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You are here: Home / Sports / Iran v Nigeria Open Thread

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  1. 1.

    piratedan

    I’m pulling for the Nigerians, once I deposit this check from this exiled Nigerian prince, I should be absolutely rolling in the moolah……

  3. 3.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    I’m happy whichever team wins this game. Two countries where I despise the governing elites but really like the people I’ve known from there.

  6. 6.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    Nigeria will take this, and they’ll do so with ease. Nigeria 2(or 3)-0 Iran.

  7. 7.

    ⚽️ Martin

    Good lord, this is looking like an AYSO game – everyone run at the ball and kick it a lot.

  10. 10.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Steeplejack:

    Sure. And Switzerland is #6.

    Teams from sub-Saharan Africa have been woefully underrated in the past few years. The best players from that region are often not released by their club teams to play games in Africa, under the theory that something bad will happen to those players. The national teams then have uneven records, drawing or losing games they’d have won if their most talented players were in the lineups. Ghana is really a top 20 team, maybe top 15. Nigeria is really a top 30 team.

    Asia, otoh…You’ve got South Korea, Japan and Australia, who are all shoo-ins, then all of these other countries that don’t have many- if any- players in the top flight leagues. Iran won the fourth spot (and their ranking) by beating a lot of bad national teams, which got them to Brazil. Jordan- fifth place- lost to Uruguay in the play-in.

  11. 11.

    raven

    I’ve liked Nigeria since they won the Gold here in Athens in thew 96 Olympics. They had a decent crown and somehow they had African ushers. I sat right next to their group and they were not allowed to stand up. One of the ushers told me on the sly “you can’t let these people get out of control”.

  14. 14.

    scav

    The live crowds of Green Eagles fans I’ve sat through World Cups etc. with in basements surrounded by beer, pepper soup, fufu and dodo with have been fun.

    (ETA: yes, you can generally date the times by the Green, not Super Eagles)

  18. 18.

    Belafon

    @Alex S.: No time to read the article, but I’m assuming it says something about not being able to award a world championship every year to an American team, like every other sport.

  19. 19.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    Looks as if Iran has been happy to park the bus. Nigeria is leading possession 69%-31%, but can’t gt through.

  20. 20.

    Amir Khalid

    @Alex S.:
    Is there a sport you can’t describe in a way that makes it seem utterly ridiculous? Of course there’s no such sport. The suggestion that smarts, rationality and sophistication are what keeps Americans from appreciating football — a sport with smart, rational, and sophisticated fans all over the world — is risible. Politico might think that looking down America’s nose at the rest of the planet is clever, but I’ve seen the same old tired shtick in American newspapers, magazines and Internet sites every World Cup year for, like, three decades now. Harrumph.

  21. 21.

    Paula

    @Steeplejack:

    SPI

    The SPI is updated daily now.

    I guess people now want to argue about how the Group of Death is counted but it used to be the lowest average rank of the teams included in the group. Per SPI the lowest avg rank among the groups are

    Netherlands/Spain/Chile/Australia: 11.25
    Italy/England/Uruguay/Costa Rica: 15
    Germany/Portugal/Ghana/USA: 15.25

    Spain’s and Uruguay’s numbers dropped pretty heavily after their upsets. Group G now looking pretty well contested for the 2nd spot given POR injuries and suspension, BUT recent WC history favors Ghana to come up big on defense and countering, and unlike Portugal not relying on one dude.

    Who knows which USMNT team are showing up, really? Our defensive problems haven’t been solved but at least Bornstein and Clark and a handful of injured players are not on the roster. /handwringing

  27. 27.

    Steeplejack

    @Paula:

    Thank you! I am a simple man with simple needs, and all I wanted was a list I could give a quick look-see to get an idea of the match-up. This will do nicely.

    I follow the English Premier League fairly closely, the national teams not so much, especially outside the top 10 or so.

  28. 28.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Amir Khalid:

    Hoo boy, I dunno. There are situations- such as Martin points out at #25- where I think it’s respectable to play for a point. But in this situation, where Iran isn’t getting out of their group without a win in the group, it’s pretty shitty.

  32. 32.

    Steeplejack

    @raven:

    Cool. “Daddy, we won!” Ouch, but hard to stay mad at that. Other relatives, neighbors, friends and dickhead coworkers, no jury would convict on a manslaughter charge.

  34. 34.

    beltane

    @Amir Khalid: Yeah, my mother just sent me a link to a NYT piece that says the USA is at a disadvantage in soccer because Americans do not fake injuries like the pansies that inhabit the rest of the planet. I mean, if ever other country stopped with the drama queen act, the USA would totally win every World Cup. I guess this means that there are no divas in American professional sports.

  35. 35.

    raven

    @Steeplejack: I went to “Steel Magnolia’s” and no one said a word. Of course there was no change in the game from when I left. If it had been some fabulous finish someone would have blurted it out!

    My real problem these days is blending the use of the DVR and the damn computer. I tape a lot of games when I hit the hay at 10pm and if I hit Facebook or here before I watch I am in danger.

  37. 37.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Steeplejack:

    The ranking system would work well if only UEFA and CONEMBOL teams were involved. The problems come in when you include teams like Maldives and (sorry, Amir) Malaysia, who don’t play many highly ranked, competitive teams outside of their associations’ WC qualifiers (and not many in those qualifiers).

    And even then, UEFA has the likes of Andorra and the Faeroe Islands, while CONCACAF has its Belizes and St. Kitts…

  40. 40.

    Patricia Kayden

    @raven: Ha! Wonder what that usher meant by that. When I think of rowdy football fans, I think of England.

    Go Nigeria!!

  41. 41.

    Steeplejack

    @raven:

    Yeah, and so many sites have “sidebar” snippets that can sneak up on you. I think I even ran into a spoiler once on my Weather.com page!

  43. 43.

    raven

    @Patricia Kayden: I dunno, lot of the dudes had the scarred faces, looked pretty rough. They let the Argentine’s jump all over so it was surely targeting. Maybe they were just Africans other than Nigerians.

    They also really killed business here in Athens when they beat Brazil in the semi’s. I heard that there were 20,000 Brazilians in Miami that would have come for the final if they were in it. Actually the “business” for soccer was way oversold to the greedy locals who thought they were going to make a killing. People drove in for the games and left when they were over.

  46. 46.

    MikeJ

    @Fester Addams:

    London bookmakers.

    Bookmakers will tell you who the average bettor thinks will win. The odds are balanced against the action and the house wins no matter what. Often the crowd is right about who the favoured team are, but sentimentality, grudges, etc all play a role in setting the price and has nothing to do with who will win.

  47. 47.

    scav

    @beltane: I took it as he’s really bored — that and there may have been some really hair-brained (see Politico flavored.) email arriving before the next game. The “Fifa” end just didn’t wag the dog as well.

  48. 48.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @beltane:

    I don’t think we’re alone in that, though. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t recall any of the teams from the British Isles taking many dives, or reacting theatrically to draw cards. Maybe we inherited that from them, along with the political theories.

  49. 49.

    raven

    1996, Athens GA

    World champions Brazil were favourites for Olympic gold in the Atlanta 1996 men’s football competition – with their squad including star names such as Bebeto and Ronaldo.

    The Samba stars lined up to face Nigeria in the semi-finals, a team they had beaten 1-0 in the group stage, and what resulted was one of the greatest matches in Olympic history.

    Brazil led 3-1, but with 12 minutes left Victor Ikpeba drilled home from 20 yards, before Nigeria skipper Nwankwo Kanu scrambled the ball into the net in the last minute to send the game to extra-time.

    Kanu then scored his second just three minutes into extra-time and Nigeria held on to complete a wonderful comeback as Brazil were beaten 4-3.

    Nigeria came from behind once again in the final as Argentina led 2-1 thanks to goals from Claudio Lopez and Hernan Crespo. The ‘Super Eagles’ drew level before Emmanuel Amunike beat the offside trap to score from point-blank range and seal a 3-2 win to become the first African nation to win a football gold medal at the Games.

  51. 51.

    piratedan

    Well until the US ties or beats Ghana, then maybe I’ll believe. Are the Portuguese potentially ripe for the picking? Perhaps, but the US squad sure aren’t the Germans. After their draw, would be happy if the US team simply doesn’t look completely outclassed.

  52. 52.

    Amir Khalid

    From Auntie Beeb’s liveblog:

    BBC Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker on Twitter: “Iran had more clean sheets than any nation in qualifying. Nigeria were the lowest scoring. Who would’ve thought?”

  53. 53.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    Getting ready for work. I should have taken the day off…But I didn’t. My nephew is going to call me with updates on the US-Ghana game, but I need someone to stand in for me here (I’m thinking that’s you, raven) to say the following:

    Don’t score too early!

    Don’t hit the ball too well!

  54. 54.

    scav

    @raven: “Tribal” scars? Handy variant of tattoos, easily misread. Even some of the older-gen (eg drawn more from elite-class) PHDs I knew had them.

  55. 55.

    Steeplejack

    Jahan Bakhsh on for Iran! Now shit will get real!

    Just kidding. This game is a snoozer. Checking to see if one of my favorite SpongeBob SquarePants episodes is on Nickelodeon.

  56. 56.

    raven

    @scav: Yea, it wouldn’t seem like it would be a big deal to other Africans but I could be totally wrong about why the situation was like it was. I only talked to one usher.

  59. 59.

    beltane

    @raven: The usher could have simply been biased against Nigerians or even against a particular ethnic group of Nigerians. My English aunt is like that with the French, always boycotting a brand of French cheese or variety of apple.

  60. 60.

    scav

    @raven: Ah, well if we’re getting into elbowing between on-continent neighbors, all bets are off. The things the Nigerians say about the Togolese, let alone the Yoruba-Naija Yoruba-Ghana grumbles . . . .You’d think they were Minnesota and Baja Minnesota or something.

  61. 61.

    raven

    @beltane: Yea, could be. It was just something I always remembered and I do know that there was obviously African ushers in that section.

    It was really cool to see them win.

  62. 62.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    And before I leave, US 2-0 (or 1) Ghana,

    Bradley scores a cracker from just outside the box in the 35th minute. Wondo, subbing for Jozy, poaches one somewhere in the 80th-85th minute to break the tie or ice it.

  64. 64.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    The ESPN Radio guys are savaging Nigeria. They squarely put the blame for the depressing play on them and say that the Iranians played pretty well except for an inability to finish.

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