Tag: Neymar

Alireza Faghani to referee the Olympics Final

Alireza Faghani Iran’s and Asia’s top referee has been handed over the task of refereeing the Gold Medal final match in Rio’s Olympics 2016. 

Faghani , who has already refereed the Asian Cup 2015 was also selected as part of the refereeing team in the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

The referring team for the final match between host Brazil and Germany will also include assistant referees Reza Sokhandan and Mansouri .  The match venue on Saturday 20th August will be the great Maracana stadium expected to be sell out. The sensitivity of the match is amplified by the fact that Germany has hammered and humiliated host Brazil two years ago in the same place during the FIFA World Cup 2014

All eyes will be on the Maracana, as Brazil are 90 minutes away from winning a first-ever gold medal in the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament. As if an Olympic gold medal match needed another layer of intrigue, the hosts will have to get past Germany, a nation that defeated Brazil 7-1 in one of the most historic and shocking matches in FIFA World Cup™ history.

Although Matthias Ginter represents the only player on the German Rio 2016 Olympic side who was a member of Die Nationalmannschaft’s World Cup 2014-winning squad, make no mistake, the host nation will view this as a golden opportunity for redemption. For Brazil, captain Neymar has his golden opportunity to help write his name in the history books after he was injured for that semi-final at the World Cup two years ago. 

Faghani referees FIFA Club World Cup 2015

Alireza Faghani, The Iranian referee who took control of the AFC Asian Cup 2015 has added another honor to his list by being appointed as FIFA Club World Cup 2015 referee.

The final match between Barcelona FC and the South American Champions  River Plate of Argentina is played in  Nissan Stadium (Yokohama) on Sunday 20th December.

Fagahi is the considered the top Asian referee and in recognition of his standard and record, FIFA trusted him with the most important match in its club competition calendar where players such as Messi, Neymar and Iniesta face the tough tackling Argentinian team known for their rough play.

Alireza Faghani is assisted on the line by Reza Sokhandan and Mohammad Reza Mansouri for the Final match.

The World Cup is here and Team Melli is set to go

After all the clamors, the excitement, the thrills and the expectation where the world media was virtually littered with stories about the World Cup. The day of the reckoning is here and now.

Stories from the downright silly and ridiculous like the one about the turtle that predicts the World Cup winner ( it can’t get more sillier than that , can it ?) to the more serious side of the World Cup where a plethora of football experts have made life easy for you by predicting the winning teams, before a ball has even been kicked! Mixed with real life stories of calamities, unfinished work on Stadia , violence, robberies, industrial disputes and incredible traffic jams in major cities of the host nation.

This should have been a red card.

In the opener the 20th FIFA World Cup 2014, Brazil defeated Croatia 3-1 after the East Europeans stunned the host with a goal. In fact it was a friendly own goal by the recent European Cup winner defender of Real Madrid,  Marcelo. However , young  Neymar stole the show as Brazil came from behind to score two goals, one a of which was a controversial penalty. The Croats are still devastated and feel grieved because Neymar should have been sent off for elbowing Modric in the first half.

A controversial start, no doubt we have not seen the end of those.

Own goal by Marcello

Team Melli will be there amongst the elite. We will be hearing and seeing Hajsafy mingle with Di Maria,  about Dejagah tackling Messi , while Hosseini will be stopping Aguero from scoring and Ghoochannehad passing Zabaleta on his way. Names that increases the adrenaline on hearing them , oppositions at the highest level of football,  a far cry from hearing the names of Guinea or Thailand or  Belarus or Angola that Team Melli has been sparring with in their way to the Word Cup. This is the real thing, people.  The match in 4 days against Nigeria will be the decider, according to Queiroz. No time for losers.

Ashkan Dejagah

From the pulse of the Team Melli fans, we see that the majority will not be satisfied with anything less than qualification to the next round. While that is genuinely a legitimate wish and within the full right of the aspiring fans, it is perhaps a bit of unrealistic expectation considering the less-than-optimum preparations and acute lack of high level friendly games by Team Melli.    

All this is water under the bridge now. The reality is that Team Melli will be facing Nigeria and it is well within the capability of the boys to beat them. Then they have to face one of the title contenders in Argentina. A totally different proposition, a quality at the highest level and in Messi , they have the greatest football player on earth. HosseinKazerani , the solid defender of Pas and a member of Team Melli 1978 World Cup team, speaking recently on a TV show about memories of 1978 World Cup,  countered  the fear of some his teammate playing against the might of Holland with  household name players, Kazerani said in a simple term “Their players have one head two legs and two hands, same as we do, what are you frighten of ?”. Simplistic logic it might be, but no denying that it is very much a true statement. It is about who dares win and who is hungrier for glory. About the stronger mentality and better motivation.

Let us hope Team Melli plays with the passion and pride that they are famous for. Let us hope that the skills of the players yields the optimum result and finally , let us hope that Team Melli impresses the fans across the globe with a display of valor , sportsmanship and skills worthy of the name of Iran.