Re: Group D friendly matches Something like that. The announcer said that the goalkeeper was the only starter who played on the team during their WC Qualifiers. As for Mexico, we had, I would say, 3 or 4 starters on the field.
Re: Group D friendly matches Mexico didn't play well, won more because of an atypical winning attitude more than good play. Blanco wasn't good, he looked outpaced by the speed of the match (especially of his own teammates), and insisted to play aerial balls against defenders who were 1.90 meters. This said, it was a good preparation match for Mexico, La Volpe tried some untested players and at least one (Guardado) looked like he can make the grade (Olvera was good also). It's important to look at the lineup and chek how many starters did Mexico have on the match: Corona Rojas Dueñas Davino Huiqui Olvera Pardo Sinha Blanco Fonseca Márquez Lugo Just about three. About Blanco I think, that at the end, it will be he or Sinha, so that still makes three. The actual Mexican lineup at the WC should look like this. Sánchez Márquez Osorio Salcido Carmona Pineda/Lozano Pardo R.Morales Blanco/Sinha Fonseca Borgetti/Franco
Re: Group D friendly matches i think mexico played good ............ they were the ones who controlled most of the game . i liked how blanco played, he made a lot of good passes. i also liked how guardado and olvera played..... they r good young players, they're both 19 i think. if they dont go to this world cup they'' definetly go to the next one
Re: Group D friendly matches -I saw the game and Mexico played good. The only thing that was wrong was the god damn field. It was horrible, it was hard to control the ball and players and even the reff keep slipping all the time. Anyways good win for Mexico
Re: Group D friendly matches Iran just beat Germany..... but it was a U-19 match Hmm maybe we are just not playing friendlies so the other teams could not see our games.... Yeah that must be it
Re: Group D friendly matches Finally Iran is having a friendly match! 1st March in Tehran against Costa-Rica, it's been confirmed by Iranian and Costa-Rican federation!
Re: Group D friendly matches You keep telling yourself that. I will only believe it when I see the Costa Rica National teams land at Mehrabad airport.
Re: Group D friendly matches thats good for you guys. dont underestimate costa rica, their an underrated team that is capable of getting to the round of 16
Re: Group D friendly matches good news, that should be a good match. one question: if both Iran FF and Costa Rica FF have agreed to a friendly why didnt Iran push for an away game either in Costa Rica or a neutral venue? An away game probably has added value, more so than a home game. Is there a reason that anyone is aware of? It seems so far all of the cancelled friendlies were scheduled to be held in Tehran. Has someone already addressed this playing at home thing in another thread?
Re: Group D friendly matches First of all I'd like to mention that Iran - Costa Rica has not yet been confirmed, because the Costa Rican FF is asking for 200,000 bucks and the Iranian FF believes that they're not worth that kind of money. Costa Rica need not be worried though, because they have been invited to play a few fixtures against some really decent sides. Iran, however, has never been invited to a match (other than by Malawi (ranked 115th) which even had the nerve to ask them to pay all expenses, of course Iran would not play Malawi, for very obvious reasons). The Iranian FF is also short on cash, most local sponsors come hard and they don't nearly pay as good as Iran's favourite foreign sponsor of everything, the Korean LG. LG lost its rights to sponsor TM, and wrongly so, after S.Korea decided to vote against Iran in the IAEA some time ago. Also, the Iranian FF has not recieved any money from FIFA for qualifying to this day, so lack of money could partly account for why Iran decides to play most of their games @ home. You couldn't imagine though, how many times this issue is being raised on a daily basis. In Iran people make a good habit of adressing all the issues, the problem is that no one is there to listen! I'd say the Mexican FF is doing the best job to prepare their team for the WC and Iran, well, they haven't done anything yet.
Re: Group D friendly matches its a damn shame that politics is mixed with sport, when sport could be used as a bridge over political differences. I guess North Korea would be in the same boat as Iran if N.Korea had qualified in todays political climate. back in 1966, the only warm up matches they had was when they toured USSR to play some club teams. Why hasnt FIFA paid up? And do you think IRan FF will pay 200k to play Costa Rica? At least you have many players in the Bundesleague, they may be able to isolate the NT but not individuals.
Re: Group D friendly matches having too much friendlies isn't good too and Korea and Mexico just have too much! but 1 isn't enough 3-4 is good.
Re: Group D friendly matches I hear what you are saying. Makes sense if all teams are in the same condition, but for some, they may feal they need more because (just for an example) they have a young unexperienced (international) team and want more experience playing at that level.
Re: Group D friendly matches Actually, at least in Mexico's case, the idea is to try different players to define the final squad- and of course, to make some bucks in the US, where Mexico's NT is big bussines- the "real" preparation matches, to tune up the squad, will be after April, when the team going to Germany is already completed.
Re: Group D friendly matches I read that Japan just annouced 9 as well. having too much friendlies with your actual WC squad can be detrimental i agree, but as others have mentioned most of these friendlies are to test out youngsters and WC possible players, so noone is going to get physically exhausted. Most NTs seems to be planning around 2-3 matches just prior to WC (ie the month of May) where a near full WC team is going to play to give it a last final tuning. Matches before those are probably to select and finalise players for the final tuning.
Re: Group D friendly matches Korea are a difficult team to play against. They do not give you a second to breath.