Marked for Ehsan Rezaeian
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Siah Jamegan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Vouria Azmoun takes the afternoon — 8.65
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vouria Azmoun provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market19 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Matteo Dagasso and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ehsan Ebrahimi and Siah Jamegan agree another 3 years.
Match17 Oct 2026
Saipa made Siah Jamegan work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karim Ghoddos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ramin Khodadad, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Siah Jamegan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Ali Noorafkan out for 15 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siah Jamegan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Karim Gholizadeh 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Milad Noorafkan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siah Jamegan will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Shots: 10, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ehsan Rezaeian damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad5 Oct 2026
22 days out for Ali Noorafkan after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Siah Jamegan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Karim Gholizadeh 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.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Saman Mohammadi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Siah Jamegan.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karim Ghoddos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Morteza Cheshmi, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ehsan Rezaeian damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad28 Sep 2026
29 days out for Ali Noorafkan after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Siah Jamegan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Karim Gholizadeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alireza Noorafkan is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Reza Gholizadeh, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Morteza Cheshmi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Pejman Hosseini dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market28 Sep 2026
Ashkan Vafaei is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Siah Jamegan has been clear about where Ashkan Vafaei stands, which is more than many ever get.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Padideh will be the happier side with the point.