PFDC - DUBAI,
On the second day of the Dubai Football Challenge 2007, Iran and VFB Stuttgart,
both of whom had coincidentally lost their first game in the tournament, met at
the Al Nasr Stadium in Dubai to play their last game of this tournament.
As expected, Iranian National Coach Amir Ghalenoi started with seven new
players compared to the first match where his team had lost to Hamburg SV
2-1.
Ghalenoi fielded Hadi Aghili and Hadi Shakouri instead of Jalal Hosseini and
Amir Hossein Sadeghi in defense, Morteza Asadi took over Alireza
Vahedi's left wing position, Hossein Badamaki,
Iman Mobali and Kianush Rahmati formed the midfield triangle in the
middle, and
Mehdi Rajabzadeh who had just joined Team Melli camp after playing
his last game of the first of half of the Iranian Professional League with
his club team Zobahan, replaced
Rasoul Khatibi upfront next to Enayati. Khatibi, who had scored
Iran's only goal last game, had been called by his club Al Sharjah FC for an
upcoming game.
Hassan Roudbarian was the goalkeeper of Iran in this match while
Rahman Ahmadi was his substitute on the bench.
The first twenty minutes of the game was exciting, with both teams creating
decent chances. Iran started with a direct freekick by Mobali but German
international goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand saved the shot. In response,
Stuttgart played a good passing combination and reached Iran's penalty area
but Hadi Shakouri was able to cut out Stuttgart's attack.
Again, it was Iran's turn, this time through
Javad Kazemian who dribbled the ball through the Stuttgart defense
on the right flank and made a low but sharp cross which Hildebrand fumbled
on but was able to gather a fraction of a second before Ibrahim Asadi
reached the ball.
Few minutes later, from a Stuttgart corner, Iran created a counter attack
where Hildebrand was able to come out of his goal and kick a through pass
meant for Kazemian, only to see his shot reaching Iman Mobali whose back was
towards the Stuttgart goal and couldn't lob the ball over Stuttgart's
advanced goalkeeper.
In the 20th minute, Kazemian had to be replaced by
Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht due to a minor injury and Asadi was moved to
the right flank, leaving the left flank to Vahedi, like the previous game.
In the next 13 minutes, Iran created good passing combination scenes
involving Enayati, Vahedi, Badamaki, Rajabzadeh and Mobali but all in vain
and won a few corners, the most noticeable one being a Badamaki cross which
Hildebrand pushed out of the goal with his finders but none of them were
converted into a goal.
In the 33rd minute, Amir Ghalenoi backed up by the spectators started
arguing with the referee over a series of controversial calls, especially a
suspicious handball in which Stuttgart's Mexican import Osorio fell on the
ground and Badamaki tried to dribble past him but Osorio's hand obstructed
the motion of the ball. The referee didnt consider the scene a penalty kick,
however, he decided to send off the Iranian National coach for rebelling
against the decision. Ghalenoi, however, stood there trying to negotiate
with the referees and when it didn't lead to any results, he called his team
off the pitch, gathering them around himself and claiming that if he was
sent off, his team would withdraw from the game.
After roughly ten minutes of arguments between the referees, tournament
officials and Iran Coaching staff, Ghalenoi finally left the field, went up
to the VIP section and the game was once again carried on, with Nasser
Ebrahimi now standing at the field line, instructing his players.
The game had lost its excitement by then and nothing happened until the 45th
minute when the referee added only two minutes of extra time to everyone's
surprise. This could be probably because of the short gap between the end of
this game and the beginning of the next game which would be between UAE and
Hamburg SV. The officials had probably decided they couldn't afford to add
ten minutes of extra time and extend the game by another ten minutes.
Iran started the second half with no change in its players, while Stuttgart
started using its substitutions. After just two minutes, Enayati scored a
goal which was rightly disallowed for offside.
However, just three minutes later Enayati headed a pass from Badamaki
forward to the left flank where Alireza Vahedi had made a run and made a low
but sharp cross inside which Rajabzadeh had no problems tapping in after
Hildebrand's dive had missed the cross to make it 1-0.
Immediately, a similar scene happened on the other side, however, Roudbarian
was able to save the weak but accurate shot by Stuttgart's midfielder. Iran
was attacking through the flanks in the second half and again, Hildebrand
punched out another Badamaki's ball, this time a lob, from the goal to yet
another corner.
In the 57th minute, Stuttgart came close to equalizing through their German
midfielder, Christian Genter but was unlucky that his shot just passed
Roudbarian's goal post.
Seven minutes later, the game again looked more than just a "friendly" one
when Mobali who was tackled to the ground was pulled up roughly by Osorio.
This made Iran's captain, Alireza Vahedi angry and he reacted by pushing the
German player. The referee however, stopped the commission there by booking
Mobali and Osario both.
The last 25 minutes of the game were more of substitutions and rough tackles
followed by yellow cards rather than an attractive game.
Finally, the referee blew the final whistle and Iran beat VfB Stuttgart,
1-0, thanks to Rajabzadeh who had scored in the 50th minute.
Iran: Roudbarian - Shakouri, Nosrati, Aghili - Kazemian (20. Vahedi Nikbakht),
Rahmati, Mobali (78. Nouri), Badamaki (85. Mirghorbani ), M. Asadi -
Rajabzadeh (85. E. Sadeghi), Enayati.
VfB Stuttgart: Hildebrand - Osorio, Meira, Delpierre, Boka
- Gentner (62. Gerber), Pardo (46. Tasci), da Silva, Hitzlsperger (46.
Hilbert) - Gomez (46. Cacau), Tomasson (70. Beck)
Goal: 1-0 Rajabzadeh (50' / Assist: Nikbakht Vahedi