0‑3 against Persepolis, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Insfrán was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Gostaresh Foulad deserved better, and so did he.
In brief
The dugoutPejman Taremi has become a man the manager trusts
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vahid Azmoun did not need any: 8.40, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Pejman Taremi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reza Nekounam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 18 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Vahid Azmoun was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Insfrán was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Vahid Azmoun, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.73
A mark of 7.73 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Pejman Taremi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reza Nekounam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Gostaresh Foulad who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
A brace, and Vahid Azmoun takes the afternoon — 9.19
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vahid Azmoun provided it, and the 9.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vahid Azmoun. 3‑1 against Saba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Saba spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Marked 8.33. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Gostaresh Foulad.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Reza Nekounam falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Majid Khodadad has his answer from Gostaresh Foulad; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Pejman Taremi had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Persepolis were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vahid Azmoun did not need any: 8.30, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gostaresh Foulad can pretend not to have heard.
6 goals in one match, Ahmad Karimi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Gostaresh Foulad and Sepahan.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Vahid Azmoun falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Vahid Azmoun has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gostaresh Foulad can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Siah Jamegan for Federico Cipriani was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gostaresh Foulad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Wahda keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Pejman Taremi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reza Nekounam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.