MHSN

so Uzbekistan choked once again , what a familiar story it will be Qatar vs Iran in the semifinal. I feel more confident against Qatar. but you never know. hopefully we break the semifinal curse after 48 years and after losing 6 semifinals in a row in past 11 editions ! ps: Qatar's GK saved 3 PKs today, it's interesting to know he is Olympic Champion Mutaz Eisa Barsham's brother

wow , that was unexpected it's sometimes possible to get a lucky win but that was a well deserved win, Iran totally dominated the 2nd half and had so many chances. yeah this is football. nothing is impossible. our worst players in previous matches did great today, Mohebbi scored the first goal and Kanaani got the last minute penalty.

another dramatic win for South Korea. this time they tied the match in 90+6 minute I think this is the 4th match in a row they are doing this. it feels like this is their destiny to win the title after soooo many years. Jordan also beat Tajikistan 1-0. they lost intentionally to Bahrain to have this path which worked for them.

well our coach is really dumb his subs are always the same (no matter what's the score and who is the opponent) he used different squads in previous matches only because he was forced to do so (because of injuries and suspensions) I believe Azmoun is not fit for 90 minutes (or even worse, 120 minutes) but still it's hard to ignore his good record with the NT, it's a hard decision to bench him in important matches but still he is not effective as the only striker. I would start with a big and tall striker to tire the Japanese defense. but to answer your question with Taremi I think he would start with the same squad (only changing the CB who was suspended today) but now without Taremi ... I think our only option is to park the bus waiting for penalties or another blunder from Japanese GK. our team is too old, having only 2 days rest will favor Japan too. I really don't give too much chance to Iran. but this is football, everything is possible

well, it could be a much much easier match, Iran missed so many big chances before Syria's goal and also this is Iran's first ever win on penalties at the Asian Cup in important matches (excluding non-important 3rd place matches) after losing 5 times in a row in the penalties in past 10 editions. but playing 120 minutes was terrible when you have to face Japan on Saturday (less than 72 hours from now) and losing Taremi . ... well it seems that's his destiny, 4 years ago he was also suspended against Japan in the SF.

Entry list for the African OQT https://worldtkd.simplycompete.com/eventDetails/11eeaad8-780d-4fb4-81c7-06e46637a485/5 the whole draw will be based on the ranking, so you can already predict the brackets. (of course late changes are always possible because of late injuries or specific reasons like this) men's 58 and 68 have the highest number with 19 and women's 67kg has the lowest with just 6 which means top 2 seeds only need 1 win to qualify.

from what I heard (but I'm not 100% sure if that's correct) that was KSA's first ever defeat on penalties at least that was their first defeat in AFC Asian Cup. and for the fourth time in a row they failed to reach the top 8 !!! that was indeed a crazy match, I think Korea deserved it after all but next time won't be easy for them. AUS has 2 more days rest + Korea played an extra time. and that was really ugly from Mancini, leaving his team and going to the dressing room with still one penalty kick left

hmm , this is very early because I believe those lists are not final, for example in US they will have some kind of trials for the qualifiers. US is obviously the top favorite to complete its freestyle quotas, they will also win few Greco quotas as well. I see some American wrestlers (mostly NCAA wrestlers) representing other countries, making the prediction a bit harder. for example Mexico has Anthony Valencia and Roman Bravo-Young. Cuba has some new guys here but when you talk about Cuba, they are always dangerous. but they are losing in freestyle and most of their new guys are very weak. in men's freestyle (which I'm much more familiar) Canada will be top favorite for 125kg quota, I believe 86kg quota is also possible depends on the draw. same as 57kg. I think 74kg field is wide open, same as 97kg. I don't think 65kg is possible. there are 3 much better wrestlers in the draw. seeding will play a big role here. the Pan-Am Champs will be helf few days before this. we will see how many of these guys will show up in both events.

I wrote something about Japan Olympic team earlier I just have to add that Nonoka Ozaki beat Ami Ishii 5-4 in their playoff match and qualified for Paris 2024.

Aymen Hossein received his 2nd yellow for this, apparently he shows size of something to Jordanian fans Iraqi fans are all over the net cursing the "Iranian" ref but seriously this guy is Australian now . curse Australia

yeah that match is a hot topic here, specially because the ref is Iranian (I mean was Iranian, Faghani now represents Australia) he probably tried to mock the Jordanians, trying the same goal celebration they did but some of his actions might be considered offensive. I wouldn't gave him a second yellow but Faghani is known for these kind of decisions. once he even changed the Iranian league Champion by a similar red card. well that was like 2015 Iran-Iraq match, Iran was leading 1-0 comfortably but the Australian ref sent off a player (I say wrongly) and that changed the match, Iran had to play 90 minutes with one man down and the match ended 3-3 (Iraq won on penalties) what goes around comes around, Iraqis can't complain about this.

the whole start list was announced few days ago (and it was also available earlier in their "Arena" section) https://uww.org/article/european-championships-2024-entry-list that's not surprising at all. he is cutting few kilos, the time gap between the Euro Champs and Euro Qualifier is not that much. Euro Champ is still important, so wrestling one weight up (and most probably winning a medal) was the best solution.

Entry list for the Pan-Am qualifiers I believe the seeding is not accurate because there will be the Pan-Am Championship few days before this event and that will change the ranking.

another missed opportunity for Handball. but that's OK. I'm getting used to it we lost a crucial game in the first round to this not-so-strong South Korean team which put Iran in a tough group. they played good against both JPN and QAT and the match was close until 50-55 minute. I really think even the gold medal wasn't out of reach this year. but again the team chokes in crucial moments. that's happening over and over in past 20 years. the players change, the coach changes but the outcome is always the same

but he is still the same guy who got caught for doping in 2018, right ? per IWF database he was supposed to be banned from 2018 to 2022. so you are saying both 2021 results (in his profile) do NOT belong to him but the other guy. right ?

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

no, as far as I know

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

surely it is. because this was their first ever participation

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)

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.

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.

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.