MHSN

I was thinking which AFC teams has a chance to advance, the last world cup was disastrous (unlike 2010) and I hope this time at least one of them makes it to the next round. being in pot 3 we were supposed to get the easier group but nah we got the a tough one , I'm sure we will play good and Spain and Portugal won't have it easy against Iran but after all they will find a way to score I really don't think there is a chance for Iran to advance. Saudis got the easiest group but they suck and I hate them, so no chance kidding aside, they are not just good enough, they don't have a fighting mentality to challenge better teams, Australia's group is no easy but they usually play better against non-AFC teams. they are not the favorite here but they have a chance no realistic chance for South Korea Japan has the best chance to advance among the Asian teams. Group H is very balanced , even though Japan is still the weakest team in that group . bottom line, realistically all 5 AFC teams probably will get eliminated in the 1st round but I think Japan and Australia have some chances if they play at their best.

well, looks like we have to wait another 4 years for passing the group stage Group B (and maybe D) was the only group I wanted to avoid . no luck here. Morocco match is winnable, 50-50 , win, loss , draw, all possible, but it will be hard almost impossible to beat one of those two teams. unless Queiroz knows few secrets about his own NT. parking the bus strategy almost worked against Argentina 4 years ago but I don't think we can do that vs Spain here. they won't underestimate Iranian defense he same way Argentina did.

I'm a bit confused about the format, while they talk about 4 groups of 4, the FIVB official website writes something else The 24 teams will be spread across four pools of six teams playing in around-robin system with the top four teams advancing to a second round of preliminary matches featuring two pools of eight teams playing in four cities. http://italy-bulgaria2018.fivb.com/en/competition/formula but when they said 3 matches per team in 2nd round ,it means you won't play all 4 teams of the other group. probably only 2 of them and maybe 1 team from your own group once again, or maybe I'm completely wrong here ! ------------------------ I'm OK with our group even though Group D is probably the toughest one, (all groups look more or less in the same level to be honest) we should able to handle Cuba and Puerto Rico, we never played Finland before but I think we can beat them, out of the best teams in the world we usually play better vs Poland. and Bulgaria (despite being a very good team) is not unbeatable. but being in the same group with France and Brazil in 2nd round is NO good, these two teams usually beat Iran quite easily btw we had a very good chance to win a world medal back in 2014, we lost it against Germany, I don't think we can repeat those results this time, but who knows. ..

The Start list http://www.iwf.net/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2017/11/StartBook_Anaheim.pdf interesting to have someone from Chile at 85kg tied with Rostami as the highest entry weight !! a bit of research shows that guy is from Cuba and didn't compete since 2013 ! Chile just its first ever wrestling medal at the worlds by a Cuba this year . looks like they are investing on Cuban athletes based on entries all 8 Iranians have a chance for medal. I think 4 medals are guaranteed (if they don't bomb out) Rostami, Moradi, Salimi and Alihosseini . I hope for more.

Not a surprise at all, they are better than India for sure actually India (alongside Hong Kong) is the weakest team in the qualifier. Syria is good. but no way they can qualify, Jordan just ate them alive the previous game. they will be grouped with Jordan, Lebanon, China, South Korea and New Zealand in the next round, they have to finish in top 4 to qualify, not a chance.

well Korea beat them twice in FIBA Asia Cup few months ago, so not a big surprise, even though I was expecting NZ to win this one. I like this qualification format, thsi is good to have NT games throughout the year and not just the summer. even though it will take time for everybody to adjust to this format. our first games is against Iraq tomorrow and I think that's a dangerous game since Iran is missing some key players. we don't have a proper center for this game. I won't be surprised if Iraq wins this one . we will have Australia, Philippines and probably Japan (or Taiwan) in next round so every single win in round 1 matters.

Rostami received his visa last night, only 2 more left out of 8 weightlifters, (Sohrab Moradi and Ali Miri) and they are expected to get it in time . actually that was wrong by foreign media to talk only about Rostami, the whole Iranian team was in danger . they just called Rostami and Ayoub Mosavi to Dubai (no US embassy in Iran) for the 2nd time for more information or something like that.

Finally half of the Iranians (including 5 weightlifters) received their VISA , just yesterday they said they are not hopeful to get visa in time cuz they heard nothign from the Americans. still both Olympic champions Rostami and Moradi are without visa but apparently they are expected to get it in few days. they had this fear of losing the world championship in past few weeks, I hope it didn't affect their training program. without China and Russia in the competition, Iran is clearly the best men's team in the competition. 6-7 of them will be favorite for medal. actually Rostami and Moradi (if participate) are sure golds unless they bomb out.

After years finally i see a bit (just a bit tough) of improvement in our Epee team. after a top 32 finish by Rezaei yesterday, Iran being seed 23 finished 12 in team competition losing 45-44 in last two matches. and most importantly they beat two Asian rivals China and Japan after so many years ! this is good less than a year before the Asian Games next year. looks like getting some better results in Sabre motivated them to work on other weapons as well.

Iran Colombia 12 Romania 11 Poland 10 Spain 9 Tunisia 8 Serbia 7 India 6 Slovenia 5 Argentina 4 Malta 3 Ireland 2 United States 1

Iran Romania 11 Poland 10 Spain 9 Tunisia 8 Serbia 7 India 6 Slovenia 5 Argentina 4 Malta 3 Ireland 2 United States 1

Iran Poland 10 Spain 9 Tunisia 8 Serbia 7 India 6 Slovenia 5 Argentina 4 Malta 3 Ireland 2 United States 1

Am I supposed to post my vote right now ? the last pages I checked don't look like a music contest

Can someone tell me when (date and time) exactly I have to post my vote here ? weekends here are a bit different than the rest of the world and I want to know If I'm available at that time or not.

no much time left till the competition and still no visa for the Iranian team, not just Rostami but the whole team ! They got no answer from the US officials.

They expended it from 16 to 24 ! we will see India, Turkmenistan, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan, Yemen, Philippines, all of them in the competition this time

the first part is true but this is not the first time AFC teams winning a playoff, Iran qualified against the same Australia (was an OFC member at the time) back in 1998 in the most memorable match of Iranian football history

This "a maximum of four athletes per gender and only one per medal event." terrible news for us, we don't have 100 medal chances at the Olympics, this means losing two chances already. limiting the number to 1 per nation in each weight is another bad news. we are not good in four lighter weight classes. and if they drop one of the heaviest weights to make it 7 (per IOC rule) that means only 3 medal chances left for Iran !

I'm fine (actually I was fine before tonight match) I still visit the forum regularly, but don't have time (and sometimes the desire) to write more. A bit busy these days.

I feel terrible right now but I knew this will happen after watching Italy-Macedonia. but Football is such an unfair sport, one lucky goal and nothing more, Italy created some dangerous chances near the end of the 1st half but if you can't score in 180 minutes you only have to blame yourself. Ventura is the worst Italian coach I ever seen, history will never forget his name World Cup without my favorite Italy, I still can't believe this

This is interesting , back in 2014 we had only Algeria from North Africa at the World Cup and they were very good , this time Algeria failed to qualify but Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia made it instead ! for our team Iran, if we have to play African teams I strongly prefer North African countries, not because they are not good enough, they played great here (especially Egypt) but mostly because we have better chance against their style. but we won't get Egypt or Tunisia, they will be in the same pot as Iran, there is 25% chance to get Morocco

It seems IOC wants IWF to drop 94kg from the Olympic program just because there were so many dopers in this weight in London 2012 ! really ?! they want to punish a weight class instead of the dopers ?!

2018 Asian Championships Draw Group A Japan Iran Iraq Group B Bahrain Oman Australia Uzbekistan Group C South Korea United Arab Emirates India Bangladesh Group D Qatar Saudi Arabia China New Zealand

I see , didn't notice the difference, people here mostly consider Shemshak, Tochal, E. Hashem and Dizin as parts of Tehran ! yes they are all ski resorts near Tehran, Tehran is next to mountains, so many ski resorts here.

Well I'm almost sure this is not the first FIS race in Tehran, they held so many competitions in ski resorts of Tehran.