The Saba Sentinel
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Masoud Khodadad runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match8 Aug 2026
6 goals as Saba and Saipa go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Saba and Saipa, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Saba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Masoud Khodadad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Saba
Reza Pouraliganji 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Masoud Shojaei
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Milad Jahanbakhsh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
One of those days for Saman Yazdani
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match8 Aug 2026
Saba and Saipa take a point apiece
It finished 3‑3, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market10 Aug 2026
Still no ink between Saba and Sardar Karimi
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Saba, another week without a signature from Sardar Karimi.
In brief
- Market No place for Ehsan Taremi in the plan
- Squad Masoud Khodadad asks for a word with the manager
- Player ratings Pejman Beiranvand changes it off the bench