MHSN

so, now we know the bracket

 vs 

 vs 

 vs 

 vs 

 vs 

 vs 

 vs 

 vs 

AFC 5 big teams are in two quarters which means only 2 of them can advance to the semifinal. 

KSA/KOR is the biggest match here. 

what a crazy match, Korea tried hard to score two late goals and took the lead but then Malaysia tied the match in minute 90+15  which wasn't that bad for KOR, they avoided Japan but got KSA (most probably) instead

sooo if we beat Syria (which won't be easy at all) we will get Japan in the QF. 

and btw, ugly match from Jordan  they lost intentionally, the 2nd half was hard to watch

10 hours ago, Dnl said:

Is there any place where you could find the list of those who switch NOC?

no, as far as I know

6 minutes ago, JoshMartini007 said:

The first tiebreaker causes Hungary to drop out as both Germany & Austria won (and tied each other). The tiebreaker is performed again just between Germany & Austria.

 

Not sure why Austria will automatically advance. The breaker will be through the overall goal difference which Germany currently holds the advantage and could still advance with narrow wins/losses.

No

they will create a table only considering results between those 3 teams and Germany will finish higher than Austria since they beat Hungary by a bigger margin

more Russian wrestlers are switching NOC in Olympic year

Razambek Zhamalov moved to Uzbekistan and Viktor Rassadin will represent Tajikistan from now on. they are both very good and specially Zhamalov can be a legit medal contender in Paris. you didn't hear much from him because he lost close matches to World/Olympic Champion Sidakov but he is almost as good as Sidakov. 74kg qualifiers in Asia looked easy at first but now it's a completely different thing. 

with  Tsabalov,  Salkazanov, Kadimagomedov and couple more. 74kg is more like Russian National Champs.

I also can name  Shikhjamalov, Kurmagomedov,  Shapiev,  Asluev,  Budazhapov ,,, and there are probably more names

1 minute ago, thepharoah said:

Tajikistan qualified to R16 after defeating Lebanon 2-1 , even a tie would have been enough for them to qualify with only 2 points , I bet this is their 1st time ever to go further than group stage 

surely it is. because this was their first ever participation 

21 minutes ago, Nightwish64 said:

If I correctly understand the qualification system, Slovenia can't qualify to the Olympics? And Portugal only if they will be ranked 5th or 6th?

that's not correct. Slovenia has a very good chance to advance to the qualifiers. they need Egypt winning the African quota and Austria NOT winning the European quota, both very likely to happen

and Portugal they are most probably already qualified for the final qualifiers. (still not on paper)

42 minutes ago, LDOG said:

ARG has one of the largest armenian diaspora in the world and they are surprisingly prominent in society, quite a few of the country's richest businessmen are of that origin. So it wouldn't be so random, their football NT has 2 argentinians for example. 

 

I have no clue what motivates this action though and, apparently, I can't find any information about it either?

I only heard of David Nalbandian before 

he had his debut today in Henri Deglane Grand Prix in France winning silver and apparently getting injured in the final, he is also registered for the Pan-American Champ in Mexico. (still no entry list for the Pan-Am qualifiers but I assume he is there too) if his injury is not serious I think he has a good chance to at least qualify for the Olympics. used to be one of my favorite Greco wrestlers, very unlucky to finish his career with just one world title.

5 hours ago, intoronto said:

Former Iranian wrestler Peiman Biabani is now competing for Canada. I don't think he has a shot at the Olympics since trials have already been competed. @MHSN

Yeah I know his story. he is not a Canadian citizen yet and therefore is not eligible to participate in the Olympics anyway. UWW is less strict in its own competitions. which means he can participate in any other tournament.

he is a former World Junior Champion and he was surely good enough to qualify for the Olympics from Pan-America. 

1 hour ago, phelps said:

not sure at 100%, but I think that once she gets the passport and declares for she would lose any privilege (qualification included) reserved to the refugee team members and she would have to try and qualify for her new Home Nation through the regular pathway

In a normal world yes you are right. but with current IOC no

Raheleh Asemani qualified for the refugee team in Taekwondo back in 2016 (she even beat the Belgian athlete in her route to the quota) but got her Belgian passport in time.

they probably managed to bribe the right person and here we go, she went to Rio and even almost won a  medal for Belgium.  it's just about meeting the right IOC person with the right amount of money.

former World Champion and 2012 Olympic silver medalist  Arsen Julfalakyan is going to represent  Argentina 

ARM and ARG are next to each other alphabetically. maybe that explains the move 

8 hours ago, MHSN said:

if this result stays, both Korea and Iran should think twice about winning their groups  

 

otherwise Japan has to go through Korea and then Iran to reach the semifinal

OK I have to take back what I said, I'm not even sure if this Iran can reach top 8. today match vs  was extremely terriblthey beat HKG 4-0 few weeks ago in WCQ but today they even had to waste time to keep it 1-0.

losing to UAE in the last group match will make it much easier in knockout rounds but I really don't think that matters. even Syria (most probable opponent in 1/8 final) can eliminate this team. 

if this result stays, both Korea and Iran should think twice about winning their groups  

otherwise Japan has to go through Korea and then Iran to reach the semifinal

15 minutes ago, Josh said:

I’m new to following club volleyball, surprised that Sir Safety Perugia didn’t even qualify.  

they finished the SuperLega regular season undefeated (which was a fantastic result) but then choked in the playoff and lost the QF series 3-2 to the 8th seed Milano.

and this CL season was a bit weird, ZAKSA almost got eliminated tonight. they came from 2-0 behind (almost lost the 3rd set too) against that Belgian Club to win 3-2 and stay alive. 

3 hours ago, Prakash_k said:

This is just unbelievable! Specially in shotgun😳 ! hopefully he goes for olympic .

I'm pretty sure he goes to Paris  nobody will ever think about replacing him with someone else. it's not like we have so many world class trap shooters in line to take his place

this one was quite unexpected. Gold medal and quota for Beiranvand who is just 15 years old 

I assume (or I can say pretty sure) he is the youngest ever Iranian qualifies for the Olympics , we had younger competitors but that was long time ago when qualifications didn't exist

of course it always has to be Iran to finish just 1 place below the qualification zone 

and this time I don't really blame Khedmati. she was doing OK but some problems with the scoreboard happened. after few minutes of arguments, they made her shoot once again but since then she lost focus and finished disastrously. 

Iran won 3 (out of 4) gold medals today in Zagreb but it was mostly important for 97kg and 125kg to determine the Olympic team members

at 125kg we had an all-Iranian final, World Champion Amir Hossein Zare beat 19-years old talented Masoumi to win the gold and most importantly book his place in Paris. the great Geno Petriashvili was there too but he chickened out in the SF, didn't want to lose once again to Zare.

Masoumi is really talented, he is probably #2 or #3 in the world right now, it sucks when you are good but the best in the world is in your country. that's why Azerbaijan tried to "buy" him couple months ago. he said no for now but I'm afraid sooner or later he will switch to another NOC just to participate in major events.  

at 97kg, we had a huge surprise and youngster Amir Ali Azarpira came from nowhere to beat Snyder in the final  while our experienced wrestler Ghasempour lost 4-0 to Snyder in the semifinal and settled for bronze.

now it's up to the coaches to decide who is going to the Asian OQT to qualify the weight. it's hard/impossible to ignore Azarpira now. but they are not going to cross Ghasempour's name easily. he is too popular and I believe will get another chance.

so in short, in Zagreb we found out the name of our Olympic team members at 65 and 125, the rest will be decided later 

4 minutes ago, phelps said:

-57kg: Aman
-86kg: Magomed Ramazanov

 

this Aman guy is a gold medal threat in Paris, you heard it first from me 

and this Ramazanov was good shopping for Bulgaria after getting lots of low level Russian wrestlers, this guy looks good and will be a medal chance in Paris but not sure if they finished his paperwork in time to wrestle at the qualifiers. 

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

for Iran this tournaments acts as our trials in freestyle. last year team members (only successful ones) vs the challengers (national winners)

we had 5 wrestlers today, at 86kg our main guy Yazdani is injured so it was supposed to be just a test for the challenger guy but he got the "bad draw" and had to withdraw 

65 and 74 were important, 2022 World Champion Rahman Amzouad beat his Iranian opponent and booked his place at the Olympics but withdrew from the final vs Tevanyan (booo )

but 74 kg "trial" ended up in a disaster  our better guy Emami narrowly lost to the other guy Abouzari 4-4 and Abouzari got manhandled in the final 10-1 against USA #2 (or maybe #3) guy  I really hope they consider this. sending Abouzari to the Asian QT will be a huge huge gift for the Asian wrestlers.

1 hour ago, Prakash_k said:

Is there any selection policy for olympic selection like ind chn have ? Or whoever wins oly will go for olympic 

Obviously we don't have the depth of China and India to have a long and complicated selection policy  I don't even know what was their policy for this tournament, because for example Najmeh Khedmati won the nationals few days ago in this event but yet they registered her as RPO and she couldn't shoot in the final despite her very good qualification result. 

actually I can't remember they ever publish a policy. I remember before Tokyo they said they will send the most in-form shooter but at the end they sent exactly the same team (whoever wins the quota) I assume that's just easier for them. if athlete A won the quota and they send someone else, there will be lots of protests from "A" and his/her province officials. 

1 hour ago, Prakash_k said:

IRAN not winning qouta in air pistol is Very surprising for me . Javad case understable but what others are doing. I remember someone has won world cup gold in baku last yr .

obviously our shooting is not doing well, 2023 was a complete disaster with no quota at the Asian Champs and just 1 bronze at the Asian Games. lack of money is the main issue, in this sport you need more international competition and Iran doesn't participate in non olympic qualification events. also I don't think the current coaches are good enough.

yet Iran was close to win the quota few times, the guy you mentioned Pourhosseini narrowly missed the quota here finishing 4th  Foroughi himself missed the final by the narrowest possible margin. I mean it was badluck too.

well I was hoping for someone else to win a quota but OK it's better than nothing, Amini broke the curse at least 

Iran has a history of sending the exact same shooter to the Olympics but I really hope they change the tradition this time

14 minutes ago, Siddhartha Talukdar said:

What happened to Javed Faroughi, he still couldn't qualify yet

maybe he celebrated too much after winning the gold in Tokyo 

he had a great run in 2020/2021. winning couple of World Cups and eventually the Olympics, he got some good results in 2022 too but since then he didn't get any good result. he is currently 3rd or 4th in Iran and even left out of the team for few competitions (like the previous Asian Champ in Korea)

 today wasn't even a bad day considering his poor recent results, he missed the final by just 1 point.

he is 44 now and after Tokyo he wanted to train with a different coach (which is always a bad sign), his downfall wasn't really a surprise. I was mostly hoping for other 2 guys to do something.

this is the 5th time (by 5 different shooters in 5 different events) in these qualification tournaments that Iranian shooters finish just one place below the qualification zone   

entries for Zagreb Open, first ranking series in 2024

https://uww.org/article/zagreb-open-2024-entry-list

looks like a very strong competition based on the preliminary list. this is probably the last test for most of these guys before their Olympic qualifiers. 

this tournament results will be counted toward the ranking which will be important for seeding of Olympic qualifiers and also the Olympics itself.

for Iran, we have a VERY VERY weird and complicated trial process. but it's possible to know some of our Olympic team members here in Zagreb. 

42 minutes ago, thepharoah said:

Libya is coached by the very famous Lebanese coach Fouad Abou Shakra @MHSN i don't know if u remember this guy or not 

yes sure, he had lots of games against Iranian teams