The Saba Sentinel
Match15 Aug 2026
Saba taken apart
0‑3 to Tractor, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Nima Mirzazad
There were 8 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Saba lose Saeid Aghaei
67 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Saba
Hamed Pakdel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Rah Ahan tell Saba: Morteza Khodadad is not for sale
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
No hiding place for Saeid Aghaei
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saeid Aghaei, and the manager let it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Saba dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Saba are still strangers to each other
20 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Sardar Jahanbakhsh answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
- Transfer targets Saba ask about Hamid Reza Shamsipour
- Market Talks stall between Saba and Vahid Asgarpour
- The dugout The plan did not have a place for Arwin Javad