Marked for Ehsan Karimi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Sep 2026
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Omid Beiranvand will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Siah Jamegan escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Omid Beiranvand takes the afternoon — 8.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Omid Beiranvand provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Morteza Ebrahimi 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.42, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ehsan Karimi 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
It needed Omid Beiranvand to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Padideh, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Zob Ahan made Siah Jamegan work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Omid Beiranvand trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Javad Akbari 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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Siah Jamegan, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Sep 2026
A 3‑2 win over Esteghlal, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match2 Sep 2026
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Morteza Cheshmi was at the centre of it, Esteghlal were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Market7 Sep 2026
Reza Yazdani hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siah Jamegan can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The Siah Jamegan board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Reza Yazdani to Esteghlal Ahvaz has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Siah Jamegan with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
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.
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Malavan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 8.16 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Aug 2026
Morteza Ebrahimi 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Vouria 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Morteza Ebrahimi. 1‑0 against Esteghlal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.07 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ehsan Karimi
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amir Pouraliganji trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.