Not sure how they're going to fit 38 rounds in 6 months. Need to have one round every 5 days consistently. Also disappointed that they will only relegate two teams. I was hoping that the league would get reduced to 16 teams next season. However the most important thing is that we have an actual league, rather than group stages. As a Shorta fan, very excited for this season!
Round 1: Zawraa 1-0 Sinaat Kahrabaiya Samawa 0-0 Amanat Baghdad Kahraba 3-1 Naft Wasat Diwaniyah 0-0 Hedood Bahri 1-0 Hussein Talaba 1-0 Naft Maysan Najaf 0-0 Naft Karbala 0-1 Shorta Naft Janoob 1-0 Zakho Minaa 0-0 Jawiya
Round 2: Hedood 1-0 Zakho Kahraba 2-2 Minaa Amanat Baghdad 1-0 Naft Janoob Naft Maysan 1-0 Samawa Naft Wasat 5-0 Karbala Sinaat Kahrabaiya 1-2 Najaf Jawiya 1-2 Zawraa Naft 1-0 Talaba Hussein 3-0 Diwaniyah Shorta 4-1 Bahri
Round 3: Talaba 2-1 Sinaat Kahrabaiya Najaf 3-2 Jawiya Naft Janoob 0-1 Hedood Naft Maysan 0-0 Amanat Baghdad Karbala 0-1 Minaa Zawraa 1-0 Kahraba Zakho 0-0 Hussein Samawa 1-1 Naft Diwaniya 1-2 Shorta Bahri 1-0 Naft Wasat
How long have we been saying this for... it's February and we've only had 12 games from 38 in the league, with no FA Cup. It's just gone too far now, you can't take the Iraqi league seriously.
What a mess today.. Jawiya beats Shorta 1-0 by an undeserved penalty. Samal Saeed and Mohammed Hameed both were sent off, and Mohannad Ali missed a penalty for Shorta. Zawraa are 7 points ahead of Shorta. Hopefully they'll win the league
Jawiya played anti-football yesterday. Diving on the ground at every opportunity, rolling around, fouling the Shorta players. Eventually got a penalty from a dive. Then at the end both teams acting like absolute animals fighting each other and also Jawiya players ruining the penalty spot with their studs to make it harder for Mohanad to score. The ref was absolutely terrible. Both teams played rubbish football. Overall a really bad reflection for the Iraqi league and I'd say for Jawiya especially.
Next step after lifting the ban should be reforming the league. We badly need planning and organization.
Seems like we have a "big 4" in the Iraqi League now like the Premier League used to have. Zawraa, Shorta, Jawiya and Naft finished in the top 4 positions last season and it looks like also this season. Hassan Ahmed has done such a fantastic job at Naft to get them to compete with the other clubs.
Yes, and it's getting closer. Not so sure about Zawraa winning the season anymore, they look lost.. Hopefully our league continues to improve. Much needed.
I looked at the league table today and I noticed something - every single team has played the same number of games (26). It seems like a small thing but if you remember last season, Jawiya had 8 games in hand for most of the season and other teams had 3 or 4, it was a mess. The league is supposed to end late July, which would mean it would have lasted just over 8 months. For a 38 team league that's actually a very good length of time, most European leagues are 9 months. So there has been progress in terms of the league's organisation. The problem is that the league started so late which is why we're still playing in the summer. Hopefully, next season will start in September, we will get an 8 month league which ends in May and then the FA Cup gets completed which maybe goes a bit into June. That's very doable in my opinion. I won't get my hopes up though
You know why? Because we play 2 rounds in a week, otherwise our league would be a neverending story.. It became clear in the AFC Cup. Fatigue was playing a big role in the elimination of Zawraa. Hopefully next season it gets better.
We are in the 32nd round and I noticed that the teams play on a weekly basis, not twice a week like they used to do before. Zawraa still on top. Hopefully they'll win the league.
Very impressive win by Al-Zawraa today, I hope they win the league too. Al-Shorta on the other hand can't even beat the weakest teams in the league, sad to watch. We only have 8 wins from the past 18 and looks like we'll come 4th place.