Marked for Forrest Lasso
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Jan 2027
Every point is an argument now for Esteghlal Ahvaz
Position 15 and 17 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Hossein Saki in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Esteghlal Ahvaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Guilherme Santos has just signed for Esteghlal Ahvaz, and for once the answer mattered.
Match16 Jan 2027
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match16 Jan 2027
Tractor left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“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.
Market18 Jan 2027
He is 20, and nobody at Esteghlal Ahvaz signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Amir Shojaei is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Anger at Esteghlal Ahvaz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Kaveh Mohammadi at 19 — 7.63
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kaveh Mohammadi did not need any: 7.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Hamed Pakdel in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Esteghlal Ahvaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
At 19 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Dec 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Kaveh Mohammadi in the middle of it, and Esteghlal Khuzestan unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Sirvan Ghorbani 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 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Ali Eslami at his very best
Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Esteghlal Ahvaz.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Saeid Moharrami has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Esteghlal Ahvaz
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad7 Dec 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match5 Dec 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Esteghlal Ahvaz are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Hamed Pakdel 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Esteban Rueda
“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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Esteghlal Ahvaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sirvan Ghorbani 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.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
$38.1K taken back off the Esteghlal Ahvaz table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces30 Nov 2026
Anger at Esteghlal Ahvaz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Kaveh Mohammadi at 19 — 7.98
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kaveh Mohammadi did not need any: 7.98, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Hossein Saki 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Kaveh Mohammadi scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑4 to Malavan, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad30 Nov 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 ratings30 Nov 2026
Amir Shahim did the work nobody counts — 6.74
11 combined actions and 6.74. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Mehdi Besak 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 ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Nov 2026
Hamed Pakdel in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Esteghlal Ahvaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Nov 2026
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match14 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Sirvan Ghorbani 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 ratings16 Nov 2026
Amir Shahim did the work nobody counts — 6.70
9 combined actions and 6.70. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑4 by Esteghlal, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Esteghlal Ahvaz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 61 days on the sidelines for Abdollah Hosseini, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Esteghlal Ahvaz are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Carlos Muela in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Esteghlal Ahvaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Julio Flores
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Esteghlal Ahvaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sirvan Ghorbani 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.
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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Forrest Lasso is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Market14 Sep 2026
Experience through the door at Esteghlal Ahvaz
Carlos Muela arrives at 35 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Match12 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Esteghlal Khuzestan came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.