MHSN

Now Korea, Australia, UAE are in bottom half of the bracket. and there is a good chance we have Japan and KSA in bottom half which means this Iraq match is important to keep us in top half (at least on paper the easier bracket) but then Queiroz surprised us by a very strange starting lineup. Kanaani and M. Hosseini never played together as center back. Cheshmi, Mohammadi and Jahanbakhsh are playing their first minutes in the competition ! Queiroz put all players with a yellow card on the bench. I just hope for no disaster, even a draw will be enough for Iran.

I just heard that they are going to use VAR from the quarterfinals and not Round of 16 I can't understand why not from the first round if they have the technology. but at least why not goal line technology ?! which is easier and faster. Asian referees are usually very bad. but sometimes even corrupt. apparently AFC sent the Malaysian referee of Japan-Oman match home (even though they didn't announce it officially) I'm almost sure this guy is corrupt. last year had some unbelievable mistakes in one of AFC CL matches (you can google Esteghlal - Al Ain). I can't believe they didn't suspend him back then. not saying he is biased for any team. but probably part of a gambling group or something. watch this video, the 2nd half of the video, hard to believe they were just "mistakes" both so-called penalties happened right in front of his eyes. he just wanted Al Ain to score a 2nd goal no matter what ! and AFC used this guy for its most important tournament. ,

what a drama in Syria-Australia match. terrible officiating. so many dubious calls and at least two big mistakes. Syria deserved a penalty on a clear handball which the Mexican ref (the only non AFC ref here) didn't see but few minutes later he called a non-existent penalty for Syria probably to make up for that. Australia's 2nd goal was very dubious. how the hell we don't have goal line technology here ! Syria could easily draw the match but they went for a win and let Australia scored the last minute winner. maybe they regret it later if Palestine advances with 2pts as one of the best 3rd teams. Palestine can make history if qualifies they can qualify to the next round without scoring a single goal. they just need 2 draws in next 4 groups. we have 8 teams with zero points playing each other.

I feel sorry for India . they probably deserved it more than Thailand , they lost both of their matches for lack of experience. that was a very stupid penalty to give in 90th minute !

let me surprise you I watched Italy so many times. mostly because I watch Rai Sport sometimes, I like Italian teams and Handball is one of my favorite sports. beside that Italy had a couple of friendlies vs Iran few years ago. I meant European teams in major tournaments Worlds/Europe . of course I know there are "weaker" teams in Europe.

I don't know if it was just one bad match, but Serbia was the worst European team I ever seen in term of team-work. they only scored goals by individual talents. their passing was beyond terrible. they had so many stupid cheap turnovers. btw it's always good to see non-European teams winning in handball.

now they are making regulations for giving "Wild Card" how genius they are

Poor Oman the referee is totally destroying them bs penalty given to Japan and an actual penalty not given to Oman. that was a clear penalty and how the hell that referee near the goal is doing ?! Oman is a good team. I prefer not facing them in Round of 16.

That's a very important match for both teams. because the 2nd place team in this group will (probably) get Japan in round of 16 and I assume nobody wants that. of course Japan plays Uzbekistan "before" this so both teams will know that before the match, North Korea is surely the weakest team of the competition. I don't know what happened to them. they qualified to the World Cup not long ago and now they are the weakest team in 24-team AFC Asian Cup. I just hope nothing bad happens to them (coach and players) when they go back to their country. PS: Qatar had 6 shots on target and 6 goals I could do better than PRK goalkeeper.

2-0 win vs Vietnam. the first half was very good Iran completely dominated the game and should score more than just one and Vietnam just parked the bus but poor 2nd half by Iran Quieroz looked frustrated with the team. Vietnam had a big chance to tie the game before Azmoun's 2nd goal. good to see Azmoun in good shape. hope he continues to score against bigger teams.

This crazy idea about merging freestyle and GR comes from lack of knowledge about the sport. yeah they "look" similar if you just watch one match in 4 years. but in past 50 years only one wrestler managed to win medal in both styles in major competitions and that wasn't at the Olympics. and that was a special case in super heavyweight. yeah there are some wrestlers switch their styles early in their career when they are teenager but it's not like you easily can switch style whenever you want. how many swimmers win medal in different styles ? freestyle and butterfly for example ? they look very similar to me. since we are all free to have crazy idea. let's drop the boring/predictable Swimming. we will have lots of spots to add multiple new sports.

South Korea missed some 110% chances today. I mean some empty goal chances ! and they have to beat China to win the group. and they have no reason to kill themselves for that. no much difference for them if they finish 1st or 2nd . (even though road is a bit easier for 1st place team) if Korea finishes 2nd in group. I really can't see any reason for Iran to push 100% against Iraq. because there won't be much difference in this case. and I really don't want another quarterfinal vs Korea. we played South Korea in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007 and 2011 all of them in quarterfinal !! 5 times in last 6 editions we had Iran-Korea in quarterfinal. even though we have a very good record under Queiroz against Korea. still I prefer them on other side of the draw

even if Palestine loses heavily to Australia. still 4pts is good enough to qualify. they only have to beat Jordan which is now very possible assuming Jordan won't take that match seriously. Syria is disappointing so far. they have two great strikers in Somah and Khribin but can't create chances for them. the only way they can qualify is to beat Australia. that's not impossible but they have to bring their very best to do that. in this case Australia can finish 4th in the group. I think it's very possible to have two teams with 6pts after 2nd round in other remaining groups, C, D, E and F. I mean Korea, China, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, KSA, Japan and Uzbekistan they are all favorite to win their next match. if happens 3rd placed team in these groups will have 1 or 3 pts depending on the last group match. I was checking the bracket, one thing for sure that Group D runner up will have the toughest possible road to the final. we really have to win the group to avoid that. such road is possible if we finish 2nd behind Iraq Round of 16: KSA Quarterfinal: Korea Semifinal: Australia Final: Japan

there are lots of funny/stupid stories about Iranian football. on a weekly basis of course the government never officially accepted that. nor denied it. but that was all over the news here for a while. and so many criticized the government for meddling in such a small matter. it didn't help much though. that was too late, it just saved the club for paying Rizespor because they withdrew their case. FIFA still banned Persepolis

nope you are not, that's a terrible terrible idea. for those IOC officials that's just one decision but for the athletes (specially in amateur sports) this is a life changing decision. there should be long term plan and we should knew 2024 Olympics sports few years ago. because sometimes people have long term plans to prepare for the Olympics.

just for info, as far as I know the international wushu federation only thinking about adding "Taolu" events for the Olympics. not similar to any of those sports. no chance for Sanda events. I can't see similar between Wushu (Sanda) and Karate at all. but yeah Sanda is a mixture of kickboxing and throwing techniques but yeah that's true Wushu only exists in Asia. and Taolu in particular only in East Asia.

it started when some winners could not attend the ceremony because they were playing in Europe. they made a rule that all nominated players should attend the ceremony and since then the whole award is a joke. later they created a special award for Asian players outside of Asia but that's not something important at all. but even inside Asia, there are 1000 players better than this Qatari bench player guy ! he is not even a starter in Qatar NT they have a super stupid system to award points for few selected competitions (mostly AFC Champions League) and this guy probably had more points than the rest. back in 2011 Hadi Aghili made the top 3 and finished 2nd which was a big joke because at the time he was the weakest link in Iran NT defense but since as a defender he scored few goals in AFC CL he had lots of points and lost the award only narrowly to Server Djeparov. I think 2004 was the last time we had a "true" winner which was Ali Karimi. since then the whole system is a joke. and they have no intention to change it. any player from AFC CL clubs can win the award next year. I said that before AFC is the worst organization ever.

AFC Best player of the year is a bench player in Qatar NT

interesting since he never played outside of Asia. it seems you know more than what I was expecting about Asian football well he left his club Persepolis to join a Turkish club Rizespor but before even start of the season he got home sick (or whatever else) and came back to Persepolis. (it was also in middle of Turkey coup against Erdogan, so he was probably afraid of his safety there) of course the Turkish club sued him and FIFA badly punished both him and Persepolis. and since PP is the most popular club here, Rouhani called Erdogan for help and he asked Rizespor to withdraw the case and they did. even that softened things but still FIFA punished Taremi and the club for falsifying evidence and lying to FIFA . Taremi's 4 month ban ended before the World Cup so he could play in Russia. but his club paid the prize for longer. first the news about Taremi's suspension came out one night before 2017 AFC CL semifinal match vs Al-Hilal, they lost that match 4-0 and then FIFA banned them for signing new players for 2 transfer windows and Persepolis had to play 2018 AFC CL final with only 11-12 players available. you can imagine how much Persepolis fans blame him for not winning both 2017 and 2018 continental titles. even though that was mostly club's fault, not him. they told him to lie but he is the one taking the fall. there is a notorious interview with him right after his suspension (the night before 2017 semifinal) where he says "things happen for a reason, surely that's for a greater good" (that was the best translation I could) and he is still known as Mr "Greater good"

Interesting match between Iraq and Vietnam. some stupid defensive mistakes plus a very nice free kick at the end to win the match for Iraq. Vietnam isn't a bad team. but they were weak on air. I expect Iran to take advantage of this as we have tall strikers. I think 3rd place team in this group most probably won't have more than 3 pts. probably not one of the best 3rd placers to qualify for the knockout round.

You put Taremi in your fantasy team ? that's surprising because I assume he is unknown for non-Iranian fans. to me he is very talented but also a bit stupid. (more than just a bit actually ) personally I was expecting him to be our "star" in this tournament but you never can be sure about him, he is like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. btw he is a trouble maker, Iranian president Rouhani had to call Recep Tayyip Erdogan to solve a problem Taremi caused and I'm not joking.

We probably deserved more than just 1 yellow card in first half. so many reckless tackles . which is stupid when you are 3-0 up. really glad for Taremi scoring twice, I was somehow expecting him to be our star in this tournament. and he really needed these goals to gain confidence. he was under huge huge pressure after missing that 96th minute chance vs Portugal and that header vs Spain. I just hope Azmoun can score today as well. he also needs this badly. feel sorry for Yemen. they played good for 10-15 minutes. they just collapsed after the first goal.

Kyrgyzstan dominated China in first half. they were in control before that "accident" . that was extremely stupid. never saw such stupid own goal before (i'm sure it happened before, just I can't remember)

lol no but they are saved by the stupidest own goal ever

huge win for Jordan . even though as thepharoah said Australia deserved a 100% penalty in the first half. but Jordan played great with passion and played their heart to win this match. Australia with something like 75% ball possession couldn't create much chances. now it's very hard for Australia to win the group. PS: I never saw Jordan with another GK. this Amer Shafi guy is Jordan's GK since forever.