MHSN

apparently the seeding for the draw will be based on the World Ranking. with China being seed 1. and I guess teams from the same continent won't be in the same group (of course except Europe) http://www.fiba.basketball/rankingmen/ Pot 1: Pot 2: Pot 3: Pot 4: if they go with this, I think teams in pot 2 and pot 3 are not in the same level. but remember for example we won't have more than 1 Asian team in each group. all African teams are in pot 4 so that won't be a problem but seriously full squad Nigeria is probably even stronger than couple of teams in Pot 2 ! I hope China get something like Turkey, Canada and Nigeria all 5 Asian teams (I didn't count Olympic host Japan) most probably won't pass the first round. so even 1pt matters here for the Olympic Qualification. there will be repechage for eliminated teams but still not a "complete repechage table" teams will be ranked after playing at least 5 games. 3 in 1st round and 2 in classification round. if we end up in the same group with likes of USA, Lithuania and Spain they usually massacre weaker teams but Argentina for example is usually nice and wins those kind of games by one digit. but whoever gets Argentina from the Asian teams will get Russia, Italy or Turkey from the 2nd pot. thats a sure thing we will have one African team in our group. (hopefully not Nigeria) but after all China is clear favorite for the Asian quota, they are the host and as top seed will get an easier group but to be honest they also have the best team amongst the Asians right now.

oh. only if they had this competition before the 25m pistol event Veronika Major qualified through that event and the Iranian girl finished 3rd and missed the quota. no quota but we had 3 finalists (all of them their first ever final) not bad but I was expecting more from our "experienced" shooters, Ahmadi tied with the World Record in the elimination round but today she finished 52nd. 30pts below her own marks from yesterday

heartbreaking for Uruguay they almost had a great comeback in last 3-4 minutes. they were down 12 or 13 but at the end they were just a 3 pointer away from the overtime but they missed it. Puerto Rico is the last qualified teams. people talk everywhere about how bad is this system and blah blah but at the end of the day we have only 3 "surprises" , Cameroon in Africa, and Croatia and Slovenia. the other 29 teams were predictable to qualify. and I only feel sorry for Cameroon here. they were victim of that stupid format in Africa. if they had both groups at the same dates we would have a different team in the World Cup. even though in general this comparing teams from different groups idea and having the best .3rd/4th placed teams to qualify without playing an extra game was stupid.

maybe Needham missing a FT few seconds earlier temped him to try this way. even though in a do-or-die situation like that poor guy had less than a second to decide to score the easy 2 or go behind the arc and try the 3. but yeah with 8 seconds to go they should try the "other option" but that was a very interesting game, Latvia was the better team but congrats to Montenegro. always nice to watch this kind of game in packed stadium. that's why I like this home and away format. so now Puerto Rico vs Uruguay is the last important game in these qualifiers. let's see if Magnano can pull of a miracle or something like that. Uruguay was really poor against depleted Mexico but who knows maybe they saved something for this do or die game.

I was confident about Serbia. but you did the right thing not caring about the Georgia game. they actually lost to Estonia what a weekend for Estonian basketball.

Yeah and they lost to two already qualified teams. South Korea wasn't even in full force here. they even struggled against Syria earlier this week. I'm happy for the Philippines, they love basketball more than any other sports. I think at some point today they had no hope when Lebanon was leading by +10 over Korea. Jordan really deserved the qualification, they played better than expectations in the last window.

Yep Lebanon is the one who didn't qualify at the end , 5 days ago that looked somehow impossible. meanwhile I'm watching Jordan NZ games and they almost stopped playing when they heard of that news their 10pts lead is just 1 now. early celebration I guess

wow, I just got home checking the results and I can't believe Iran was just an inch away from quota in women's 25m pistol (probably the last event I was expecting) and from what I see, Rostamian had 2pts lead with 3 shots left and she lost it in shoot-off. bronze medal is still a GREAT result for her, this is Iran's first ever podium in this event (and if I'm not wrong in women's pistol events) but still, this is shooting there is no guarantee if she can get this close to the quota in future events.

feel sorry for Cameroon. they most probably won't qualify for the World Cup. that was not fair for them to play months before this group. now CIV knows exactly what they want to qualify and beating Mali by 13 or more won't be a huge problem for them .I watched CIV- Rwanda game tonight and CIV was really terrible despite the huge win. I wonder how the hell they beat Nigeria by such a huge margin. I don't know maybe Nigeria didn't play "that hard" intentionally 22 teams are already qualified and I can say Dominican Republic is also 99.9 % qualified. 9 spots remaining. CIV most probably will grab the last African spot. they have to beat Mali by 13 or more. in America, the direct game between Uruguay and Puerto Rico will determine the last team. the winner will qualify. in Europe. we have 3 direct games between the candidates. Latvia have to beat Montenegro by 9 or more to qualify. now they have their Euroleague players for this game they have a good chance. Finland also have to beat Russia in Russia by 3pts or more to qualify. very hard but not impossible the last important game is between Serbia and Israel. Serbia will qualify if they win but if they lose they have to look for Georgia-Estonia game. both teams are eliminated but if Georgia wins at home (which is likely) we will have a 3 way tiebreak between GEO/ISR/SRB and Israel needs to win by something like 22 or more. the situation is a bit more complicated in Asia, as we have 5 teams trying for the last 4 spots. we will have 5 important games tomorrow. 4 of those teams have their own fate in their hands but Philippines need either one of Japan, Lebanon or Jordan to lose. if Japan beat the weak Qatar team they will qualify themselves and Iran. it means at least on paper Iran and Japan are safer than the other 3 teams.

that was quite a game in Beirut. NZ beat Lebanon by 2pts. now 5 teams in Asia will battle for the last 4 spots. all those 5 games will be at the same time on Sunday. if Japan, Jordan and Lebanon win in the last day, Philippines now need to beat Kazakhstan by something like +85-90 pts to qualify !

Jordan is destroying China. nobody expected that. even if China is missing some key players still nobody expected such a blowout. one of the "unlikely results" for eliminating Iran just happened. and from what I heard New Zealand will send a weaker team (even weaker than their tonight roster) to Jordan. some of their players will go back to Australia for the Australian league playoff. huge chance for Jordan to qualify by another win. if Japan lose to Qatar (which is still highly impossible) we have no other option to beat Australia. thanks to our stupid coach for not knowing the goal difference options if no surprise happens and Japan beat Qatar, the only way Philippines can qualify is beating Kazakhstan by something like +70 !!

Saudi Arabia was in the same group with Palestine during the first round of 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, for the same reason they said no we are not going to those lands and FIFA forced Palestine to play its home match in Jordan. the same happened for Malaysia in the same competition. some countries have such rules as they claim for the "safety" of their citizens. Saudi teams don't even play in Iran for the AFC Champions League, while Iranian teams have no problem going there, AFC forced both matches to be played in neutral venue .

We only had to lose by 6pts or less to Japan at home to make sure about the qualification. that was a terrible game but still we were down exactly by 6 in last 24 seconds. if our players were offering them shaking hands, Japan wouldn't try the last attack. but instead they tried aggressive defense, made a stupid foul and Japan made both FTs. still we had 10 seconds for a layup to qualify. but they missed that Iran will fail to qualify ONLY in one scenario we lose to Australia in the last game - very possible Philippines beating Kazakhstan - very possible Japan losing to Qatar - very unlikely Lebanon winning one of two games against New Zealand or Korea - possible Jordan winning both games against China and New Zealand - very unlikely we have to be very very unlucky to not qualify ! but you never know.

the same way they "sanctioned" Saudi Arabia for not showing ?

oh I think I didn't explain it well. I don't know what's Israel's visa policy about the Iranian citizens but Iranian rules don't allow Iranian citizens to enter those lands, that's written very clearly on my passport too. if I do that I can't go back to Iran without facing jail time (if I'm not wrong that's between 2 to 5 years in jail and you will lose your passport for another 5 years) I assume some other Islamic countries have more or less the same rule. Saudi Arabia and Malaysia refused to play in West Bank during the World Cup Qualifiers while UAE went and played there.

wow VERY disappointing, I hope one day they learn they can't FORCE "youth" to enjoy the Olympics. this is just not for everybody. the Olympics will have its fans unless they ruin it like this. this is a terrible news for Karate athletes. I mean these sports are amateur. Olympic can make a huge huge difference for them. imagine you are a 20 years old Karate athlete probably was planning for the next olympics. this is why I hate adding sports just for one edition.

Usually nobody cares about the 2nd round of the qualifiers in Asia. because teams here are weak never can qualify for the Olympics but this time this competition made the headline here. Iran is with Palestine, Philippines and Chinese Taipei in the same group and AFC/FIFA just announced Palestine as the host for this group. sounds OK so far but the problem is Iranian citizens can't travel to the occupied land of Palestine and now this is a weird situation, our federation claims they already told AFC/FIFA about that before the draw but now they can't participate unless they change the grouping or the host ! and both scenarios look unlikely. not facing Israeli athletes is an unwritten rule but this one is a written official rule and everybody knows that. even though in my own personal opinion the whole thing is stupid. but I want to see how FIFA/AFC will deal with that. will they ban Iran for not going there ? if they do that, that will be double standard because couple years ago Saudi Arabia was in exact same situation during 2018 World Cup Qualifiers and they forced Palestinian team play in Jordan instead of Ramallah in West Bank.

blitz chess is at least a better idea than Breakdancing or surfing or any other crazy sports btw I like your avatar remind me of some good memories. the first sport competition I ever watched

Draw for the 2019 Asian Volleyball Championship, for the first time we will have some form of qualifiers as AVC limited the number of countries to 16. even though we usually never had more than 20 countries in the competition. Iran will host the men's competition (3rd time in last 5 editions) and South Korea will host the women's tournament Men's tournament Group A) Central 2 Group B) Group C) West 2 Central 1 Group D) West 1 * Central Asian qualifiers will be between * West Asian qualifiers will be between Women's tournament Group A) Group B) Group C) Group D)

The medal day just ended for Iran with winning 7 out of 11 matches. not bad. which means 1 gold, 1 silver and 6 bronze in Kumite events. (I just don't count team Kata medals) I missed most of the action just came home for the gold medal matches. Askari winning the gold was impressive. he beat both Aghayev and Busa. which is a very great result. he looks good in Olympic ranking at the moment. winning two medals in the women's side was also interesting. Chalaki had the tournament of her life probably. Alipour also finally won something. if they can qualify for the Olympics (which is impossible through ranking) they will have their chances in Tokyo.

yes that's ذبیح الله . I understand in Arabic they use different letter for ذ or ض and ظ but in Iran, we spell them all the same. same as "ز" so they are all "Z" for us.

I think you should know that's an Arabic name. someone who is ready to be sacrificed for God ! this came from the story of Ibrahim the prophet and his son.

2nd day wasn't that good. but still we have several athletes in medal matches. almost all of them for bronze only in kumite events by my count we will have 9 for bronze and 2 for gold. we have at least one athlete in medal round in every single men's kumite class. but only Askari and Fadakar made it to the final.

not a bad day Iran. actually almost all of our athletes made it to the medal round. but unfortunately only Bahman Askari will be in the final but he beat Aghayev finally ! this time we didn't have a big army. only the national team members and out of 8 kumite athletes only Sara Bahmanyar in women's 50kg failed to reach the medal matches. we will have two girls in 55kg bronze medal matches, Chalaki and Khaksar. Chalaki had to beat Banaszczyk, Thouy and Yamada for that. already a great achievement for her ! in the men's side all of them are in medal matches, Hassannia lost disappointingly to a Kazakh guy in semifinal. at 67, both Derafshipour and Mirzaei will fight for bronze. Derafshipour losing to another Kazakh guy in semifinal was again disappointing. even though we usually had problems with Kazakhs in Asian tournaments but usually don't achieve much in World competitions. at 75, beside our finalist Askari. we will have Asiabari in bronze medal match he lost to Busa this time. Askari-Busa in the final will be interesting. looking at Kata results. I think our chance is not completely zero to qualify for the Olympics. if we remove the Japanese athletes I think Iran will be in top 10 in the world in both genders. there is a slim chance for them to qualify in last chance qualifiers. but in Kumite we were hoped for a full 6 quotas. but obviously we have to count more on our men's team. while we are getting weaker in our other "big sports" . this is important for Karate to make up for that. I hope at least Askari and Ganjzadeh qualify directly via Ranking and then we can try our chance for other weights in the last qualifier.

Mollaei ipponed Khalmurzaev for bronze and then faked an injury so he is probably going to hospital and doesn't have to show up on the podium. that was disgusting but he is the last one to blame. Mollaei was in great shape today and could win the gold. but Muki is a top 4 in this weight, he can't avoid him forever