MHSN

he is going all defense, he has 8 defensive (DF or defensive midfielder) players in his 10-man squad (not counting GK) and yeah Maguire is our only hope to score

just saw the starting 11. we knew Queiroz always loves to surprise everybody with his starting lineup but this one is something else. if I had to guess I would name only 3 or 4 of these 11 guys to start. I don't know, maybe he has a secret plan

the first time I saw Don Vito on TV was 2017 World Champs semifinal against a Korean and he was very very bad in that match. like an amateur, even the Iranian commentators made fun of him (they always do stupid things like this) like who the hell is this guy, does he even know the sport? (he still ended up with a bronze but that specific match was disastrous) but look where is him now. Olympic Gold + World Championship Gold

so ... the next match is Iran vs England. I always wanted to see this match but not in this current situation. our players are under huge huge pressure to do (or not to do) something from both sides, the football itself is secondary right now. personally I only expect them to play football (but I know the majority don't think like me and except much more) few things happened in past few days, I can even say more than half the people I know actually want the team to lose because of that which is very sad because football NT was probably the only thing that would make the whole nation united. our captain today tried to somehow make up for that by even starting his press conference with the "God of rainbows" (which has political meanings nowadays) speaking of football. I just hope they can avoid an early goal. that may lead to an ugly scoreline. but this is football nothing is impossible. and England sucks in this sport after all

They fixed the problem since yesterday and now almost all head kicks register properly I wish they could do that earlier. lots of athletes lost their rightful medals just because Daedo system doesn't work properly in altitude ? (was that the reason ? or the humidity ? or lack of it ?) until 2 days ago we had something like 5-6 video replay challenges per match. but from yesterday till now it's averagely less than 1 per match.

Qatar won the last Asian Cup . they deserve some credit but yes I believe that was a one time thing. they can't and won't beat Iraq, Korea and Japan back to back if they play again. Qatar isn't this bad, they just don't have the experience of playing against non-Asian teams in serious competitions (you can play 1000 friendlies but that won't necessarily prepare you for a serious match)

Peru was already eliminated before that match and FRG/AUT in 1982 was a completely different case. something like DEN/SWE 2-2 in Euro 2004. that's somehow match fixing but that's not losing on purpose for money. and yeah of course I know bad officiating and corrupt referees happen . that's obvious. I was only talking about team A losing on purpose to team B only because of money while both teams still have chance to advance. I believe that's impossible at the World Cup when you know your whole nation are watching you.

I can't even imagine that a team can sell a World Cup match. yeah maybe it happens in one of millions boring club matches in a year (not a fan of watching the same teams playing each other 10 times a year) but World Cup is a different thing, nobody sells a WC match. I don't think Qatar can beat Ecuador but if they do that will be because of their own abilities (and maybe some referee's help ) Ecuador is not going to lose intentionally. beside that It's almost impossible to do match fixing in the biggest stage, where everybody watches every single steps. it's a team sport, it's not tennis when you can lose on purpose and nobody even notices.

I think it landed on the back of the protector . that was a slight touch, I'm surprised the power was good enough to score 2pts (+2) They are using electronic system for a long time, 10 years maybe and the current one is probably the worst as far as I remember.

I think they should award something to anybody who can land such kicks. that was a beauty (feel sorry for the Japanese guy but this is the nature of a full contact combat sport)

that was about the 3rd round. at 0-0 he thought he had a head kick but video replay judge didn't give him the points. he actually lost the match because of that protest. when he was asking his coach to use the card, he lost focus and the Mexican scored his only points of the round (a 2 points body kick) and eventually won the round (and match) 2-2. so yeah Mardani was pretty upset because of that call.

actually no he is Afghan (maybe born and raised in Iran though) he was Afghanistan's flag bearer in Tokyo, he is the only non-Iranian member of RTA team. yeah and there are more Iranians who were just absent in this tournament. Alizadeh, Beigi and few more. to me it's better to compete for another country rather than this stupid nonsense refugee team idea. none of them are real refugees.

spin kick to the head gives 5 pts and yes that's something you can challenge. well almost all of those RTA athletes (all except one Afghan guy) are Iranians so of course I should know btw another day, another tough defeat in the SF and another bronze. I hope one of the remaining guys break the curse and make it to the final.

I didn't see that action but we have only one 4pts technique (spin kick to the body) and that's not something you can challenge with your video replay card maybe you mean something else (head kick maybe ?) but those kind of 4pts kicks are not challeangable. and I assume RTA stands for Refugee Taekwondo Athletes

well looks like we are not allowed to win a gold. even when one of our guys is doing good after a while there is a ref to make sure it doesn't happen. Sinden is such a dirty fighter, he should be disqualified for punching to the face and what the hell is wrong with their system ? half of the head kicks don't register, you really need your video replay card to collect all those points the broken Daedo system fails to register. you are doomed if you lose it early in the match.

yeah she is 100% made in Saudi Arabia I saw her before, she won a bronze at the Asian Champs. I'm not VERY surprised, I knew she will win couple of matches but still beating Spain and winning a medal was a huge huge win. I assume at the moment she is the only competitive Saudi female athlete (in all sports) so it was like 100% success. having 1 shot for medal and taking it.

Saudi Arabia confirmed its first ever medal in women's world championship in Taekwondo and I assume in any other sport huge huge achievement for that girl Dunya

he is indeed a new Beigi. World Champion without losing a single round and I believe our teenager Abbasi was the only one who was close to beat him. or at least had a chance. I don't know if that's because of the new rules or he is just back to his best shape. the last time he competed for Iran, he was very poor. have to give credit to Serbian coaches for bringing him back. switching nationality is not a common thing in this sport, I believe he is the first person winning two two World Champs medals (let alone 2 gold medals) for 2 different countries.

we will see lots of Iranian derbies in this sport. lots of Iranians in the draw and there will be more in the future Khodabakhshi won (and later secured his SF spot) with a little help from the ref. but what was that celebration about at the end ? his opponent was just a 17 years old kid. btw it seems after a while he is back to his best form, and he adopted his tactic to these new rules very well. he still has his dirty defensive tactics which work better now. 6 years ago he lost to Beigi in Rio and now he becomes the new "Beigi".

I wasn't expecting a medal for Barkhordari who was probably the weakest member of the team. therefore I'm glad with the bronze but it could be easily the gold medal around his neck. he was leading 1 round and 7-2 in the 2nd round but then at that very moment (after almost knocking out the Korean) he lost focus and gave up lots of points. at least we are not going to leave Mexico without a medal that was very much possible this time. specially after the draw when and our best mwsL chance for Israel in the first round this is the second "no show" at the World Championships for Hosseini, in 2019 the external enemy (UK government) denied him visa and this time the internal enemy denied him his right to fight for a medal I hope he doesn't give up and keep trying, good things will happen one day.

Queiroz was supposed to announce his final squad in a press conference today but it got cancelled in a very last minute while everybody was there . since Iran is land of rumors, a sudden cancellation created speculations, a rumor is circling everywhere that "they" (I mean the bad guys) tried to force Queiroz to remove one player (Azmoun) from his squad because of political reasons. (another rumor says he was forced to add a certain pro-regime player in his squad ) knowing Queiroz, he will never let anybody interfere his job, he will resign in a situation like this. and I believe it's fake but we will know for sure tomorrow. but it doesn't stop certain media from publishing just rumors as "confirmed news" if any dumb kid here wants to repeat that "ban Iran" thing. now it's the time.

even that doesn't guarantee China's qualification. China will qualify for sure but that's not 100% confirmed yet. it's probably just a mistake btw FIBA officially confirms the 20-0 win for Iran https://www.fiba.basketball/news/fiba-statement-on-australia-participation-to-the-fiba-basketball-world-cup-2023-asian-qualifiers

we had a game vs China today "at home" and surprisingly there were only Chinese fans in the stadium booing our team and cheering for China. why ? because since last month Iranian fans are not allowed into any stadium in any sport. yet they allowed the visitor team to had something like 200-300 supporters in the stadium. how is that even possible?! on other hand Iran has to host Australia on Monday and the Australian team has no intention to come and play the game. they are not coming to Tehran, that's a sure thing. apparently it will be a 20-0 win for Iran but we never know until FIBA officially confirms it. Iran needs at least 1 win in next 3 games to qualify for the World Cup. I won't complain if Australia gifts a most needed win like that.

Yes, he is not 100% yet after his injury but still good enough to be in the final squad.

I believe Iran's squad will be announced on Sunday. nobody really cares though. Queiroz will go with his old guys, no time to test new players. in another time I would be so excited for the World Cup. specially the first match. this is the group I always wanted but there is no excitement left because of obvious reasons. I just hope Queiroz can pull the team together and has a less embarrassing show. if anybody can do it, it's him. and I assume if Iran scores a goal (which is a big if right now) nobody is going to celebrate. this is currently a thing in our sport.