WC 2018 Group B: Spain Portugal Iran Morocco

It will definately be a wonderful tournament. There are teams in a very high level.
Spain is simply intimidating. At this point I must confess I hope they have sooner or later a bad day and get eliminated by someone weaker. Otherwise it will be hard ...
And CR7 ... OMG ... this guy is incredible. If Portugal manages to get at least to the semis (and they can!), he will be the man of this World Cup. No matter who's holding the cup in his hands one month from now.

 

x2

 

A sight to enjoy for all the haters here

 

Iran forward Reza Ghoochannejhad sent a heartfelt message to the Moroccan player who scored the own goal today.

 

Now that's a proper old-school gentleman.

 

we were all afraid that CQ would put a weird formation/line up and unfortunately he did. however, at least he did no ditch our overall tactic of playing defensively. as i expected we would defend and hope to score on the counter, and we nearly did. however, what was scary was that our defense was shaky, especially in the first 20 minutes. i dont know if it was nerves or what. i predicted a draw because i knew we would defend and there would be a reasonable chance that morocco would not score because their attack would be to toothless. that is exactly what happened, but in the end we got a gift. the game should have been a draw, even though morocco had more of the ball, in terms of chances they didnt create more than us. in the end we got lucky with the goal/win but il take it.

hopefully omid ebrahimis injury does not last as we only have one other DM in the whole squad (who didnt play today due to suspension). also, hopefully jahanbakhshs injury does not last. i hope dejagah is able to start, shojaie can pull a rabbit out of his hat but in general he slows down the attack and commits too many silly fouls.

 

i wish spain would have beaten portugal but it was not to be. but we still have at least somewhat of a chance because portugal didnt win. now we have to hope that morocco ties or beats portugal and then morocco loses to spain by more goals than we will. the key to the question "will Iran have a chance to advance" is "will Iran go into the portugal match while above portugal on the table?" if yes, then we have a chance. if no, we will have to play catch up and the same thing that happened against bosnia in 2014 will happen.

in terms of our match plan against spain, there is no way we can hold them to a 0-0, they will definitely score 1-2 against us. our defense seems to be weaker than the one that held argentina 4 years ago. however, spains own defense is not good and can get caught on the counter. our best bet is to keep attacking them on the counter. they will score on us anyways no matter how defensive we play, so it wont make a difference if we counterattack with 2-3 players. we will 95% lose vs spain, but that way we will have a better goal differential, which might come handy when you consider the dynamics of this group.

as for portugal, they seem to be a one man team. i will give cronaldo credit in that he is a very hungry and determined and effective no nonsense player (and for converting that free kick), however, i think this was a record for the world cup: 2 dives, 2 goals from the set plays that resulted. i dont know why not enough people are talking about the fact that 2 of 3 of cronaldo/portugals goals came from clear dives from cronaldo. the ref was an amateur, he should be extra careful to watch a diver like cronaldo yet he got fooled twice and it was the sole reason portugal got anything out of this match.

 

yeah.. amateur...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianluca_Rocchi


As for the PK.. maybe you should watch it again.. since you obviously do not see the contact with CR7's foot.. but whatever makes you happy..

 

I like Morocco and Iran so I have stayed away from the celebration. But happy for the Iranians while sad for the Moroccans.

 

You clearly shouldn't be allowed to talk about football if that's how you saw Portugal's goals. Your hate for Ronaldo is pathetic and makes you look very ignorant. Why do I get the feeling if Ronaldo scored with his head you'd still call it a dive somehow? lol

 

Maybe early but that conversation and opinion polls are now starting to change...


http://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-wor...l-celebration-a-claim-to-greatest-of-all-time

 

as for portugal, they seem to be a one man team. i will give cronaldo credit in that he is a very hungry and determined and effective no nonsense player (and for converting that free kick), however, i think this was a record for the world cup: 2 dives, 2 goals from the set plays that resulted. i dont know why not enough people are talking about the fact that 2 of 3 of cronaldo/portugals goals came from clear dives from cronaldo. the ref was an amateur, he should be extra careful to watch a diver like cronaldo yet he got fooled twice and it was the sole reason portugal got anything out of this match.[/COTE]

Shame, you were one of those crushed little hearts . Underserving of anything but off hand comments. Nothing to say about the Costa foul on the first goal? We Will meet very soon Down the line and I Will naturally return in kind.

 

It's very insulting to Iran to call Portugal a 1 man team. You see, no Iran player could even start for a Portugal C team let alone A team. So does that make Iran a 0 man team? You guys were outplayed by a Moroccan team that looked sloppy and not up to their level. What do you think Spain and Portugal are going to do to you? Even without Ronaldo, Portugal should be running circles around Iran.

 

if you look closely you will see he is growing a beard on his chin

 

no need to be so emotional dude. cronaldo has dived dozens of times in the past. this is a player who will do anything to win. he has done nothing at the world cup, and he is super hungry this time and it is his last chance to do something in the world cup. do you honestly think he would not dive when he could? i dont have hate for him, i already praised him for certain qualities he possesses. i am being objective, and those were 2 clear dives. you dont see it because you are using emotion. wait a few days, or wait after the tournament finishes, then look at the replays. i dont want to argue any more about this, i am in a celebratory mood and will continue celebrating Irans top position in the group.

 

Let me help you:

Possession:

Morocco (63%) > Iran (37%)

Shots:
Morocco (13) > Iran (8)

Shots on goal:
Morocco (3) > Iran (2)

Corner Kicks:
Morocco (5) > Iran (2)

Now I don't have the best analytics material here, I'm working with counting stats here. However, based on any reasonable analysis of the game, your take is patently absurd.

You basically survived an early Moroccan onslaught, held on for dear life, then stole 3 points at the death via an own goal.

Congrats, scoreboard, but you weren't the better team, you were clearly the inferior one (though neither looked great), but sometimes you get outplayed, and steal a point, or even all 3.

Just last weekend my US Squad tied France 1-1 in their send off friendly and were a few inches away from starting the 2nd half up 2-1 and winning.

Did we dominate? No.

Did we outplay them? No.

Were we the inferior side? Absolutely.

But we pulled off a road draw in France because our young goalie is an absurd shot stopper, and our defense held up and we stole a goal before halftime. We weren't better, we were fortunate.

Iran today was the same. Celebrate the 3 points and the win, but don't try to sell us on that ridiculous argument I quoted. It's absurd. Counterattacking or not. You guys were the inferior side, but sometimes the inferior side wins. Props to you and maybe you can steal a point against Portugal or Spain and advance. Wish your side the best. They deserve it for their hard work and self-belief. Their fans? ehhh.

But maybe I'm being harsh, counterattacking teams naturally will cede possession and often record fewer shots, and corners, so there is that, but pretending you owned the other side is just beyond ridiculous. For now anyway, it looked like two alley cats fighting while two lions walked by them and laughed. Maybe Iran can steal a point in their remaining matches though, last Cup they should have stole a point against Argentina after all, and they played good defensive soccer in '06 as well.

 

rather have a 0 man team with 3 points than a 1 man team with 1 point lol. that too based on 2 dives. sure, we got lucky with the own goal but at least we didnt have to dive for it: we won the free kick fair and square. also, i am sure spain will score less goals on us than they did on you.

 

Oh boy, how sad is it to celebrate after 1 game. I understand you guys aren't use to winning, but even you must know that's going to change.

 

You won the game without a goal scorer, Iran is already a 0 man team lol

 

we had 2 strikers near the ball who would have scored if the moroccan didnt. at least we earned the free kick fair and square and did not have to resort to diving.

 

i just hope we go into the portugal game higher on the table than you. then you will see the true Iran. there will be a 50% chance Iran will eliminate portugal in that match, if the condition i stated holds true.

 

what costa foul? pepe and cronaldo have a history of dirty play. i hope you realize that as an objective neutral, it is hard to take them seriously when they cry wolf. costa scored the best goal of the world cup with that goal. the "foul" on pepe was a 50/50 call: some refs would call it, others not. nothing scandalous about it not being given.

 

I am here, not a coward

Well, click on my profile and use the option "find all posts" and please find one where I've ever said that Morocco would beat Iran in this game. On the contrary I'd say a few times that the scenario of Morocco dropping points to Iran in the exact way things happened today was very possible. If being honest, I did not really believe Iran could win tho, I used to imagine a 0-0 or 1-1 in the best case.

The result of today does not change anything about the post you've quoted : Yes Morocco has better players than Iran, a better History football wise and does not box in the same category if we are talking about the general level of the team. I think this might be seen when Morocco will play against Portugal and Spain and when Iran will too, I expect Morocco to play better than Iran in those games, but since I might be wrong and you'd use this post against me, I will keep silent

About the game today...Iran won by using its expected football that I would not criticize, they won like Tunisia won several times against Morocco using the same technics, and as long as a team got a plan, a goal, and manages to reach it, we can only congratulate them, especially if they simply don't have a lot of good players and got to fight with little weapons. Mourinho decides to play ugly, Iran does not really have the choice.

One thing tho, the abusive behavior of iranians players to kill the rythm and gain time constantly can be questionned from an ethic point of view. I think the FIFA should start to take more actions against this. Not only Iran is doing it of course, it can even be certain Real Madric or Bayern players, and it should be punished equally. But I don't consider equal the fact to try gaining time in the last 15 minutes in order to protect a 1-0 with the fact to try gaining time even during the first half in order to protect a 0-0. This can absolutely destroy the opponent both psychologically and technically since it does not allow the opponent team to play its football with a defined rythm. And that's what Iran does.

 

May I give you a suggestion for your life as a football fan (and actually also for your whole life)?
Don't be a hater.
Neither a hater of a person, nor of a team, nor of a country.
But if you can't help and you realize you have to be a hater in order to be happy, I still have a suggestion for you: choose to be a hater of someone that will give you some satisfaction. If you choose someone like Cristiano Ronaldo to be a hater you can only lose.
And you have already lost. While you're complaining that nobody is saying that his goals were I don't know wtf, the whole world is right now praising this guy as a man of another planet.
Stick to the victory of your team. You still have about one week until they play their next match, and until that day you'll have a victory to celebrate.
Don't waste your vital energy hating. Especially when your chances of being happy with the failure of the one you hate is so close to zero.

 

Well Portugal should beat Morocco and Spain should slaughter Iran. That means Portugal and Spain will be on 4 points and Iran on 3. It's just hypothetical of course, but still likely.

Ps: I have watched Iran play several times, it's the reason I can't have children as all my sperm committed suicide after watching the horror show of a team attempting to play football.

Hey, getting outplayed heavily and scoring an own goal to win might be worth celebrating, but only if you're a nation that's use to losing.