Hopefully Iran and Australia will meet in the next WC qualification. 12 years passed and still these two nations haven't faced each other. Unbelievable!
UAE had their best performance today right in time. Combined with some luck = semi-finals. Australia is lacking the cutting edge in the final third. I was not confident on them although I predicted Aussies to prevail in extra time. Now we will have an Arab team in the Final.
I would cherish a game with Australia sans bull**** and lose or win against you guys gracefully over having to play the sleazy underhanded cheating Persian Gulf Arabs.
At least the referee didn't buy into that bullshit, 4 minutes added time kept them there until 10 minutes.
that guy was legitmately knocked out if you watched. WHat he did was heroic going back on the pitch after the medical staff warned him not to. He then collapsed again. Hopefully he is OK, you are too emotional and not looking at anything rationally.
The time wasting only happened in injury time and most teams around the world would be doing their best to wind down the clock in the same circumstances. My own observations on Arab football teams over the last 12 years I've been watching them more closely is that the better ones are now playing a more physical style and have cut down a lot on the grass rolling that we saw a few years ago. I also don't underestimate home advantage in tournaments like this. Only the most one eyed Australian supporter thought we were the best team in Asia in 2015 but home advantage got us through some tight games back then, and its helped the UAE here. I'm disappointed we lost, but not overly surprised. We struggle to score goals. This tournament in five games we were scoreless in three of them. Making the quarter finals with a goal scoring record like that is probably over achieving.
UAE didnt do shit. australia couldnt finish and gifted them a goal. this UAE side is the weakest team by far at this stage. of course considering that they are now in the semifinal and on home soil, the game against qatar will be close, but i think qatar will edge past them.
theoretically that could be true, but knowing the history of arab football, i dont buy it. the timing made it too suspect. he probably faked the consequent collapse. he was frozen the first time... you simply cant get back up in such a short time if that was a true injury. also, how about the keeper, he definitely faked it.
Nah the captain lost consciousness whomever has an issue with that. You could see the tone in his muscles completely disappear in slow motion as soon as the collision occurred. He shouldn't have gone back on the field. What we saw was consistent with a proper loss of consciousness following head injury. Source: I'm a Dr with most of my experience being in Trauma/Emergencies.
Ouch. That was painful to watch. What were the Australian players thinking? They just gifted the match to UAE on a silver platter. Seriously, that was just plain incompetence. My day is ruined.
you are out of your mind. If you actually watched the replay and stopped being so emotional you would have seen a clear collision of heads where the guy was knocked out before he even hit the ground. The Australian player had to get his head bandaged. There was nothing fake about it. And yes I know the "history of Arab football" having seen many Arab teams play in Africa, so I am aware of their antics at times, but this was nothing to do with that. The guy was knocked out. The goalkeeper faked it sure, but that isn't why Australia lost.
I am certainly disappointed that Australia lost. While Australia have not shown great form in this tournament, I still think an Iran-Australia final would have been great. Too bad that wont happen now. For me, our semifinal match against Japan will be our final and if we do manage to get passed Japan, I prefer we face Qatar than the UAE. UAE as hosts against Iran is a recipe for a match marred by officiating issues. Besides, while the UAE played better against Australia than they had so far in this tournament, it still remains the case that unlike Qatar, even as hosts UAE have been mostly unimpressive and fortunate to be where they are.
Whoever made it to semi final, deserved it. It is sad to see Korea and Australia go home early but this is football. I am really sad not playing agaisnt KSA, S.Korea and Australia in this competition.
Number of goals @TeamMelliIran 🇮🇷 have conceded in their last 18 official games against Asian teams 😱😱😱🇨🇳 0🇴🇲 0🇮🇶 0🇻🇳 0🇾🇪 0🇸🇾 2🇰🇷 0🇺🇿 0🇨🇳 0🇶🇦 0🇸🇾 0🇰🇷 0🇺🇿 0🇨🇳 0🇶🇦 0🇴🇲 0🇮🇳 0🇬🇺 0@afcasiancup @theafcdotcom #AsianCup2019 #Iran #TeamMelliN/A— Radio Offside (@RadioOffside) January 25, 2019
Can't say I called it before the quarterfinals.. but, I called it before the quarterfinals! Well, sort of.....
I would rather see Iran-Qatar and Uae-Japan semi finals. Final and semi finals are a little boring without big4.
actually its boring when you can easily predict results. This is good for Asian soccer to not always have the same teams advance, although some of the big guns falling short is not really all that new in Asian soccer. Even the most predictable region Concacaf had Jamaica knocking out the US a few editions ago. To me just having all the favourites win all the time cannot get any more boring.
Iran is one of the big guns in Asian football that has usually disappointed when the chips were down. But in our case, we have never really lost a game in regulation at the Asian Cup. Not since our opening match in the 1996 Asian Cup, which was a tournament when Iran grew from that loss to storm into the semifinals with emphatic results against the then two top teams in Asia. We beat Saudi Arabia 3:0 in the group stage. Saudi Arabia a side which had 2 years earlier made the R16 at the 1994 World Cup. And we then beat S.Korea 6:2 in the quarterfinals, before losing (controversially) the semifinal to the Saudis on penalties. Since then, every time Iran has exited or lost at the Asian Cup has been on penalties and a couple times in overtime. Otherwise, we have not suffered any losses at the Asian Cup. That cannot be said of any other Asian team, except perhaps Japan. I don't know their record by heart, but from what I recall, Japan is also a side that rarely if ever loses in regulation. But unlike Iran, the Japanese also win enough of the games that go to overtime and penalties, while we don't. Indeed, up to now, if a game has gone the full stretch and continued into overtime, the outcome has not favored Iran at the end. In fact, you have to go back to the 1980s and to a consolation match back then to find Iran winning on penalties. Otherwise, Iran has lost 3 semifinal matches on penalties (1984, 1996, 2004), 2 quarterfinal matches on penalties (2007 and 2015) and frankly its past history has not shown it a side that shines once the game is forced to overtime.
Everything is possible in football, but if I had to break down the probabilities when it comes to different results between Iran and Japan in our semifinal match, I would break them down as follows: - Japan has a better chance to come on top if Iran v Japan goes to overtime (70-30) - Iran has a better chance to win if the game is decided in regulation (60-40) - Between the two, I feel Iran has a better chance to thrash Japan (2+ goals margin of victory) than vice versa. - Despite Beiranvand's spectacular penalty save against Oman and his penalty save against Ronaldo at the World Cup, history is against Iran if the match between Iran and Japan is decided on penalties.
The only penalty shoot-outs we have won at the Asian Cup were third-place matches in 1988 and 1996 , both with Ahmadreza Abedzadeh in the net. Abedzadeh was also in the net for the 1996 semi-final penalty shoot-out against the Saudis and saved two perfectly placed Saudi penalties and almost saved the Saudi’s 5th penalty too, only missing by inches, which would have won the match for Iran. But it was just not meant to be for Iran that day with even Daei missing his penalty.
Penalties are most psychological and usually won by the side that shows the greater psychological strength. I don't find it coincidental that the only penalty shoot out we have won at the Asian Cup have been in consolation matches, while we have lost all the penalty shoot outs that basically ended our title hopes. As I have mentioned in the past, and contrary to what CQ likes to pretend, no team in Asia has Iran's overall win-loss record at the Asian Cup. We haven't lost a game in that tournament in regulation in over 22 years. Contrast that with S.Korea or Australia or Saudi Arabia. They have suffered losses in regulation quite often. But unlike these sides, we haven't even made the final of the Asian Cup since we last won the tournament in 1976. And what has kept us from the final have usually been penalty shootout losses, losing on penalties in the semifinal in 1984, 1996, 2004 and losing on penalties in 2007 and 2015 at the quarterfinal stage. While I will feel a lot better if Iran beat Japan in regulation in our semifinal match, and will be worried if our game goes to overtime (where we also have a poor record) or penalties, in some ways I will give CQ even more credit if his side comes on top in a game that goes to overtime or to penalties. It will break a cycle that has repeated itself too many times.
1088913960101912577 is not a valid tweet id 1088927146922426374 is not a valid tweet id #BasamGate @aletihadae learned from AFC and FIFA the Qatari FA took advantage of Art.7. It presented a birth certificate of Bassam Al-Rawi's mother as a Qatari national. She was a biology school teacher from Iraq, player's grandfather Adnan Juma, a resident of Qatana in Ramadi.— Hassanin Mubarak (@hassaninmubarak) January 26, 2019
As I said on another thread, Son Heung-Min does well at Tottenham only because he is surrounded by world class players. Azmoun would score 20 goals there with the support Son has received.