Asian Football

[Azeem]

Saudi Arabia and South Korea in the final of AFC U23s, both also qualified for the Olympics.

Australia and Uzbekistan to play for the third Olympic squad. Hopefully it's Uzbekistan.

[Azeem]

On 22/01/2020 at 20:13, Azeem said:

Australia and Uzbekistan to play for the third Olympic squad. Hopefully it's Uzbekistan.

Australia 1-0 Uzbekistan 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Iran finally hired a head coach to replace Wilmots. It's Dragan Skocic. It's his first national team job - but he's worked in Iran before and was willing to be paid in rials. I think that's 2 of the 3 criteria the IFF were looking for - familiarity with Iranian football, experience managing a national team (which was probably unlikely considering the third criteria), and being willing to be paid in rials (I think many managers with the right experience would have likely wanted to be paid in Euros or Dollars - which is unlikely right now considering the economy of Iran & how hard it is to get any money converted to dollars/Euros).

The Iranians in Iran (so pretty much all family) I know were hoping the manager of the club they support would be the next national team manager. That's Branko Ivankovic - who was, up until recently, Persepolis FC's manager & also the Iran manager from 2002-2006. But he went off to be the manager for Oman.

I don't know anything about Skocic other than what's on his Wikipedia page & what I've been told about him. He's been at 4 Iranian clubs though - Malavan (which is from a province I've got family from... but I don't know any of my family that's not from Tehran/Shiraz so it's not like I can ask "how was he?"), Foolad, Kooneh be Kooneh (a club that doesn't exist anymore), and Sanat Naft. So two clubs from Khuzestan - probably one of the most diverse places in Iran - & two clubs in cities by the Caspian sea.

So there's some fun Iran facts.

And in other news, Sevilla have sold their captain to a club in China. Specifically... to Wuhan.

[Mel81x+]

14 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

And in other news, Sevilla have sold their captain to a club in China. Specifically... to Wuhan.

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 minute ago, Mel81x said:

I wonder if he just misheard his agent and thought it was a move to West Ham...

[Michael]

37 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Iran finally hired a head coach to replace Wilmots. It's Dragan Skocic. It's his first national team job - but he's worked in Iran before and was willing to be paid in rials. I think that's 2 of the 3 criteria the IFF were looking for - familiarity with Iranian football, experience managing a national team (which was probably unlikely considering the third criteria), and being willing to be paid in rials (I think many managers with the right experience would have likely wanted to be paid in Euros or Dollars - which is unlikely right now considering the economy of Iran & how hard it is to get any money converted to dollars/Euros).

The Iranians in Iran (so pretty much all family) I know were hoping the manager of the club they support would be the next national team manager. That's Branko Ivankovic - who was, up until recently, Persepolis FC's manager & also the Iran manager from 2002-2006. But he went off to be the manager for Oman.

I don't know anything about Skocic other than what's on his Wikipedia page & what I've been told about him. He's been at 4 Iranian clubs though - Malavan (which is from a province I've got family from... but I don't know any of my family that's not from Tehran/Shiraz so it's not like I can ask "how was he?"), Foolad, Kooneh be Kooneh (a club that doesn't exist anymore), and Sanat Naft. So two clubs from Khuzestan - probably one of the most diverse places in Iran - & two clubs in cities by the Caspian sea.

So there's some fun Iran facts.

And in other news, Sevilla have sold their captain to a club in China. Specifically... to Wuhan.

WTF!!!!  Has Daniel Carrico just signed his death warrant! What planet has this guy been living on in the past few weeks?

[Dr. Gonzo]

Just now, Michael said:

WTF!!!!  Has Daniel Carrico just signed his death warrant! What planet has this guy been living on in the past few weeks?

It's still only got around a 2% mortality rate. The flu's got a mortality rate of 5-15% in normal times and 25-50% when we've got a "flu pandemic" like swine flu. It's a lot less deadly than SARS was - but it's much more infectious than SARS was.

I think he's banking on: 1.) The Chinese season's been postponed until this calms down a bit; 2.) Most people who have died have either been very old, very young, or with weakened immune systems prior to getting the disease; 3.) 

[Michael]

9 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

It's still only got around a 2% mortality rate. The flu's got a mortality rate of 5-15% in normal times and 25-50% when we've got a "flu pandemic" like swine flu. It's a lot less deadly than SARS was - but it's much more infectious than SARS was.

I think he's banking on: 1.) The Chinese season's been postponed until this calms down a bit; 2.) Most people who have died have either been very old, very young, or with weakened immune systems prior to getting the disease; 3.) 

Yes, even if he's a fit young man and may not die, it's not worth the possibility of getting sick. Anyway, there's still a chance he could die if he caught it, even though he's probably as fit as a fiddle. 

Out of all the clubs he could of signed for, he chooses the epicentre of where the Coronavirus virus is located. The Coronavirus epidemic in Wuhan has now killed twice as many people as the SARS epidemic did back in 2003! That's something to really worry about in my book. I wouldn't personally risk going anywhere near that place right now, but maybe that's just me. 

Edited February 20, 2020 by Michael

[Stan]

37 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I wonder if he just misheard his agent and thought it was a move to West Ham...

Oh I'd definitely choose Wuhan then. 

[nudge+]

8 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

It's still only got around a 2% mortality rate. The flu's got a mortality rate of 5-15% in normal times and 25-50% when we've got a "flu pandemic" like swine flu. It's a lot less deadly than SARS was - but it's much more infectious than SARS was.

I think he's banking on: 1.) The Chinese season's been postponed until this calms down a bit; 2.) Most people who have died have either been very old, very young, or with weakened immune systems prior to getting the disease; 3.) 

Errr.... I think your numbers are completely wrong. Seasonal flu has mortality rate of less than <0.1%. Swine flu pandemic was 0.03%. the infamous Spanish flu had estimated mortality of 2–3%.

[Dr. Gonzo]

3 minutes ago, Michael said:

Yes, even if he's a fit young man and may not die, it's not worth the possibility of getting sick. Anyway, there's still a chance he could die if he caught it, even though he's probably as fit as a fiddle. 

Out of all the clubs he could of signed for, he chooses the epicentre of where the Coronavirus virus is located. The Coronavirus epidemic in Wuhan has now killed twice as many people as the SARS epidemic did back in 2003! That's something to really worry about in my book. I wouldn't personally risk going anywhere near that place right now, but maybe that's just me. 

It's killed more people than SARS, but it's also infected a hell of a lot more people than SARS did. The outbreak also happened at the exact worst time for a viral outbreak in China - right before their New Year where everyone's going to be traveling a lot.

But yeah, I wouldn't risk going to where there's a sickness that's killing people and is all over the news right now. Especially as China passed that law limiting how much foreign footballers get paid.

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 minute ago, nudge said:

Errr.... I think your numbers are completely wrong. Seasonal flu has mortality rate of less than <0.1%. Swine flu pandemic was 0.03%. the infamous Spanish flu had estimated mortality of 2–3%.

Oh lol, I just got that off the top blurb on google. My bad - I trust your numbers on it better than I trust google's. Especially with you doing a good job keeping us all up to date on coronavirus.

I swear, sometimes google's top result for me when I'm on my work network is always insane compared to my top result when I'm using my laptop/phone at home 

There's been a flu going around in the US that's already killed 10k this year (in only the US) that's not really getting anywhere near the same sort of coverage as coronavirus.

[nudge+]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Oh lol, I just got that off the top blurb on google. My bad - I trust your numbers on it better than I trust google's. Especially with you doing a good job keeping us all up to date on coronavirus.

I swear, sometimes google's top result for me when I'm on my work network is always insane compared to my top result when I'm using my laptop/phone at home 

There's been a flu going around in the US that's already killed 10k this year (in only the US) that's not really getting anywhere near the same sort of coverage as coronavirus.

Haha yeah; shit happens with google search sometimes. I find this graph illustrates the mortality and contagiousness pretty well:

 

To be fair I'm not doing regular updates anymore; mostly because China's numbers are a mess due to them constantly changing the description of what constitutes a confirmed case. I still keep track of daily changes outside of China though.

BTW to keep it a bit on topic there have been 5 cases and 2 deaths in Iran in the last two days. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 minute ago, nudge said:

BTW to keep it a bit on topic there have been 5 cases and 2 deaths in Iran in the last two days. 

Yeah in Qom right?

[nudge+]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Yeah in Qom right?

The first two cases (resulting in two deaths) were reported yesterday in Qom; two more cases confirmed in Qom and one in Arak today.

[Azeem]

UAE filed a case against Qatar fielding two ineligible players who didn't spend enough time in Qatar to get naturalized against them in the Asian Cup 2019 semi final. 

Decision might take a week or so 

[Azeem]

 

[Stan]

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Persepolis FC beat Saudi Arabia's Al Nassr on penalties to make the AFC Champions League final. The match went to penalties, it was a pretty hard fought match. Persepolis's star striker Isa Al-Kasir was suspended for 6 months right before kickoff (he made a racist gesture to a player from an Uzbek side) - but they managed to get through on penalties.

I'm not sure about the format of this, but I think it's West Asia vs East Asia - and East Asian matches in the AFC Champions League aren't back until November... so the final will be in December.

I watched a recording of it, but this is the first time in something like 20 years where I've actually been able to watch a Persepolis match. So that's pretty cool.

[Toinho]

On 07/10/2020 at 03:04, Dr. Gonzo said:

Persepolis FC beat Saudi Arabia's Al Nassr on penalties to make the AFC Champions League final. The match went to penalties, it was a pretty hard fought match. Persepolis's star striker Isa Al-Kasir was suspended for 6 months right before kickoff (he made a racist gesture to a player from an Uzbek side) - but they managed to get through on penalties.

I'm not sure about the format of this, but I think it's West Asia vs East Asia - and East Asian matches in the AFC Champions League aren't back until November... so the final will be in December.

I watched a recording of it, but this is the first time in something like 20 years where I've actually been able to watch a Persepolis match. So that's pretty cool.

That’s interesting, thought usually West and East sides could meet in knockout rounds as the two times Australian teams have made the final were against Japanese sides. 
 

Yeah, we qualified for the first time ever - played an away game and COVID hit. Think we have about 10 registered players at the moment. Lol 

[Dr. Gonzo]

33 minutes ago, Toinho said:

That’s interesting, thought usually West and East sides could meet in knockout rounds as the two times Australian teams have made the final were against Japanese sides. 
 

Yeah, we qualified for the first time ever - played an away game and COVID hit. Think we have about 10 registered players at the moment. Lol 

Maybe they changed the format around because of covid? Idk honestly, I don’t get much of a chance to watch Asian football except for some Iran matches sometimes

[nudge+]

Just now, Dr. Gonzo said:

Maybe they changed the format around because of covid? Idk honestly, I don’t get much of a chance to watch Asian football except for some Iran matches sometimes

Yes they did... Normally, the regions start mixing from quarterfinals. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Now that I've managed to find a way to view the matches... I am pretty excited about the upcoming Persian Gulf Pro League season that's starting at the end of the month.

[nudge+]

22 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Now that I've managed to find a way to view the matches... I am pretty excited about the upcoming Persian Gulf Pro League season that's starting at the end of the month.

Any club you follow there? 

[Dr. Gonzo]

4 minutes ago, nudge said:

Any club you follow there? 

Most of my family that likes football in Iran are Persepolis FC fans. I've got a cousin that likes Saipa too, so I guess I like both of those clubs. If I had to pick one, I'd probably pick Persepolis because they play in red  - but it's also the equivalent of gloryhunting because I think they're Iran's biggest club by far.

The clubs I know I'm not supposed to like are: Esteghal (also from Tehran like those other two, but they're also sort of the "regime" club - even pre-revolution... and if you know my politics regarding Iran: fuck the Shah and also fuck the Islamic Republic) & Tractor Sazi (I actually don't know why I'm not supposed to like them, but my cousins in Tehran all hate them).