Iran sports thread

[HAIDER]

Iran goalkeeper deserve special award ...brilliant performance

 

[EasyNow]

Maximum respect to Iran - but what a sad way to lose! I am rooting for you all the way boys!!

 

[rahi2357]

here is me when referee f...ed our penalty ----------------------and here is why the logo looks like this. mutha paka ref!!

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still hopeful for next match

 

[HAIDER]

What referee did ? ...biased decision ? ....any game jury ?

 

[Peaceful Civilian]

Better luck next time Iran..... You should kick this Pakistani made football into goal....

 

[Abii]

You guys are being too harsh on the ref and starting to sound like sore losers. Yes, he didn't call a penalty, but in every single game there are mistakes made by the ref and teams still manage to get results. It's part of the game.

Iran played good and for 90 minutes things went to plan. Messi was the difference in the end.

We're still in it. The focus should now be on Bosnia.

 

[Gilamard]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haghighi - 4391 m
Montazeri - 9636 m
Hosseini - 9133 m
Sadeghi - 9361 m
Pooladi - 9065 m
Nekounam - 11042 m
Shojaei - 9178 m
Hajsafi - 10131 m
Ando -10942 m
Dejagah - 9551 m
Ghoochannejhad - 11117 m

Heydari - 2243 m
Jahanbakhsh - 1381 m
Haghighi - 866 m

Overall - 108037 m

 

[Militant Atheist]

Ref obviously had bad experience with Iranians. He might have been touched in his special place by an Iranian.

 

[iranigirl2]

How Iran nearly pulled off the impossible against Argentina

Lionel Messi's stoppage-time heroics saw Argentina narrowly beat a very impressive Iran side 1-0, claiming a place in the knockout round as a result. The albiceleste, less than impressive against Bosnia and Herzegovina in their first game, would have been looking to come straight out at Team Melli, who showed little against Nigeria on Monday. They did, but it very nearly went horribly wrong, and Iran didn't just play well enough to get a point out of the match -- they could easily have won it outright.


Lineups:

Argentina lineup (4-3-3): Sergio Romero; Marcos Rojo, Ezekiel Garay, Federico Fernandez, Pablo Zabaleta; Javier Mascherano, Fernando Gago, Angel Di Maria; Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero.

Iran lineup (4-5-1): Alireza Haghighi; Mehrdad Pooladi, Amir Hossein Sadeghi, Jalal Hosseini, Pejman Montazeri; Jevad Nekounam, Andranik Teymourian, Ashkan Dejagah, Ehsan Hajsafi, Masoud Shojaei; Reza Ghoochannejhad.

After using a bizarre, ineffective 3-5-2 against Bosnia, Alejandro Sabella returned to the shape that had served him so well in qualifying. Hugo Campagnaro and Maxi Rodriguez were dropped for Gonzalo Higuain and Fernando Gago -- the halftime switch Argentina had used in the win against BiH -- and the albiceleste ran out in a narrow 4-3-3, with Sergio Aguero and Higuain flanking Messi.

Iran, meanwhile, fielded a metric bumload of defenders, because they are Iran, coached by Carlos Queiroz and were about to face Lionel Messi And His Awesome Friends. What was anyone expecting here?




Lionel Messi bails out La Albiceleste

Here's how this match was supposed to go: Iran try to defend, Argentina slowly pick them apart, Argentina win without breaking a sweat. Here's how the match actually went: Argentina try to attack, Iran defend well, rely on their goalkeeper to bail them out of any trouble, and laugh when they realise that the albiceleste basically have no plan to break them down. And then start counterattacking.

The first half was, charitably, boring. Argentina couldn't get going, while Iran refused to go at all, calmly holding the favourites at bay without expending any effort going forward. But in the second half, as Argentina started getting more and more desperate, Iran suddenly emerged as a real attacking force, forcing the ball through the middle and creating several great chances.

Sergio Romero had to make three key saves, while Ashkan Dejagah could easily have won a penalty after a challenge by Pablo Zabaleta. Meanwhile, Argentina were creating nothing and being outplayed through the centre of the pitch. By Iran! That Messi bailed them out with a moment of magic int he 91st minute doesn't take away that for much of the game, Team Melli were the better side.

How did this happen? There are two important factors, both related.

Argentina's attacking movement

... or lack thereof. Argentina are a team of stars. Even if they didn't have Lionel Messi at their disposal, they'd still have enough firepower to be pants-wettingly frightening. Gonzalo Higauin and Sergio Aguero will both lead the line for Champions League sides next season, while Angel di Maria was the best attacking player in Real Madrid's triumphant European Cup win last May. This is a team that can probably rely on individual brilliance to break the opposition down.

And that's exactly what they did. The attack was incoherent -- rather than using clever passes, which they didn't seem to have the ability to connect with, Argentina's forwards seemed content to blindly charge towards the Iranian defence, and although they were perfectly able to beat the first player they faced, they were always crowded off the ball before things got too dangerous.

Dribbling is a powerful tool for taking the opposition out of the game, but Argentina kept losing the ball on the run before they got into shooting positions. Iran's midfield recorded 15 tackles -- they were more than happy to lure the albiceleste stars into a thicket of bodies and dispossess them. Without having any clues as to Sabella's gameplan, Argentina's attack seemed to hint at a certain arrogance, that Iran would simply crumble when faced with such an awesome array of talent.

Instead they stayed compact (easy against a team with zero attacking width) and deep and held Argentina off for 90 minutes: Iran's discipline very nearly saw them snatch a draw. But another factor very nearly saw Team Melli win outright.

Javier Mascherano and the disaster in midfield

Argentina's positioning was very different in the second half. Angel di Maria, barely a central midfielder at the best of times, was pushed high and wide left. Gago, for reasons not entirely clear at the moment but probably having something to do with desperation, copied his manoeuvre on the right. This meant that Argentina's 4-3-3 had metamorphosed into a 4-1-5, leaving Javier Mascherano the only player in the centre of the pitch.

Everything World Cup

This would have been fine if Iran had been content to sit back, but after the break they became far more aggressive with the counterattack, surging into space whenever they won the ball. There was a twenty-minute period when Team Melli had complete control over central midfield, and but for better finishing (and perhaps friendlier refereeing), they would have scored at least once in that spell.

Much of the blame for this has to fall on Mascherano. As the most defensive midfielder in a very aggressive system, his role is to slow down counterattacks to allow the more advanced players to get back and support the rest of the team. But whenever Iran had the ball in the midfield, the Barcelona man tried to win the ball back.

This was catastrophic, because Mascherano's tackling wasn't great. He did manage to win the ball in that area several times, which speaks to how much work he had to do, but he was bypassed just as often as not, lured out to make a challenge and then avoided. When that happened, Argentina had no presence in the middle at all. Iran had all the time and space they needed to counter, with the albiceleste looking like a completely broken team.

Had Mascherano held back rather than rushing out, we would have seen far fewer dangerous situations from the Iranians -- instead he created a huge problem for his own team. If this is how Argentina react when the get frustrated, they're in enormous trouble against better (and more clinical) opposition. Perhaps this will serve as an important learning experience.

Iran, meanwhile, can hold their heads up high. They'd have known that frustrating Argentina for an extended period would have led to chances, and they came very close to seizing them.

How Iran nearly pulled off the impossible against Argentina - SBNation.com

 

[Abii]

And we're fucked.

Nigeria just beat Bosnia 1-0. As it stands, Arg is on top, Nigeria is second with 4 points and we're third with 1. Bosnia is out.

If we beat Bosnia, we're still gonna need Argentina to beat Nigeria. A tie will guarantee Nigeria as the runner up.

 

[Gilamard]

And we're fucked.

Nigeria just beat Bosnia 1-0. As it stands, Arg is on top, Nigeria is second with 4 points and we're third with 1. Bosnia is out.

If we beat Bosnia, we're still gonna need Argentina to beat Nigeria. A tie will guarantee Nigeria as the runner up.

Do you really want Iran to face France if we make it to the next round?

 

[Abii]

Do you really want Iran to face France if we make it to the next round?

Six months from now nobody will remember the results, but we can say we've made the R16.

 

[MOHSENAM]

un lahzeyi ke Iran deghigheye 91 gol ro khord badtarin lahzeye zendegim bud.

 

[Hack-Hook]

now Nigeria must loose to Argentina and we must win against Bosnia

now I have a question what will happen if we win Bosnia by 1 goal and Nigeria loose to Argentina by 1 Goal ?
guess that would be a headache foe Fifa .

 

[Abii]

now Nigeria must loose to Argentina and we must win against Bosnia

now I have a question what will happen if we win Bosnia by 1 goal and Nigeria loose to Argentina by 1 Goal ?
guess that would be a headache foe Fifa .

No it wouldn't be a headache. There are tie breakers for every single scenario. The next tie breaker is a coin flip I believe.

Edit: here are all the tie breakers

a) greatest number of points obtained in all group matches

The simplest way to determine which two teams move on is by points. Winning teams are awarded three points, ties earn each team one point, and losses are zero points. Seven points guarantees any side a trip to the knockout stage. Anything less, and we’re likely looking at a tie.

b) goal difference in all group matches

The key tiebreaker in almost every group will be goal differential. Goal differential is found by simply subtracting a teams’ goals against from its goals scored. What makes goal differential as the primary tiebreaker so interesting is that it rewards teams for running up the score. All wins earn three points, however a one goal win may not be nearly as valuable as a win by a margin of three or four. Whether it’s a teams’ opening match or the group stage finale, every minute matters and any goal can be the difference between advancement and elimination.

c) greatest number of goals scored in all group matches

The third tiebreaker is FIFA’s subtle way to reward teams for playing 4-3 matches rather than 1-0. While the goal differential is +1 in both, the team that scores four puts themselves in a much better position to advance.

d) greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned

This is basically the “head-to-head” argument. If two teams are tied, and one beat the other, the winner moves on. It gets a little more difficult when three teams are tied. The easiest way to figure who would advance using this tiebreaker is to break it down game by game. Only games involving tied teams count. So if team A, B, and C are tied all games against team D are thrown out. Keep in mind though that this is the fourth tiebreaker. Head to head is not as important as goal differential. This is unusual to American sports fans, so it’s better to know now than when it knocks your favorite team out.

e) goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned

Just like the previous tiebreaker, matches included non-tied teams are disregarded. This will only break three way ties as a tie between two teams would have been broken by the previous tiebreaker. The difference between this one and tiebreaker b is that it takes awaymatches including non tied teams. In other words, it would take out either the dominant side or the terrible side. A team that beat every one, or a team that beat no one will no longer factor into the fate of the tied nations.

f) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned

Once again, only teams involved are taken into consideration. Rarely will it get this far, but if it does it is in everyone’s best interest that the final match related tiebreaker solves the quandary.

g) drawing of lots by the FIFA Organizing Committee

The old coin flip. Only once in the 84 year history of the FIFA World Cup have lots been drawn to break a tie. Dear soccer gods, do not let this year be the second time.​