Disagree. IMO Amiri will never be used as RB rightfully. It is possible to see Milad Mohammadi as RB because he played as RB before. Shoja Khalilzadeh played as RB before as well although his main position is CB. Personally I hope to see Esmaeilifar as RB who recently turned 29 because he has been the best RB in the league this season so far and he deserves to be given chance.
Forget Pot 2. It is out of hand or far away as Kamtedrejt said. We need to pray for manageable WC draw. I am going to pray for that. Personally I am not sad that we miss a few key players because we qualified and It is a great opportunity for other players to prove themselves. Regard Moharrami and Ezatollahi, IMO Esmaeilifar and Mehdipour have nothing less than them at the moment. Regard Taremi, Jahanbakhsh, and Ghoddos, they were not available for our away Syria game as well and their absence gives great opportunity to other players to prove themselves.
Amiri has played RB for Persepolis a few times and one of his former coaches, Jalali, recommended him as someone who can play that position for TM. But you are right that Skocic might opt for other choices. If M. Mohammadi has experience in that position (I wasn't aware of it), and Skocic decides he is the one for this position, I would be fine with it. I know S Khalilzadeh is also another likely option as RB. But I would be very uncomfortable giving Daniel Esmailifar his first cap away in front of 60,000+ S. Korea fans, especially since the player he would need to mark is S. Korea's best player, Son. I don't believe Skococ will take that kind of risk.
Iran's lineup hasn't been announced, but an Iranian site has listed the probable lineup with Esmailifar as the RB. This isn't exactly the venue and opponent where I would field players without any experience playing for Iran's NT, but if this turns out true, best of luck on his debut with Iran's NT
Iran's lineup has been announced: Abedzadeh, S. Khalilzadeh, Kanani, M Hosseini, M Mohammadi, O Noorafkan, Haj Safi, Noorollahi, V Amiri, Gholizadeh, Azmoun.
Congrats to south Korea for the win. I am really happy for them. I was able to watch only the first half. The injury of Khalilzadeh in first half, the absence of Taremi, Jahanbakhsh, and Ghoddos, and the suspension of Moharrami and Ezatollahi really impacted on us, but Korea deserved it. I think south Korea wanted the win more and it was their destined to win this one. Congrats to them again.
S.Korea v Iran 2:0 (1:0) Congratulations to S.Korea. S. Korea were the better side and deservedly won. Under to totality of circumstances, what Iran couldn't afford was to give S. Korea the lead to have a realistic chance in this game. Unfortunately, our goalie fumbled Son's powerful shot right when it seemed the game would end scoreless at the half. In the 2nd half, with the lead, S.Korea were able to create more chances and get another goal. This is a good S.Korea team, but Korea still has problems defensively when its pressed. Fix that problem, and S.Korea will be able to represent the AFC very well in Qatar. I'm sure Iran will be fine too, even though we were poor today, especially after our forced substitution in the right FB position and with a totally depleted roster made worse by Skocic's stubborn refusal to fill its obvious holes.
I have defended Skocic and believe almost all the criticism he receives is unfair, mostly by people who want to prove they were right trashing his selection as TM coach. But: while Skocic employed the right tactics in the 1st half given what he had available to him, he has no one to blame but himself for leaving Iran so thin in the RB position. That is where 90% of S.Korea's attacks originated and, once Khalilzadeh (who was doing well in that post against Son had to be subbed due to injury) that area and battles there were totally lost by Iran. I also don't understand why he didn't invite Omid Ebrahimi in Ezatollahi's absence?
This piece from Korea would sum up my view of S.Korea v Iran if it also made the necessary points about the absent players on Iran's team and the effect of having what I have called the last glue holding our makeshift lineup together having to be subbed in the first half due to injury. https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220324012000315 Tale of two halves as S. Korea end men's football drought vs. Iran
Even though Iraq have the easier schedule on paper I still trust the UAE to finish in the playoff spot. Iraq have won only a single out of nine games in the final round and that win over was over the UAE on the previous matchday. They got lucky in that game. A draw would have been the fair result. I'll say they will find a way to shit the bed against Syria and the UAE will regardless of their result against South Korea stay in the 3rd position. I think also that over the entire campaign the UAE have shown to be a more solid of a team than Iraq. They have less flaws than Iraq. I hope it's them who will play Australia for a place in the intercontinental playoff.
I’m obviously biased, but I disagree. I haven’t watched the UAE games except the 2 they’ve played against us, but they were putrid in last match. Completely toothless side who never looked threatening. Now, I don’t know if it’s because they were playing for a draw, but Iraq were attacking the whole match. I think we fully deserved the win. Especially as the game should’ve been played in Baghdad. This UAE will not beat Korea tomorrow, especially as they’re missing Mabkhout. Korea is simply a much better team. Who gets third will depend on Iraq-Syria. I’ll agree with you here, Iraq could absolutely bottle it, especially as the last couple of times we’ve played Syria have been draws. I predict a draw or a narrow Iraqi win.
Iran v Lebanon will start in 5 minutes. The best thing about the game is that it will be played in Mashhad, not Tehran. Iran's lineup: Beiranvand -- Moharami, Kanani, Hosseini, Noorafkan -- Ezatollahi, Noorollahi, Jahanbakhsh, Gholizadeh - Sayadmanesh, Azmoun. *Taremi, although testing negative in his last Covid test, being rested to help regain post Covid fitness. Jahanbakhsh, however, is deemed fit and will start. ** V. Amiri and Khalilzadeh ruled out due to injury.
This was my prediction from 27 January after six matchdays. It turned out to be spot on other than Lebanon falling from 4th to not only 5th but even bottom due to worse goal differential. Iraq and Syria moved up a place each while the top three remained unchanged. The UAE are capable to beat Australia. After Australia will have finished its campaign as well I'll come up with my odds for the UAE - Australia playoff.
Good job. What is interesting is that the ultimate standings basically matched how these teams were ranked and seeded. Lebanon, which was the lowest seed but had moved to 3rd place for a while, ended up last. Iran, despite losing to S.Korea, finished first matching its top seed status, while S.Korea and UAE, the #2 and 3 seeds, finished accordingly. And Iraq and Syria ended in accordance with their seeding too.
Hope our loss to UAE serves as a good wake-up call. As disappointing as the result was, we played poorest 90 minutes of football. We had some players missing due to Covid-19-positive cases but such risk also exists for every other team.
I hope the Korean fans also get a wake up call for saying Iran was making excuses for their injured and covid positive key players missing for losing to South Korea away. If SHM missed vs. Iran for example in Seoul who did well in the end, they'd get it. Only now after UAE defeat away, the smart ones will.
I watched the game. S.Korea was lackluster until they fell behind but dominated and created some very good chances afterwards. The issue with Covid affects teams differently, depending on how thin or deep you are in a position and how important (not just famous) are the missing players to your team and its tactics. Besides the missing players, I think there was a little bit of being unable to get as motivated after finally beating Iran after such a long time. Bento seemed aware of this problem, mentioning his team was a bit tired in the pregame news conference.
COVID limits flexibility in terms of using subs or deploying certain tactics by utilizing strength of certain players. Iran had been severely affected by this when they visited Seoul few days ago. We had few more players ended up with being COVID-positive after the Iran match. The COVID management will be key to having successful World Cup campaign for every qualified teams.
Now that the qualifiers have concluded, I want to do 2 things before the draw. First, focusing on Iran, give my view on Skocic remaining as our coach? Second, in my next message, an evaluation of the AFC teams relative to those from other confederations. My list starts first with the positive points about Skocic but gets to issues where his grades drop: 1- Experience in Iran (A+). He knows our league and players very well, having spent 8 years coaching in Iran with both 2nd division and IPL clubs. When it comes to familiarity and knowledge about Iran's player pool, he gets a solid A+. 2- Record as Iran's coach (A): He has passed both assignments he was given with flying colors. He qualified Iran to the final rounds of AFC qualifying when things looked desperate, with Iran's home games moved to Bahrain and after Iran had lost to Bahrain in Bahrain and Iraq in Iraq. That was no minor accomplishment: Iran was left with no choice but to beat everyone it faced in Bahrain, including Bahrain itself, and we did so. A+ is what he earned on his first assignment. And he then guided Iran to qualify to the World Cup, clinching its qualification still undefeated. Despite the loss to S.Korea, Iran ended up still winning its group and finishing with an unprecedented 25 points. He earned at least an A- if you even take more points from him than would be fair for losing to S.Korea in Seoul with a depleted roster. I gave him an A on his 2nd assignment too. 3- Good Tactical Awareness (A-): I don't think those who criticize Skocic tactical understanding have a clue. That isn't the same as saying his tactical decisions always payoff or are flawless. But despite my disagreement with him on some of his tactical choices, and although there are a couple of tactical weaknesses on Skocic's team, his overall tactical reading of the game is very good and the tactics he employs are rationally and consciously chosen to allow Iran's strengths to show without exposing our weaknesses too much. On his overall tactical awareness I give Skocic an A-. 4- Player Selections (B+): Given his familiarity with Iran's player pool, Skocic should get an A but he doesn't because hie has not followed a justifiable methodology as it relates to his refusal to even invite certain players (e.g., Ramin Rezaian). And that is the negative part of familiarity: it sometimes also leads to conflict of interest (e.g., protecting Skocic's very good find as Malavan coach, namely Sadegh Moharami, from any potential competition) and historical baggage.(Rezaian's issues with Branko and Moharami being transferred to Persepolis and serving as the player that filled the void). Anyway, for now, Iran hasn't shown the necessary depth in the right fullback position. And the refusal to invite Omid Ebrahimi causes depth problems (at least in the short run) in d-mid and central midfield. 5- Player Management (B): Skocic appears to have an affable, open-minded personality. But a new coach without a "respectable resume" will inevitably run into problems managing the players. The addition of highly respected Karim Bagheri to the coaching staff has helped Skocic in this regard, but I don't want the problems between Taremi (our best and most influential player) and Skocic to blow up on the surface again. If Skocic wants to succeed, he needs to be firm on issues he is right, but not stubborn on issues where he is acting unfairly. The publicized pictures of Taremi and Rezaian just when Skocic was facing a storm of criticisms for leaving Iran thin on the right fullback spot in the wake of the S.Korea game, and the history of the close relationship between Taremi and Rezaian, makes me concerned. 6- Lack of International Experience (F): Besides some short experience coaching clubs in Croatia and in the Persian Gulf region, Skocic's international experience is limited to whatever he has done as Iran's coach. And that is not enough experience to give those who aren't able to evaluate a coach beyond his resume, at all comfortable. While I am sure Skocic has no problems on the substance of the issues that can reveal someone to be a very good coach, it was very unfortunate for him that the first time he had to lead Iran in environment (packed stadium in Korea) against a side that is rated meritorious enough (S. Korea) almost everything that could go wrong to make that a very unfair game to judge Skocic, went wrong. Now, the burden and need for Skocic to prove himself is even higher.
Before I give my evaluation of the AFC teams, let me stress one point: I am not judging these teams merely on their qualifying form and results. That would be very unfair to many teams, especially Iran, who have labored through these games with zero preparation with a group of players thrown in together with at most one practice session 24 hours before each game. All that while suffering and dealing with all sorts of miscellaneous issues, Covid being on top of the list. I have instead looked at the games, considered those games and the relevant lessons from them, and reached my own take on what to expect. I will first start with the good news. Right now, each and every one of the top teams in the AFC, are at least on par with the 4th and 5th finishers in Conmebol, any of the teams in Concacaf and any of the teams that will represent CAF in Qatar other than Senegal. Senegal is the only side from the so-called lesser confederations represented in Qatar that is a cut above the rest. The rest are an amalgam of strengths and weaknesses whose import and significance will depend on who they face, the tactics chosen, defensive and goalkeeping errors, and similarly difficult to forecast issues. On the negative side of the ledger: except for Japan, Iran, and to some extent Australia, I have doubts about the ability of Qatar, S. Korea, and Saudi Arabia to withstand any form of sustained pressure. The distribution abilities of S.Korea's team and their class upfront might make some teams in Qatar 2022 reluctant to press them too high but that won't be the case for pot 1 teams. There are many pot 1 and a few pot 2 sides who are liable to run up the score on not just Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but S.Korea as well. I wouldn't be surprised (depending on the draw) if S.Korea earned 4 points in its group but its one loss was by a 3-4 goal margin. For various reasons, I see the draw decisive for all the AFC teams except Iran and Japan. Iran's chances of advancing from its group, in the best circumstances 50%, will largely depend on what is going on in Iran. Japan. on the other hand, are almost equally likely to win or lose or draw a pot 2 team as they are to do so against most of the pot 4 sides. More than match ups, Japan's fate against most of these pot 2 and pot 4 sides depends on not falling behind but instead taking the lead. One final comment: the top AFC teams I alluded to as enjoying at least parity against Ecuador and Peru includes Australia but not the UAE. If it is the UAE that end up facing Peru in the IC playoff, AFC's chances of having 6 teams in Qatar drops vrom 50/50 to no more than 40%.