about Ali Karimi and Ali Daei making amends. Supposedly, Ali Karimi will be invited to the national team and will be included on the player-list for the match against Saudi Arabia. He can definitely still be effective on the pitch, but it makes me sick that so many Iranian fans think he's the answer to all our problems. He's one man, and while he can create some great chances for us, he can't single-handedly win a game. It's not fair to Karimi to have such absurdly high expectations. I have more questions and thoughts about Karimi's inclusion, but I won't speculate until his invitation and acceptance are confirmed.
I seriously doubt there is much credance to the rumours. Yes, the meeting happened. No, Karimi will not play for TM. Daei has too much pride to invite Karimi after all that happened, and Karimi knows if he comes and doesn't perform (as can be expected), he will no longer be the darling with everyone putting the blame on Daei for Karimi not playing. Also, he knows there would be a strong likelihood of getting benched at some point during the game. He is still a great player that can impact any game, but he really isn't a miracle worker and I think the likes of Jabbari or Shojaei more than make up for his absence.
There needs to be more unity within our team, especially in the higher ups. It’s obvious on the field that we are missing a very important factor. Pinpointing this factor involves a thread on its own. It saddens me that in our Iranian youth the amount of talent that is seeping out is unbelievable. There needs to be a better direction for these youngsters because that is what is going to get us where we want. 2010, ok we made it, now what? So its not about bringing Karimi into the picture. Its about figuring out how to handle all this talent that is just being wasted in Iran and around the world. This unseen talent is what is hurting us. This lack of direction we have right now will make us shorthanded against Saudis.
In 2002. Saudi Arabia qualified for the WC while Iran was disqualified. In 1998 WCQ, Saudi Arabia has beaten the hell out of Iran. Anyways, Iran has longer history of football with more superstars. But as a team, Saudi Arabia is better team. Saudi Arabia has won more Asian Cup than Iran. And Saudi Arabia took part in WC more than Iran. That proves that Saudi Arabia is better than Iran. But this time, Iran is better than Saudi Arabia.
That's poor logic, so whenever some team qualifies over another it automatically makes them a better team? In 2006 Ukraine qualified over Turkey, Denmark, and Greece, does this make Ukraine a better team than all the others? Serbia qualified over Spain, is Serbia a better team than Spain? Besides as KC said we beat KSA at home and tied them away during the same tournament. Also we were leading the table from day 1 all the way until the very last day. Secondly Saudi Arabia has not won more Asian Cup tournament than Iran. It's a tie at 3. Finally having qualified more to the WC means squat. Ukraine and Greece have only qualified once, Turkey twice, yet Hungary has qualified 9 times. Are Greece, Turkey, and Ukraine almost 9 times worse than Hungary? Check your fact and your logic before posting.
It strikes me as amazing how some saudi-fans always have the urge to declare themselves the better team automatically, based on what happened in matches years ago, sometimes even 30 or more years ago! And I'm not even gonna bring up the statistics, because some of my fellow iranians have already done that. My first post here
Good luck with the game...Anyways i'm sure the saudi's are going to attack they are in a desperate mood right now you guys should take advantage of that.
Uhhh....Iran was the most dominant side in Asia during the 70s. Why would a Saudi bring up matches from that time?
Stop making excuses! It is true that Saudi Arabia won Asian cups more than Iran did. And Saudi Arabia joined final 16 in 1994 while Iran hasn't achieved it yet.
Wow what a waste of time it was talking to you. I feel like I'm talking to a retard. Iran and Saudi Arabia have both won the Asian Cup 3 times Look it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Cup
You are much dumber than I thought. Or may be you are born as a moron. By the way, are all Iranians moronic like you?? I knew that Iranians are unintelligent people, but you are one of the dumbest one among those unintelligent ones. It is true that Saudi Arabia reached final 16 while Iran has never reached final 16. Saudi Arabia has beaten Morocco and Belgium at that time. Also, Saudi Arabia took part in WC more than Iran and that's the fact. Even kindergarteners know that. Iran's greatest achievemenet is 1998 when they beat USA. That's the only accomplishment of Iranian football.
In that campaign Iran beat Saudi. So Iran > Saudi. Germany >> Saudi And don't forget, Germany had played Iran before that 8-0 thrashing of Saudi in the previous world cup and subsequently in a number of friendlies. Iran's worst performance was losing by 2!! And in some of those games Iran actually was the more dominant team! Now, I am not to bring up excuses, but let's not forget that a revolution and an 8 year war immediately after has a tendency to put football on the backfoot. Which is why after being very dominant, from about 79 onwards until the late 80s/early 90s Iranian football seems to have died!
You stupid moron you didn't even answer my post, are you that dumb or do you pretend to be a retard to dodge looking like an idiot that you are. You said KSA qualified to the Asian Cup more than Iran, I proved you wrong and showed that you are a moron. Reply to that buffoon and stop changing the subject. Admit you made a mistake like a man instead of making racist remarks to avoid your embarrassment like a coward.
Don't waste your breath, this monkey can't even process a simple logic as 3 Asian Cup qualifications by KSA = 3 Asian Cup qualifications by Iran. He's still running around like a headless chicken trying to process this basic information which he thought was not correct a few hours ago.
umm..im amazed this arabs open their mouths about being good after being trashed by the germans 8-0 really amazing iran will crush saudi arabia 3-0..
Above all, Saudi Arabia is better than Iran since they participated in WC more than Iran. Though both won Asian Cup 3 times, Saudi Arabia has been numerous runner-up while Iran always got eliminated early. Why should we consider late 70's Iranian revolution? That didn't give a significant impact in football.