Tag: Afshin Kazemi

Third place for heroic Iran Futsal Team.

Iran’s remarkable journey at the FIFA Futsal World Cup Colombia 2016 ended on a high note, as they claimed third place after a 4-3 penalty shootout win over Portugal following a 2-2 draw in Cali on Saturday.

The Iranians came from two goals down to take the third-place match to a dramatic penalty shootout, where six rounds of spot kicks were needed to decide the contest.

The first half had the feeling of a friendly contest, with both goalkeepers in Iran’s Alireza Samimi and Portugal’s Bebe being the standout performers in the opening period.

Both sides created a good opportunity to open the scoring. Ahmad Esmaeilpour had Iran’s best chance, but his chip over Bebe also sailed over the crossbar. At the other end, Samimi did well to deny Cardinal at close range.

Where the first half was fairly tepid, the second half came to life, as Cardinal scored a quick-fire brace within the first minute of the restart for Portugal. He showed great patience to beat the onrushing Samimi to open the scoring before combining with captain Richardinho to make it 2-0.

Cardinal then made a key defensive play to deny Ali Hassan Zadeh’s shot, even though replays showed he may have used his arm to block the goal-bound effort.

Then an ugly melee that involved both sets of players in the Portugal half produced a pair of red cards, as Iran’s Mohammadreza Sangsefidi and Portugal’s Miguel Castro were given their marching orders.

It was at that stage that Iran turned the match around. Afshin Kazemi pulled the Asian champions back into the game with an assured finish before Mahdi Javid converted a second penalty past Portugal’s back-up goalkeeper Vitor Hugo to send the contest to a penalty shootout after the full-time whistle.

It required six rounds of penalties to decide this encounter. Iran’s back-up goalkeeper Sepehr Mohammadi made a pair of big saves, but his team-mates twice hit the woodwork with their spot-kick efforts.

Then after Portugal’s Joao Matos hit the post with his sixth-round penalty, Javid stepped up to convert his spot-kick and ensure Iran’s best-ever finish to a Futsal World Cup, surpassing their fourth-place accomplishment at Hong Kong 1992.



Matches

12 SEP 2016 – 20:00 Local time
GROUP F
Coliseo Ivan de Bedout
Medellin

Iran     IRAN     v     SPAIN     Spain

FULL-TIME

1-5


15 SEP 2016 – 20:00 Local time
GROUP F
Coliseo Ivan de Bedout
Medellin

Iran      IRAN     v    MOROCCO      Morocco

FULL-TIME

5-3


18 SEP 2016 – 18:00 Local time
GROUP F
Coliseo Ivan de Bedout
Medellin

Azerbaijan     AZERBAIJAN     v      IRAN     Iran

FULL-TIME

3-3


21 SEP 2016 – 17:30 Local time
ROUND OF 16
Coliseo Bicentenario
Bucaramanga

Brazil     BRAZIL     v     IRAN     Iran

FULL-TIME

4-4

Iran win on penalties (2 – 3)

24 SEP 2016 – 15:30 Local time
QUARTER-FINALS
Coliseo Bicentenario
Bucaramanga

Paraguay     PARAGUAY     V     IRAN     Iran

FULL-TIME

3-4


 

Iran win after extra time
27 SEP 2016 – 19:00 Local time
SEMI-FINALS
Coliseo Ivan de Bedout
Medellin

Iran     IRAN     v    RUSSIA      Russia

FULL-TIME

3-4


01 OCT 2016 – 12:00 Local time
MATCH FOR THIRD PLACE
Coliseo el Pueblo
Cali

Iran       IRAN     v    PORTUGAL      Portugal

FULL-TIME

2-2

Iran win on penalties (4 – 3)

 

 

The Heroes

PLAYERS MP MINP GS ASS Y 2YC R
7 310 4 2 1 0 0
7 310 5 1 1 0 0
7 310 5 5 0 0 0
7 283 3 1 2 0 0
6 270 0 0 2 0 0
6 269 2 2 2 0 0
7 261 0 1 1 0 1
7 257 2 0 1 0 0
6 235 1 0 1 0 0
7 229 0 0 1 0 0
6 227 0 0 1 0 0
4 128 0 0 0 0 0
1 40 0 0 0 0 0
1 37 0 0 0 0 0

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Iran futsal routs Myanmar

Iran Futsal team opened its account in the China International Futsal tournament 2015 in Changshu city with a routing of Myanmar. In the second match of the tournament played on Friday , Team Melli futsal team mostly  playing with young players while occasional minutes were given to the seniors,  defeated Myanmar 15-2.

The first half ended 8-0 in a match which was totally controlled by Iran from the word go,

Team Melli scored a further 7 goals in the second while conceding a couple in the process.

Iran scorers were: 

Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh (4), Mehdi Javid (4), Safari (3), Mohammad Koohestani, Afshin Kazemi, Mohammad Shajari and  Alireza Vafaei

In the opening match of the tournament, Host China drew with Mexico 3-3 . The North American team will be Iran’s next opponent on Saturday.