Tag: Uzbekistan

Omid Team to start a training camp alongside Team Melli.

The Omid National Team Camp begins at the same time as the Team Melli at the National Team Camp. According to ISNA, with the plans made by the technical staff and the announcement of Mohammad Mohammadi, the head of the Omid national football team, the camp of this team will start on the 24th or 25th of January, and players under the age of 23 will be called to the national team camp after three months. . The Omid national team camp will be held at the same time as the senior national team camp – which is preparing to meet Iraq and the UAE in the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers – and MahdaviKia’s boys will hold several training sessions and two preparatory matches for a week.

According to the plan, two Premier League teams will be the opponents of the Omid national team, to help the U23/Olympic team prepare better. Mehdi Mahdavikia and his assistants will arrive in Tehran in around the 21st of January. Previously, the work visas of three foreign assistants of Mahdavikia have been issued b

In the period between the departure of Mahdavikia and his assistants from Iran, the games played in the Premier League have been regularly reviewed and analyzed. One of Mahdavikia’s assistants has been assigned to evaluate new and potential candidates for the Omid team in Iran’s first and second division leagues for a long time so that new faces can be added to the Omid national team in the upcoming camp. Over the next five months, Mahdavikia seeks to identify new members and bolster his team’s strengths and ensure the weaknesses are mitigated in order to participate in the AFC Under-23 Championship, which will be held in Uzbekistan in mid-June.

Tough test for Futsal Team Melli against Kazakhstan

Iran will face their toughest test yet when they play Kazakhstan in the quarter-finals of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021 at the Kaunas Arena on Monday.

In what promises to be a thrilling encounter, Kazakh fans will be hoping that the quarter-final is decided in normal time, as Team Melli won two penalty shootouts and another match after extra-time at the last Futsal World Cup.

On the other hand, Iran might want to avoid another open encounter like their Round of 16 epic against Uzbekistan, as scoring against Kazakhstan and their formidable goalkeeper Higuita, aided by defensive stalwart Douglas, has proven extremely difficult in Lithuania 2021.

 

  • Uzbekistan v IR Iran - FIFA FWC2021 (1)
    FIFA Futsal World Cup

 

Team Melli opened their campaign with a narrow 3-2 victory over Serbia before seeing off the United States 4-2, with a 2-1 defeat against Argentina being their only blemish as they finished second in Group F behind the South Americans.

In the Round of 16, Uzbekistan found a chink in Iran’s armor going toe to toe with the 12-time Asian Champions in a nail-bitting 9-8 scoreline in the Iranians favor.

Missing from the Iran line-up is Hossein Tayyebi, who featured in the two previous editions but captain Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh has still not lost his deft touch – evident in his cheeky lob over Argentina goalkeeper Lucas Farach.

Kazakhstan

The Falcons boast the best defensive record of the tournament, having conceded just two goals in four matches.

In Group A, Kazakhstan flexed their muscles in their opener against Costa Rica winning 6-1, and a 3-0 victory against hosts Lithuania followed before being held to 1-1 draw by Venezuela to top their group.

Kazakhstan advanced to the last eight stage in style with a 7-0 win over ASEAN heavyweights Thailand in the Round of 16.

They have the best defensive record among the quarter-finalists and Iran, who have been in fine form up front, will have to be at their sharpest if they are to make the semi-finals for the second successive FIFA Futsal World Cup.

 

Head to head.

Iran never lost to the Kazakh before. Their first meeting was in the final of the AFC AFutsal Championship 2000 on 12th May. Kazakhstan was a member of AFC then before switching to UEFA.  Team Melli won 4-1 to lift yet another title. From then on, the two teams met 4 times with Iran winning 3 and drawing one. All the wins were with a margin of one goal.

 

Iran’s concern.

 

Despite winning a thrilling match against Uzbekistan and scoring 9 goals at this stage of the Futsal World Cup, all was not well with the team.

By now the whole world knows how Iran is vulnerable in defense during the power play as every time Uzbekistan deployed that plan, they scored at will! The reason for such failure is tactical and psychological.

In football and futsal for that matter, it is common knowledge that a team is most vulnerable to be scored against right after they score a goal. Elation and celebrations of the players put them at risk of forgetting their tasks. This happened repeatedly against the Uzbek team who cleverly took advantage.

The more serious of the issues, however, is the tactical shortfalls. It seems that the coaching staff was caught off guard and did not prepare the team well to counteract the power play of the opposition. Clearly, the marking was poor with goals being easily scored due to the abysmal marking.

If Nazim Al-Sharia wants to enhance the chances of Iran qualifying for the last four, he and his coaching staff must organize the defenses much better, especially during the power play. In fact, Iran’s defense was suspect through the whole tournament with the goalkeeper being the culprit in a few goals. The only decent defensive performance was against Argentina which Iran narrowly lost 2-1 to the defending champion.

There will be a lot of pressure tomorrow Mental strength and discipline have to be priorities else no tactical masterplan can help against the best defensive team of the tournament.

Injury List

Farhad Fakhim ( injured for the rest of the championship)

Hossein Tayebi (On the recovery, possible brief playing time)

 


Iran v Kazakhstan
Venue: Kaunas Arena
Kickoff: Monday, 20:00 (UTC+3)

 

A thrilling victory for Iran’s futsal.

Futsal Team Melli defeated its regional rival Uzbekistan 9-8 in one of the most exciting and thrilling of World Cup matches to qualify for the Quarter Finals of the competition of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021

In a spectacular encounter between two of Asia’s biggest teams, 12-time Asian champions Iran walked away winners to set up a quarter-final tie against Kazakhstan.

The all-Asian affair got off to an exciting start right from the get-go with both sides battling for possession with Iran opening the scoring in the first minute through captain Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh, before Mahdi Javid doubled their lead in the fifth minute, courtesy of Farhad Fakhim’s assist.

The two teams last met in the 2018 AFC Futsal Championship with Iran emerging 7-1 winners but Uzbekistan – bolstered by reaching the Round of 16 for the first time – refused to be overawed and pulled one back in the ninth minute through Khusniddin Nishonov.

Uzbekistan v IR Iran - FIFA FWC2021 (5)

Iran restored their two-goal lead when Hassanzadeh turned provider for Saeid Ahmad Abbasi to find the back of the net in the 16th minute, but Uzbekistan’s persistence saw them score quick goals through Dilshod Rakhmatov and Ikhtiyor Ropiev in the 17th and 18th minutes respectively to level the tie.

Iran called their first time-out to take the edge out of Uzbekistan, which proved to be a successful move as Farhad Tavakoli struck moments into the restart.

Uzbekistan v IR Iran - FIFA FWC2021 (3)

Team Melli maintained their high tempo in the second half with Abbasi and Javid scoring their second goals of the evening in the 22nd and 25th minutes respectively.

The scintillating match continued with its thrills as Anaskhon Rakhmatov reduced Uzbekistan’s deficit in the 28th minute, but Iran’s reply was immediate through Hassanzadeh, before Moslem Oladghobad scored two minutes later to make it 8-4.

Uzbekistan v IR Iran - FIFA FWC2021 (6)

Uzbekistan, however, refused to back down and closed the gap with Ilhomjon Hamroev and Nishonov beating Iran goalkeeper Alireza Samimi in the 31st and 33rd minutes.

The goals galore, however, were not yet over as Abbasi completed his hat-trick in the 37th minute but Uzbekistan fought back with Anaskhon and Hamroev giving their side hope only for the clock to run out on them.

 

Iran Scorers

First Half

Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh (1′), Mehdi Javid (5′), Saeed Ahmad Abbasi (16′) and Farhad Tavakoli (18′)

Second Half

Saeed Ahmad Abbasi (22′), Mehdi Javid (25′), Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh (29′), Moslem Oladghobad, Saeed Ahmad Abbasi (39′)

 

 

 

 

FIFA World Futsal, Iran facing Uzbekistan.

The regional rivals, Iran and Uzbekistan meet on Friday evening for a place in the quarter-finals of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021.

The two teams have met 30 times with Uzbekistan failing to win any match against Iran. The last time the two teams met in Bangkok, the match was competitive as the Uzbeks tested Team Melli to the limit managing to score 5 times, which is a rarity against Iran in Asian Competitions.

29-Jul-21

Continental Champ Bangkok

Iran vs. Uzbekistan

7    –   5 

Scorers: Farhad Tavakoli (2), Behzad Azimi , Asghar Hassanzadeh , Mahdi Javid , Saeed Abbasi (2)

Head Coach Nazim Al-Sharia has already warned his players of any complacency especially since Uzbekistan has been preparing quite well for this world cup.

Iran will go into the match with Hossein Tayebi, the leading scorer, still not fully fit for the match against Uzbekistan in the Round of 16. The head coach said that although Tayyebi has been training with the team, he is still not 100% fit enough, and will miss the Uzbekistan match.

Saeed Ahmad Abbasi and Moslem Oulad-Ghobad, two other players who had slight injuries are fully fit and available for selection.

Meanwhile, in the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021, the three-time Asian champions Japan enjoyed a dream start against Brazil when Shota Hoshi opened the scoring in the fourth minute but Ferrao responded almost immediately for Brazil, who turned on the power in the second half to confirm a quarter-final meeting with Morocco. Thailand was beaten comprehensively by Kazakhstan 7-0 while Vietnam fought gallantly against Russia but lost 3-2 and was eliminated.

Iran and Uzbekistan remain the only AFC representatives with the quarter-final having a place for One Asian Team only.

Nazem Al-Sharia happy with the performance of Futsal Team Melli.

In a post-match interview, Seyed Mohammad Nazem Al-Sharia, the Head Coach of Futsal Team Melli commented on the loss to Argentine in the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021 and qualification to the Round of 16 as the second team in Group F,

 “The game against Argentina was a good match for us and one of the reasons was that the sensitivity of the Game and stress level was low as we both have already qualified. In this match, we did not go full throttle as we did not need to. It was important for us that no player gets a card and is none get injured.” Nazem Al-Sharia said.

He continued: “The referee disallowed our equalizing goal. The situation of the match would have seen a different outcome if this goal was allowed. With second place in the group, we now have to meet Uzbekistan. In my opinion, Uzbekistan is no different from Paraguay and is even better than this team.”

“The advantage of meeting Uzbekistan is that it is an Asian team and we know this opponent quite well.”  The head coach of the Iranian national futsal team stressed that his team should not underestimate Uzbekistan, noting that Uzbekistan has made a lot of progress in the last few years and has played 18 very good preparation games before the World Cup. They played against Iran, Venezuela, Argentina, and Portugal and participated in the tournament in Thailand. Uzbekistan even camped in Spain.

” I do not want to under or overestimate this team, but we have to be careful.” Nazim al-Sharia emphasized

in response to the question of what is the strength of the Uzbek team that Iran should pay attention to? “Uzbekistan is a tactical team,” he said. “They also work well on free kicks and even score good goals this way.” Nazim al-Sharia added.

Commenting on the goal by Hassanzadeh against World Champions Argentina, he went on to say ” About that “chip” goal of Hassanzadeh, Asghar is a world-class international player. Those who said that the age of the national team players has increased should also watch this goal. This player has experienced four World Cup tournaments and showed how professional and international he is scoring such a unique goal”

Nazim al-Sharia elaborated on the disallowed goal against Argentina: “This goal was disallowed by the new FIFA rules. Alireza Rafieipour was in the defensive wall of the Argentine team when he hit the ball, and this is a foul in itself. Anyway, we had a plan for this freekick, and the players executed it to perfection, except for the foul.”

About the injury list, Nazim al-Sharia commented on the situation of Hossein Tayebi, Iran star striker, and whether he will be able to play against Uzbekistan or not: “Tayebi will be scanned today to see how the player is doing.”

Iran Futsal path ahead.

Futsal Team Melli successfully navigated the group stages of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021 with two wins and a loss. By virtue of becoming second behind Argentina, the path to the semi-finals and a repeat performance of the last FIFA Futsal World Cup 2016 can be achieved again.

Uzbekistan, a well-known team for Futsal Team Melli will be the opponent in the Round of 16 of the Championship. The Asian rivals will play in Vilnius on 24th September. Assuming Iran defeats Uzbekistan, they will meet the winners of Kazakhstan and Thailand in the quarter-finals.

Although they are no easy matches at the World Cup, it looks like a pretty attainable road to the semi-finals when they really will meet teams above them in the World Ranking, i.e. Spain, assuming no surprises there and the European powerhouse can defeat the opponents in the two rounds before the Semi.

 

 

Bracket

Round of 16 Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final
22 September – Kaunas
 Venezuela
26 September – Vilnius
 Morocco
Winner Match 38
23 September – Kaunas
Winner Match 39
 Brazil
29 September – Kaunas
 Japan
Winner Match 45
22 September – Vilnius
Winner Match 46
 RFU
26 September – Kaunas
 Vietnam
Winner Match 37
23 September – Vilnius
Winner Match 40
 Argentina
3 October – Kaunas
 Paraguay
Winner Match 49
24 September – Vilnius
Winner Match 50
 Spain
27 September – Vilnius
 Czech Republic
Winner Match 43
24 September – Kaunas
Winner Match 42
 Portugal
30 September – Kaunas
 Serbia
Winner Match 47
24 September – Vilnius
Winner Match 48 Third place match
 Uzbekistan
27 September – Kaunas 3 October – Kaunas
 Iran
Winner Match 44 Loser Match 49
23 September – Kaunas
Winner Match 41 Loser Match 50
 Kazakhstan
 Thailand

 

FIFA Futsal World Ranking

Ranking

Team

Points

1  Spain 1820
2  Brazil 1804
3  Argentina 1719
4  Russia 1668
5  Iran 1629
6  Portugal 1599
7  Kazakhstan 1569
8  Italy 1510
9  Croatia 1500
10  Paraguay 1472

 

Iran Scorers:

2 Goals

 

1 goal

 

 

Iran’s Futsal to meet Uzbekistan in the Semi-Finals

Uzbekistan beats Iran in Thai Futsal Tournament semi-final

The Iranian national futsal team will face Uzbekistan in the semi-finals of the Continental Futsal Championship.

On matchday 3 of the championship, a shock defeat was registered when Kosovo were beaten by Mozambique while the host Thailand escaped narrowly after defeating Uzbekistan. Yesterday, Kosovo managed to stop Thailand the tournament host, but today it lost to a weak Mozambican team and failed to advance to the semi-final.

In the last match of the group,  Thailand and Uzbekistan played a close competitive game. Thailand finally managed to defeat Uzbekistan 4-3 to jump to the top of the group. The Thai team along with Uzbekistan advanced from the first group while Iran and Egypt qualified from the second group for the semi-finals.

The semi-finals will take place on Thursday, with Iran facing Uzbekistan and Thailand facing Egypt.

 

Earlier in the championship, Iran emerged victorious over Tajikistan on Monday with a 7-0 win over their opponents in Group B. In its first group match, the Iranian futsal team defeated Lithuania 5-0.

Iran participates in the competition as part of the preparation for the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup, which will be held in Lithuania from Sept. 12 to Oct. 3.

Iran is in Group F along with Argentina, the U.S., and Serbia.

25-30/7/2021

Venue: Show DC Hall 1

Live StreamingFutsal Thailand FB page and Thairat On Line Youtube Channel

Nations

Group A
A1 – Thailand
A2 – Uzbekistan
A3 – Kosovo
A4 – Mozambique

Group B
B1 – IR Iran
B2 – Egypt
B3 – Tajikistan
B4 – Lithuania

Fixture

25/7/2021
10.30 Egypt vs Tajikistan 1-0 (1-0)
12.45 IR Iran vs Lithuania 5-0 (5-0)
15.00 Uzbekistan vs Kosovo 6-3 (3-3)
17.15 Thailand vs Mozambique 6-4 (6-1)

26/7/2021
10.30 Lithuania vs Egypt 4-2 (2-1)
12.45 Tajikistan vs IR Iran 0-7 (0-4)
15.00 Mozambique vs Uzbekistan 0-10 (0-2)
17.15 Kosovo vs Thailand 6-6 (2-2)

27/7/2021
10.30 Tajikistan vs Lithuania 9-2 (3-1)
12.45 IR Iran vs Egypt 2-2 (1-0)
15.00 Kosovo vs Mozambique 1-2 (0-2)
17.15 Thailand vs Uzbekistan 4-3 (1-2)

Continental Futsal Championship – Group A Standing
1. Thailand ——————–3-2-1-0-16-13-7
2. Uzbekistan ——————3-2-0-1-19–7-6
3. Mozambique ——————3-1-0-2–6-17-3
4. Kosovo ———————-3-0-1-2-10-14-1

Continental Futsal Championship – Group B Standing
1. IR Iran ———————3-2-1-0-14–2-7
2. Egypt ———————–3-1-1-1–5–6-4
3. Tajikistan ——————3-1-0-2–9-10-3
4. Lithuania ——————-3-1-0-2–6-16-3

29/7/2021

7/8 place final
Group A 4th ranked vs Group B 4th ranked
10.30 Kosovo vs Lithuania

Semifinals

SF 1 – Group B Winners vs Group A Runners up
13.30 IR Iran vs Uzbekistan

Group A Winners vs Group B Runners up
SF2 – 16.30 Thailand vs Egypt

Third test for Dragan Skocic

Team Melli and will face Syria in an international friendly today (Tuesday) at 17:30 in Azadi Stadium as part of the preparation for the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers.
In recent years, Iran and Syria have faced each other in various competitions. The matches between the two teams in the World Cup qualifier in Russia in both round-trip matches ended in a draw, but with the change of Iran’s training cadre and the arrival of Wilmots, Team Melli inflicted a heavy 5-0 defeat to the Syrians in a friendly match.
Since then, the coaches of both teams have changed and now Syria is in a much better position than Iran in the World Cup qualifiers.

Iranian national team
Dragan Skocic will have his third coaching experience with Team Melli against Syria. He has already managed to achieve a perfect record with two victories in two matches defeating Uzbekistan and Bosnia. The Croatian coach’s whole effort is to prepare a team of the best Iranian players to claim a place in the World Cup qualifiers next round and defeat both Iraq and Bahrain in order to clinch one of the places.
With the exception of a few players who were unable to accompany the national team due to injuries or travel restrictions during the spread of the Coronavirus, Skocic has invited most of the top players inside and outside Iran, although as always there have been criticisms in some posts.


However, the return of Taremi, Azmoun, Beiranvand, etc. to the national team in this camp compared to the earlier one is good news for the fans of Team Melli who always want to see a full-strength team in action. As in previous camps, the Croatian coach has invited several young and lesser-known players, and it remains to be seen what the consequences of their presence in the national team will be.

Given Bahrain hosting the third qualifying group for the World Cup in Asia, Skocic and his team are working very hard to advance to the next stage and must use the same friendly games to increase the quality and preparation of the national team.

Syrian national team
The Syrian national team recently played a friendly match against Bahrain, and lost 3-1, with some Syrian media and fans criticizing their coach. However, Nabil Maaloul, who has a track record of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup with the Tunisian national team, has achieved brilliant results in the first group of the World Cup together with Syria and is in first place above China.

Syria has almost reached the third round of the World Cup and is now preparing for the toughest stage of the tournament to complete the unfinished work of the previous round. They lost four years ago in their last World Cup qualifier against Uruguay and failed to qualify for the World Cup.
Omar Al-Suma (due to injury) and Omar Al-Kharbin (lifelong suspension from the national team) are not present in this match as two prominent strikers, but other main Syrian players have come to Tehran. This meeting is very important for Syria in terms of results and readiness.

Reza Ghoochannejhad scores a hat trick for PEC Zwolle in the Eredivisie.

The former Team Melli and current PEC Zwolle forward Reza Ghoochannejhad (33 years) scored a hat-trick in the match against Willem II to lead his team to a 3-1 victory in the Dutch Eredivisie League.

 Ghoochannejhad was substituted in at the start of the second half and scored his opener in the 58th minute to level the match after the first half ended with host Willem II leading by a goal to nil. He scored again four minutes later to put his team ahead 2-1.

On the 70th minute,  PEC Zwolle was awarded a penalty which Reza Ghoochannejhad took and score to complete his hat-trick.

It was a major performance for the Iranian forward whose appearance has been limited for his team. He has scored 5 goals so far and this hat trick should improve his chances for more minutes in the future. PEC Zwolle is ranked 11th in the table. Ghoochannejhad joined PEC Zwolle in September 2019 and has played 26 matches scoring 9 goals in two seasons.

Ghoochannejhad played his last game for Team Melli in a friendly international in Azadi against Uzbekistan. The match ended 1 – 0 for Iran.

Ghoochannejhad played a total of 43 games for Iran scoring 17 goals in a career from October 2012. 

Team Melli defeats Uzbekistan.

In the first match under the Croatian head coach Dragan Skocic, Team Melli defeated Uzbekistan in Tashkent 2-1.

The first half ended 1-0 for Iran with Sardar Azmoun (44′) scoring from just outside the box. Mehdi Taremi (51′) scored Iran’s second from a penalty spot after he was fouled in the box. E. Shomurodov scored Uzbekistan’s only goal two minutes after Taremi’s penalty.

Both teams have introduced new faces in their line ups with Iran using many of the Persepolis players that have just qualified for the final of AFC Champions League. Sardar Azmoun could have put Iran in the lead but his tame shot missed the target after a quick counter-attack. Iran had most of the possession and was dangerous on the counter.

In the second half, the pace of the match slowed down after the two goals. The various substitution meant that both teams had difficulty finding their rhythm with both sets of new players finding it hard to gel.

The new-look central defense of Khalilzadeh and Kanani-Zadegan was quite solid but a momentarily poor marking allowed  Shomurodov to score a soft goal against Team Melli. Payam Nazmand could have done much better though. The Sepahan debutant still needs much more experience with the team. His punching of the ball on crosses were less than satisfactory and allowed the Uzbek to counter again.

The midfield still lacks a creative schemet=r although Ali Gholizadeh provided some promise.

Upfront, Azmoun, and Taremi combined to create many chances but the finishing needs to improve.

Iran will p[lay Mali next in Antalya m Turkey.