Anyone else watching this?
China scraped by against Kyrgyzstan 2-1 today, and South Korea were outplayed but ultimately beat the Philippines 1-0.
Iran is running roughshod against a poor Yemen side, 4-0 right now in the 63rd minute. Biggest factor for Iran in this tournament will be health, as Charleroi's Ali Gholizadeh was not fit enough to be named to the 24 man squad, and Brighton's Alireza Jahanbakhsh has also been struggling for fitness. That, and facing Son Heung-Min at some point in the knockout stages.
Similar to South Korea, Iran is dangling the incentive of waived military service for the squad given they cannot be paid for many tournaments (including Russia '18) due to sanctions. However, everyone is already either exempt, or has paid the bribe for their waiver (~$2.5k before the latest sanction-driven inflation), other than Swedish-born Saman Ghoddos.
edit: 5-0 Iran, goal by Saman Ghoddos on the volley - it'd be nice for him to get some confidence going, Azmoun's also scored today
China scraped by against Kyrgyzstan 2-1 today, and South Korea were outplayed but ultimately beat the Philippines 1-0.
Iran is running roughshod against a poor Yemen side, 4-0 right now in the 63rd minute. Biggest factor for Iran in this tournament will be health, as Charleroi's Ali Gholizadeh was not fit enough to be named to the 24 man squad, and Brighton's Alireza Jahanbakhsh has also been struggling for fitness. That, and facing Son Heung-Min at some point in the knockout stages.
Similar to South Korea, Iran is dangling the incentive of waived military service for the squad given they cannot be paid for many tournaments (including Russia '18) due to sanctions. However, everyone is already either exempt, or has paid the bribe for their waiver (~$2.5k before the latest sanction-driven inflation), other than Swedish-born Saman Ghoddos.
edit: 5-0 Iran, goal by Saman Ghoddos on the volley - it'd be nice for him to get some confidence going, Azmoun's also scored today
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