Asian Football

[Bagg10]

Congrats MI!

[Messinterista]

Cheers Bagg.
Honestly, South Korea played the better match, and I felt we were a tad scrappy at times with our challenges - and the ref let us know with all the cards we received. Nevertheless, we are the first Asian nation to hold the Asian Cup and the ACL

[Bagg10]

Yeah yeah, all thanks to Bejamin Williams

[Messinterista]

Don't know what to say bro, he is a terrible ref.

[Bagg10]

Iran's Sardar Azmoun has the potential to become better than Ali Daei



Nobody has scored more international goals than Iran legend Ali Daei. Indeed, the image of the striker wheeling away in celebration is forever stuck in the memory of a generation of fans in Asia.

Daei, who deserves his global status, found the net an amazing 109 times in 149 games before his international retirement in 2006. It is a record that could last forever, though it could also be broken by a young compatriot.

Sardar Azmoun has some time to go before we can think about records, but the 21-year-old is doing pretty well with 14 goals in his first 17 games for Iran, eight more than Daei had by the same stage. It is not just that Azmoun could be as good as Daei, he could actually be better.

The elder statesman obviously had an eye for goal, impressive levels of consistency over a long career and a fierce desire to score, but Azmoun has plenty more in his locker and started his international career five years younger than his predecessor too.

Iran coach Carlos Queiroz has known that he has top talent for a while, giving the northerner his debut in 2014 and watching him become Team Melli's star striker. The former Real Madrid boss has worked with some of the best goal scorers in the world and has been careful not to give Azmoun too much praise. At times though he struggles to hide his excitement and pride.

"He has all the qualities to succeed at the highest level," Queiroz told ESPNFC back in 2015. "He is improving all the time. He has to keep his feet on the ground, work hard and make the right decisions. If so, he could be a real star of Iranian and Asian football for years to come."

The future seems to be coming faster than even Queiroz expected with Azmoun's form for club and country improving all the time. On Thursday, he scored all three in Iran's 3-1 win over Macedonia in Skopje.

The first was a poacher's goal, popping up at the far post unmarked to score from close range -- though keeping a bobbling ball down was harder than it looked. The second was a run onto a long ball, where he outmuscled a defender and struck the coolest of finishes from the edge of the area.

But the third was even better: a perfectly-timed diagonal run saw him through on goal and, with the whole defence expecting a dribble around the goalkeeper, he him hit a first time shot with the outside of the right foot. Quick of mind and feet: just look at his Dennis Bergkamp-esque turn and shot that won this 2015 Asian Cup clash with Qatar. It is little wonder than Queiroz has labelled him "world-class."

Such touch, control, pace and aerial ability help to make Azmoun the hottest striker in Asia at the moment. He has never played in the Iranian league, leaving the youth team of five-time champions Sepahan in 2012 for Rubin Kazan in Russia. In early 2015, he was loaned to Rostov -- which is where he started to find his feet, his form and the back of the net.

Nine goals this season in just 15 starts was an impressive return and it ended with the winning goal against Ural Yekaterinburg to secure a first appearance in the Champions League (and second place in the league) for Rostov.

Azmoun has already proven himself in Europe, and being away from the spotlight has helped him ease some of the pressure and expectations there would have been at home or in the continent's biggest leagues.

Now though, despite interest from Spartak Moscow, it may be time to head further west. There have been plenty of links with Europe's top clubs, though much of the paper talk has been fuelled by the fact he has been handed the nickname of "the Iranian Messi."

However, aside from playing nothing like the Argentinian, he would also like to play somewhere else too. "I'm a fan of Real Madrid," he said recently, "but I'm in love with English Premiershit and it would be a dream for me to play in England's top division."

There is no doubt that he could handle it. Going to Russia at 18 is far from easy and his maturity on and off the pitch is there for all to see.

England may just be the right place and the fact that Iran are Asia's highest-ranked team (at 39) means that a work permit would be easier to attain even under rules that were tightened last year. Germany is another possibility especially as most of Iran's best seem to have ended up in the Bundesliga at some stage.

Daei went to Bayern Munich from Arminia Bielefeld in a blaze of publicity and found playing time hard to come by, even sitting on the bench in the 1999 Champions League final, before leaving after just one year. He wasn't an unqualified success at Hertha Berlin either and returned to Asia in 2002.

Azmoun can surely surpass Daei's domestic efforts but it would really be special if he could overtake his international record too. It seems strange to be talking about that in regards to a striker barely out of his teens but Rostov's young star may just have what it takes.

http://www.espnfc.com/blog/espn-fc-unit ... n-ali-daei

[Bagg10]

Iran – simply the best team in Asia
Not since the old days of ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ has a team looked as comfortable while sitting on a one-goal cushion as Iran do at the moment. It would have been fitting if that had been chanted by the almost 100,000 fans at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran on Tuesday.

http://www.foxsportsasia.com/football/a ... m-in-asia/

The win by that scoreline over China and Marcello Lippi keeps the team four points clear at the top of Group A with three games to go. A win over Uzbekistan at home on June 12 will be enough.

How can it be that you score six goals in seven games yet you dominate your World Cup group to the extent that you are not only going to be the first in Asia to qualify but likely to do so with two games remaining?

This is Iran on the road to Russia. This is a team that has yet to concede in 630 minutes of Group A football in the final round of qualification (look back to the second round and that extends to 928 minutes). This is a team that has recorded four 1-0 wins.

Yet this is no Asian version of the often-dour Arsenal that ground their way to to English success in the late eighties and early nineties.

It is a team that should have won most of them by more, because if they are guilty of anything, it is missing chances. This is despite having some of the best strikers in Asia. It is just that unlike many others, Iran don’t sweat it when the extra goals don’t come.

This is just one of the reasons why Iran are not just the highest ranked team in Asia according to FIFA and have been for the last four years. Iran are simply the best team in Asia.

It is not Australia, it is not South Korea and it is not Japan. It is Iran.

Another is Carlos Queiroz. The coach has been in charge since 2011. There have been a few resignations along the way and more threats to resign and run-ins with the Iranian Football Federation (IFF) but the couple always get back together.

They need each other. The IFF know that they are on the brink of a first-ever successive World Cup appearance and much of it is down to the coach. Officials may find him hard to deal with sometimes and he has a few enemies inside the body and at the Ministry of Sport.

But when he delivers such professional performances and such consistent results, then they will shake his hand again and again, while checking out flights to Russia.

The former Real Madrid coach complains about his employers too though in a much more public and open fashion. Yet the Mozambique-born manager loves the country, the fans and the team he has fashioned.

Earlier this year he announced he was leaving, accusing the federation of failing to back him after his public row with Branko Ivankovic, coach of one of Tehran’s giant clubs Persepolis.

He was never going to leave with Iran so close even then to a making history and qualifying for a first ever successive World Cup. Queiroz has come so far in Tehran and he is not about to give someone else a chance to lead the team to Russia and glory.

He has worked hard and it goes without saying that Team Melli are well-organised. The players know that the coach almost guarantees Russia and follow his instructions to the letter.

Strikers such as Sardar Azmoun and Reza Ghoochannejhad are the envy of much of Asia. Then there is Alireza Jahan bakhsh and the under-rated Mehdi Taremi.

Taremi is less eye-catching than the others and there were some mutterings about Queiroz selecting the Persepolis striker. Yet the 24-year-old works incredibly hard without the ball and when he has it, has found the net seven times during qualification so far.

He is part of a hard-working and fine-tuned unit with talented players led by a competent coach. That is why Iran are the best team in Asia at the moment. It is not just a team that is going to go to the World Cup but it is the one team in the continent at the moment that has what it takes to perform well in Russia.

This is the difference. If Australia, Korea and Japan qualify, there has been little so far to suggest that any one of these three has what it takes to reach the knockout stage.

Iran can. This is not just about getting there –they are going to be there –but what happens when you arrive. If Iran get to the second round in Russia thanks to a string of 1-0 wins, nobody will be complaining.

Iran are setting the standards and it is for the rest of Asia to catch up with the continent’s best team.