FIFA World Cup 2026

[Fatman17]

Group stage complete

 

[Fatman17]

 

[Fatman17]

 

[SolarWarden]

View attachment 203538
Knockout stage is set

If Bosnia had a choice which top seed to play they'd be happy with US and likely South Africa.

 

[Master Chief]

To make the curse complete, Algeria vs Austria will end in a 5-5 draw.

You applied this curse almost perfectly.

 

[Master Chief]

Just checking up on Iranian friends after that match.

I've never seen anything like that!

A friend's thoughts on the match itself, which I will share here:

80-93min: Algeria playing by the script and passing it around back

93min: Mahrez: rips up script, revenge for Gijon!!!

95min: Algeria realise they have booked a date with Spain

96 min: Algeria defence goes AWOL, Austria in through the back door

Final whistle.

 

[Master Chief]

Iran can only blame themselves. The conspiracy theories are hilarious

They're not ridiculous at all. Two observations:

It cannot be denied that at various points in that match, a draw was favoured by both teams. Certain calculations regarding whom a team's opposition might be based on final standings did adjust that plan in real time. Some call it "fixing", others "gamesmanship".

Secondly, the match went over the allotted time. Austria equalised in this extra time.

Not saying anything can or even should be done about it, but I would be a bit annoyed if I was Iranian.

 

[Fatman17]

They're not ridiculous at all. Two observations:

It cannot be denied that at various points in that match, a draw was favoured by both teams. Certain calculations regarding whom a team's opposition might be based on final standings did adjust that plan in real time. Some call it "fixing", others "gamesmanship".

Secondly, the match went over the allotted time. Austria equalised in this extra time.

Not saying anything can or even should be done about it, but I would be a bit annoyed if I was Iranian.

Fergie time bro

 

[Musings]

Just checking up on Iranian friends after that match.

I've never seen anything like that!

A friend's thoughts on the match itself, which I will share here:

80-93min: Algeria playing by the script and passing it around back

93min: Mahrez: rips up script, revenge for Gijon!!!

95min: Algeria realise they have booked a date with Spain

96 min: Algeria defence goes AWOL, Austria in through the back door

Final whistle.

The algerians must have passed the ball 200 times before scoring. It was hard to watch the keeping of possession - then BANG the goal came

 

[ShapurII]

Not saying anything can or even should be done about it, but I would be a bit annoyed if I was Iranian.

As people said, Iran has nobody but themselves to blame.

We must've easily defeated New Zealand. Our team knew about the conditions of this world cup and the unfair treatment we were going to go through from the beginning.
They should've prepared better for the New Zealand match and not allowed the environment to get under their skin or affect their first performance. If we had won that match, one point against Belgium or Egypt would've been enough.

Also, our team played cowardly. We could've defeated both Belgium and Egypt when they played with 10 players against us. Again, Egypt was great in offense but had multiple problems in defense, and our coach chose to let them control the match instead of pressing them to win the match.

Unfortunately, this disastrous result for Iran will change nothing. Ghalenoyi will remain Iran's coach, even though he doesn't deserve it. More of the same will happen in the future with this poor coaching.

 

[Master Chief]

As people said, Iran has nobody but themselves to blame.

We must've easily defeated New Zealand. Our team knew about the conditions of this world cup and the unfair treatment we were going to go through from the beginning.
They should've prepared better for the New Zealand match and not allowed the environment to get under their skin or affect their first performance. If we had won that match, one point against Belgium or Egypt would've been enough.

Also, our team played cowardly. We could've defeated both Belgium and Egypt when they played with 10 players against us. Again, Egypt was great in offense but had multiple problems in defense, and our coach chose to let them control the match instead of pressing them to win the match.

Unfortunately, this disastrous result for Iran will change nothing. Ghalenoyi will remain Iran's coach, even though he doesn't deserve it. More of the same will happen in the future with this poor coaching.

I think you've been proved correct.

Can Iranians play freely in European teams these days? We remember the great man Ali Daei in Germany, and there was Jahanbaksh at Brighton recently. I think simple exposure to as many European leagues as possible is the way to go.

 

[ShapurII]

I think you've been proved correct.

Can Iranians play freely in European teams these days? We remember the great man Ali Daei in Germany, and there was Jahanbaksh at Brighton recently. I think simple exposure to as many European leagues as possible is the way to go.

Of our current squad, a lot of players have played in Europe during their careers, but that was a different period when Carlos Queiroz facilitated the transfer of our players, which helped us have this generation of footballers.

Taremi: FC Porto, Inter Milan
Azmoun: Rostov, Rubin Kazan, Zenit Saint Petersburg, Bayer Leverkusen, AS Roma
Mohebbi: Santa Clara, Rostov
Ezatollahi: Atletico Madrid
Jahanbakhsh: Brighton, Feyenoord, Heerenveen
Ghoddos: Brentford
Dennis Eckert: Standard Liege
Gholipour: Poznan

And there are more players in our squad that have played in Europe and I can't remember now.

Getting into European teams is highly dependent on having the right links and good agents. Queiroz was a turning point for our football in that regard. When he became the coach, at some point we had a lot of players playing in top-tier leagues in Spain, England, Portugal, Italy, etc.

 

[Persian Gulf]

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[Dalit]

Hats off to the Turks. Never give up.

Too little too late.

 

[Musings]

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Can hold their heads up - leave the competition without losing a game and put up with all the polava of delayed visas and treated like crap.