Continued from here... https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=17343122#post17343122 Please carry on.
I really hope S Korea picks up Maximum points from it's two following games and secure qualification, that way they might field a B team against their final opponents, Saudi Arabia.
i predict that iran will qualify to the world cup at the expense and despair of the separated relatives of south koreans. what are your opinions?
Actually, S.Korea plays Iran in the last match... WE'RE hoping that S.Korea picks up max points so they might possibly field a B team against US .
Well know the answer when Iran travels to Pyongyang. Although at this point... even IF South Korea does Iran a favor and beats the Norks, AND Iran beat North Korea, the Communists would still have 1 more point than Iran. Although Iran would have one more game in hand. I think the final game agaisnt South Korea will be the utimate decider. Although I doubt South Korea will field a weakened side as they want North Korea to qualify with them. This group is still wide open.
The last round game will be the last "serious game" S Korea play before the WC so they should want to make the most of it (even if they have qualified, long way down the track though). It's hard to imagine they will play a side that is too much watered down from their best. It would also be doubtful they'd want to lose face with a loss, isn't that cultural in S Korea?
There are certainly advantages to playing with a B-team if your qualification is already confirmed. A deep, experienced bench is often the difference between good and great teams. It's all speculation at this point, anyways. Who knows how the standings will look by the final match-day, and who knows how S.Korea will approach the match. The most likely scenario is that things will be too close for the Koreans to field an inexperienced side against Iran.
I don't think South Korea will oblige Iran with an "easy" win sort of mentality if South Korea manage to qualify in advance. Certainly they won't mind a defeat, but they'll be looking to win at home against Iran. Then again, I've been wrong before...
I'll spare my opinions after Iran plays against North Korea... otherwise, it's still an open 4-way race.
It's partly true. However, it entirely depends on the coach. I can recall 2 instances already, 1. 2006 WCQ Final round vs Saudi Arabia, Korea had already qualified to the WC after beating Kuwait 4-0 at away. Saudi Arabia had already qualified too. However, while Saudi Arabia took this game very seriously by camping in Malaysia for a few weeks, the Korean coach took this match as a test ground for young K-league players and so fielded a lot of inexperienced players. Saudi Arabia won the game 1-0. 2. 2007 ACQ vs Iran At that time, Pim was our coach. Doha Asian games (U-23 tournament) were going to start in 2 weeks but Pim Verbeek had no time to train our players for the Asian Games so what he did was he selected U23 squad and used this squad for the 2007 Asian Cup Qualifier match. Pim obviously didn't care about the result as Korea had already qualified to the Asian Cup so this last match against Iran was to be used as more of a training match for our young players. Iranian fans might remember that we lost to Iran's A team 2-0 in Tehran in November, 2006.
Talking out of your ass again woori? Iran's A team? 7 of Iran's 11 starters at the time were absent in that match (Mahdavikia, Hashemian, Zandi, etc), and Iran used a local team in that match with no European-based players selected. (Nekounam and Teymourian had not moved to Europe yet) In fact, one of the goals in that match was scored by a rookie named Badamaki who played his first national match that day, and has only been invited to the national team a couple more times since. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avgF1aDdRfI"]YouTube - Iran - South Korea (2-0)[/ame]
LOL you seriously think they were spending that time preparing to play the mighty Korea in a meaningless match after both teams had qualified? Talk about conceit. The game was played on August 17th. The reason the team spent that time together was because it was the off-season for God's sake, not because of the game with Korea lol. The Saudi NT always has a long training camp in the summer. We played a reserve side as well. I think that was the goal scorer Mohammad Al-Anbar's only cap.
Regardless of how seriously Iran and Saudi Arabia took those games, those were games that Korea could care less about and pretty much sent their U23 squad. I don't think Korea will do that this time if they qualify with a game to spare because their squad is already young to begin with, so there's not really a need to get younger players some experience when you already have some experienced young players. Also, I really think Korea went into this group with a lot to prove because of their poor record in recent years against Iran and Saudi Arabia and their inability to do anything other than draw with North Korea in their last 4 meetings with them. With a win against Saudi Arabia under our belt, we'll hope to beat North Korea tomorrow, and if we can do that then the only thing left to do is beat Iran in the final qualifying match.
Well, Iran's A team can always change depending on an individual's opinion. And you're wrong. Hashemian did play and Mahdavikia couldn't play simply because he was unavailable after getting a 1 match suspension. Just directly quoted off RSSF, (http://www.rsssf.com/tables/07asch-det.html) [Nov 15] vs Korea In Teheran (Azadi Stadium) Iran 2 (Gholamreza Enayati 48, Gholamhossein Badamaki 90+1) South Korea 0 IRN: 12-Hassan Rodbarian; 28-Amirhossein Sadeghi, 45-Mahmoud Fekri ©, 20-Mohammad Nosrati, 11-Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht, 6-Javad Nekonam, 24-Andranik Timotian, 23-Javad Kazemian (57-Gholamhossein Badamaki 77), 16-Gholamreza Enayati (40-Rasoul Khatibi 70), 8-Ali Karimi, 9-Vahid Hashemian (41-Hadi Shakouri 88). [Sep 6] vs Syria In Damascus (Al-Abbasiyyin Stadium) IRN: 1-Ebrahim Mirzapour; 5-Rahman Rezaei, 20-Mohammad Nosrati, 2-Mehdi Mahdavikia ©, 6-Javad Nekonam, 8-Ali Karimi (36-Mehrzad Madanchi 90), 11-Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht, 24-Andranik Timotian, 9-Vahid Hashemian (50-Farhad Majidi 76), 16-Gholamreza Enayati, 45-Mahmoud Fekri (28-Amirhossein Sadeghi 28) Mahdavikia was suspended for Korea match after successively getting yellow cards in the previous matches. Except for Mahdavikia, Iran fielded the same squad for the Korea match as their previous ACQ match. Or are you trying to say Iran's ACQ campaign was all played by Iran's B team?
I guess you're right. Saudi Arabia has the habit of putting together a team and camp whenever possible as previously seen in this WCQ campaign. So, Saudi players would not have been as motivated as Korean players for that last match. I just thought it was kind of strange seeing as how Saudi Arabia stopped over in Malaysia and trained there for 2 weeks prior to arriving in Seoul when they had already qualified to the WC and the 1st & 2nd place finish simply held no merit at all. It could make one person wonder if this Saudi team was really eager to win that last match.
Mahadavikia was not suspended, you are wrong. But I made a mistake about Hashemian, he was the only European-based player who took part in that match. Besides Hash, the only established starters on Iran's team that day were Nosrati, Nekounam, Teymourian, and Karimi. Other players who played that day such as Kazemian, Sadeghi, Badamki, Shakouri, Khatibi etc were all reserve players who got a chance to play, only because Iran was not taking that match seriously.
as much as i would love to entertain ideas of South Korea fielding a B team on our last game with Iran.... obviously... we may not have that sort of luxury... Let's say taht we manage a 3rd place finish.... this really isn't "good enough" for a team that is aiming to go to the World Cup. We have no other choice but to defeat Iran or at least tie to go for that 2nd place finish. Anyway though, if we do somehow secure a ticket to South Africa, then by all means, I hope Huh Jung Moo would use the last game to do whatever he thinks maximizes South Korean strength. It would be such a valuable opportunity for us... not every day we get to play the "real" Iran. So much possibilities here... I think all the media and south korean public would understand and even Huh Jung Moo as long as he gets the ticket to South Africa and he says the magical words, "I played with my B team, because it increases our chances of doing well in the World Cup." Not many people in Korea actually cares whether or not we come out of this group as leaders. Only thing that Korean public cares about is escaping the group stages during the World Cup. Not many people in Korea will give any sort of credit for Huh Jung Moo for taking us to South Africa---as South Korean public is really spoiled and takes it as a given. Huh Jung Moo will earn glory if he is the first manager to take Korea out of group stages outside home soil.
Saudi fielded a B team. South Korea on the other hand fielded its full A team, including your Park. Even after the loss your coach was fired because of the game.
Just to make things clear, Bonfrere didn't get fired because of that meaningless match. He was destined to be fired way before that and KFA was already in talks with several other coaches including Dick Advocaat as soon as Korea qualified to the WC after beating Kuwait. Bonfrere was sacked because of his overall poor record at the WCQ & his unbelievably stupid strategy and his stubborn behavior. KFA realized he was not the right man to lead the KNT at the WC. It was only a matter of time before he got sacked prior to the WC. He remains to be the worst foreign coach ever by a majority of Korean football fans. And no, Park Ji Sung didn't play in that match. P.S - And yes, agreed with domine. Apologies once again for misinterpreting that match. As I have stated before, my assumption on Saudi Arabia taking that match more serious than us was wrong. Although, it still leaves me a question mark as to why they camped in Malaysia for 2 weeks prior to arriving in Seoul. hehe.
Europeans can't distinguish between Korean, Japanese, Chinese & Indonesian, Thai. To them, we are all Asians. I think same thing applies to us not being able to distinguish between Middle Easterners & Europeans. I guess bobjones2 is just an average person who fits in that category. No need to diss him like that.
Who cares. They camp out in all kinds of random places. The distance between Malaysia and Korea is around the same as the distance between Riyadh and London. It's okay if you made a mistake man. I don't normally research Korean teamsheets, so I don't expect you to be an expert on Saudi players.