Guys,
This is a clip of the game between Al-Ittehad of Saudi Arabia and Sepahan in which Emadreza, Sepahan’s Iraqi striker, scored the winner.
I do not speak Arabic so I have no idea what the announcer is saying, but I was floored by the drama in his voice and his numerous invoking of the name of God in Arabic. His disappointment is truly heartfelt!
If anyone here speaks Arabic, please let us know what he is saying.
English
فارسی
April 27th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
He’s saying God save us the day Arab goes against Arab siding with Persians!!! God save us! God save us!:) LOL!
April 27th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
LOL!Is that what he is really saying? I always thought it was mostly the Iranians who were distancing themselves from the Arabs (which is probably true for most Iranians regardless of the right or wrong). Ironically, it seems that the feelings may be mutual and many in the Arab world take the rivalry a bit too seriously. No wonder, our national team tends to have a tough time when facing a challenger from one of the regional Arab countries. I guess it has to do with the fact that they always try their very best when they face us (Iran). Regardless, I found the commentator’s remarks (God save us!) quite funny.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Kia jAn,
Are you for real?! Is this what he is really saying or are you making it up? That makes it even funnier!
Although I wonder what the Iranian announcer would say the day one of the guys playing in UAE scores against say Perspolis or Esteghlal; that is if they ever make it to the AFC Champions League!
April 28th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I searched a couple of Arab news organizations and came up with the following news articles. Except for Arabnews calling Imad Riza an Iranian, I do not detect any racial bias. Saudigazette, even praised Sepahan’s goal keeper for his excellent defesive plays.
From Aljazeerah.com
….In Group A, Iraq international striker Emad Ridha scored the only goal as 2007 runners-up Sepahan completed the double against Al Ittihad with a 1-0 away win over the Saudi side.
The winner arrived with 20 minutes to go when Ridha received the ball from Seyed Mohammad Salehi and fired a first-time shot past goalkeeper Mabrouk Zaid.
From: arabnews.com
….Al-Ittihad lost 1-0 yesterday in front of an angry home crowd against Sepahan of Iran in the AFC Champions League at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here.
The defeat knocked Ittihad out of the top of Group A in the first round of the competition in which only the group winners advance into the quarterfinals. ….
The Jeddah Tigers again struggled to find the net and now face the real threat of exiting the tournament. Their inability score head cost them the Saudi Premier League title a few weeks back.
Despite dominating the first half, the yellow and black striped home team failed to pull in a goal from the number of chances provided to them throughout the quarter.
In the 13th minute, Brazilian forward Magno Alves’s header just missed the target, while teammate Hassan Keta missed the target on more than one occasion.
In the second half, Ittihad’s new Argentinian coach Gabrial Calderon was forced to substitute two players, star forward Alvis and defender Mohammed Al-Ghamdi.
While Ittihad were in search of the winning goal Emad Mohammed stunned the home crowd when he scored with ease after receiving a long pass from Iranian midfielder Sayed Mahdi Saleh in front of goal.
Al-Ittihad lost their way in the second half in the face of a strong Iranian defense
From: saudigazette.com
Al-Ittihad went down in a home clash when Sepahan of Iran recorded a 1-0 victory over the two-time winner at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah.
Brazilian striker Josiel scored the two goals for Al-Wehda to seal an important victory for the UAE’s side while the only goal for Al-Ahli was scored by defender Waleed Al-Jahdali late in the second half.
The defeat ended the Saudi side’s hopes in clinching the only ticket in Group C as Al-Ahli stays in the bottom of group with only two points. Al-Karama of Syria, which beat Al-Sadd of Qatar 1-0, perches on top with 10 points, followed by Al-Wehda (5 points). Al-Sadd has 4.
Iraq international striker Emad Mohammed scored the only goal for Iranian league leader Sepahan about ten minutes from the game.
Al-Ittihad with its second defeat in the competition is now in the second spot with the six points on goal difference with Sepahan. It stays three points away from the leader Kuruvchi of Uzbekistan, which won 1-0 over Ittihad Aleppo.
Ittihad of Syria remains at the bottom with only 3 points.
Calderon, new coach of Ittihad Jeddah, began the match with some new players who never played in a regional competition. The Argentinian took over the team just two days before the match following the dismissal of former Brazilian Estevam Soares.
The first half was warm as both sides shared the possession without any threat on goals.
Farshad Bahadorani nearly gave the visitors the lead six minutes before the break when his curling effort came back off the left post of Mabrouk Zaid.
Al-Ittihad launched several attacks through substitutes Mohammed Ameen and Mohammed Labib who replaced Elhassan Keita and Brazilian Magno Alves. The young Iranian goalkeeper stood firm against Al-Ittihad attempts.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
[...] One very disappointed commentator (Last Kick) [...]
April 29th, 2008 at 12:49 am
Aghooli, Great coverage!!! I guess Arabs don’t like to publicly show their bias!!!! LOL!
Afshin jon, if my Arabic was that good, I would be bloging in Saudi page of worldcupweblog site!
(The only thing stopping me from siding with our Arab friends is the lack of my langunage skills LOL!)
April 29th, 2008 at 1:04 am
aghooli jAn, I second kia; good coverage man
kia jAn, having been born of parents who come from a few generations of Tehranis (if there is any such a thing as a real Tehrani!) and having two last names one of which could pass for a Turkish and the other for Kurdish, and having regularly being mistaken for being of one of these two great ethnic Iranian minorities, I would not dare to automatically assume that someone named “kia” is of Iranian descent and not Arab!
Now if you understood what I just wrote please translate it for me because I sure as hell didn’t when I reread it!
April 29th, 2008 at 1:31 am
What is you other last name (I know the Turkish one)?
BTW, my last name is Hamadani. But the only person in my family that has ever been to Hamadan is me and that was only three years ago when I went back to Iran for a visit (after 18 years)!!!
I guess I wanted to go back to my roots!!!!!!!! LOL
April 29th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Mine is Ghasemlou and I actually visited the Ghasemlou Valley between Urmiyeh and Mahabad the year before I came abroad!
April 29th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Afshin jaan, are you related to Dr. Amir Aslan Afshar-Ghasemlou? Is he still alive?
April 29th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Ehsan jAn, I don’t know. I’ll have to ask my father. I was too young when I left Iran and unfortunately never kept track of relatives. But as a general rule “Afshar-Ghasemlou” family was a relatively small group, so I won’t be surprised if there is a connection.
April 29th, 2008 at 8:00 am
A great interview with Dr. Ghasemlou. Link is below: http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2003&m=12&d=01&a=13
Afshin Joon, Tehran is like New York, A big city, noisy, dusty, polutted, rude people, traffic jams, even ruder drivers, great chelo kabab (food), great pastries, gorgeous girls (who flirt with you, even if your wife is sitting next to you), bad government, police that shoots first and ask for ID later (about 50 rounds an incident), vibrant gay scene, vibrant prostitutions, garbage men on take, etc. So even if you pass through it, you are Tehrani. Look at me, I lived there for about 15 years, and have been living in NJ for about 10 now, but I consider myself a New Yorker. I am also a Tehrani, although I recently learned part of my mother’s family is from Ghom, part from Lorestan (Zand Tribe), part of my dad’s family is from Natanz, part from Shemiranat, but I am a through and through Tehrani.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Aghooli,
Thanks for the link. Interesting interview! I always wonder what was really going on on those last days!
April 30th, 2008 at 5:55 am
From comments left by the clip, I only detected Iranian’s racist remarks. But here is a funny one:
Apr 27, 2008 12:04:11 PM
عماد مع آلت اکلÙت
یا الله یا لله یا الله عماد هذا الموجود العجیب Ùˆ الغریب دخلت آلت الکلÙت ÙÛŒ کون الاتØاد