Iran futsal qualifies despite a narrow loss to defending champions.

Iran National Futsal Team lost against Argentina 2-1 in the final match of Group F of the FIFA futsal World Cup 2021.

Defending champion Argentina heads the group with 9 points with 3 straight wins, while Iran is second with six. Both teams qualify for the next round where Iran is expected to meet continental rivals Uzbekistan,

Iran team played a strong defensive game in the first half and held Argentina 0-0 with the help of some superb saves by Sepeher Mohammadi in goal.

In the second half, a defensive mistake led to Argentina’s first goal, and shortly after that, they scored the second. That was the cue for Iran to change plans and go into the offensive mode. Iran looked like a different team giving the world champion a tough test despite the Argentine solid defense. However, the defensive walls of Argentine were broken by a sublime world Class chip goal from Captain Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh.

Iran continued the offensive and they got the equalizer from a free-kick with another smart play, however, it was ruled out due to an alleged blocking foul. The VAR did not clearly show any sign of a positive foul but in any case, the goal was ruled out. Iran kept the pressure up to the last seconds giving Argentine a real test with some slick moves and passing. The best team in the world, Argentina was pushed to the edge in this showdown for the first time in the Futsal World Cup 2021.

It was not to be as Iran suffered its first defeat narrowly.

The performance of Futsal Team Melli this evening was a huge improvement from the last two matches. Playing such a game, Team Melli must be considered one of the contenders for the cham[pionship.

Brilliant week for Team Melli legionnaires.

A total of six goals were scored by Team Melli players legionnaires this weekend. From Dubai to the east all the way west to Porto in Portugal, and North in Ukraine to south Europe in Greece, the Iranian players showed grit, skill, and most important abilities to score.

Mehdi Ghaedi the former Esteghlal, came in as a substitute for Shabab Al-Ahli and scored two goals including the last-second equalizer to set the stadium alight. It was a dream performance for the recently joined Ghaedi that has already started a trend in Dubai to compare him to their former hero Ali Karimi. The match ended Shabab Al-Ahli 4-2 Sharjah.

In Porto, another Bushehri player who has already established himself in the Portuguese league, also scored two goals for his club FC Porto in 5-0 drubbing of Moreirense. Mehdi Taremi scored his third goal of the new league with a chip over the opposition goalkeeper.

In Crete island, Karim Ansarifard scored what looked like the winner for his team AEK Athens away to OFI Crete, but the islanders score in the injury time for the match to end 3-3.

Ehsan Hajsafy also played in this match alongside Nasarifard, was the third Iranian player of the team, Milad Mohammadi was not registered for the match.

Allayhyar Sayyadmanish, the promising young Team Melli player who has been forgotten by the selectors, put a forceful claim to a place in Team Melli squad when he scored again for his club Zorya to beat Chornomorets 3 – 0. This was Sayyadmanish’s third goal of the season for Zorya.

 

With Azmoun still to play for Zenit on Monday evening against Kazan, it already looks like a piece of excellent news for the passionate Iranian fans and comes right after the Iran National Volleyball team managed to lift the Asian Championship after they beat host and nemesis Japan comprehensively in Japan.

With Team Melli preparing for the third and fourth match day for World Cup 2022 qualifiers, this is excellent news for the fans but particularly Dragan Skocic, the Team Melli head coach. Iran will play UAE away on the 7th of October followed by a hame game against South Korea in Azadi 5 days later.

Mahdi Javid critical of Iran’s futsal show.

Mahdi Javid, one of the key players of Iran’s national futsal team said: “If we play like what we did against the United States in future games, we will be punished.”

Mahdi Javid told ISNA after Iran’s victory against the United States: “Although we won the game, I think we did not see an interesting game from Iran. There is a lot of expectation from the Iranian team, but everyone saw that Serbia was a worthy team and showed in front of Argentina that it is one of the good teams in this championship.”

He added: “In two games, we did not fully show what our futsal is capable of, and if we are to play in the next games with this standard, we will be severely punished and we will not qualify.” Javid emphasized that we should appear better in this competition: we got six points but we did not show real quality. We hope to have a better start to the match against Argentina.

Commenting about whether Iran’s strategy is to be second in the group in order to be on an easier path: “Nobody has talked to us about being second in the group. Our goal is to qualify as a leader or second in the group. We are waiting to see what the strategy of the technical staff is.”

Iran Futsal qualifies for the next round with a win over USA

The Iranian national futsal team defeated the USA futsal team 4-2 in their second match in the 2021 World Cup in Lithuania.

Head Coach Mohammad Nazem Al-Sharia started with Alireza Samimi, Asghar Hassanzadeh, Mohammad Shajari, Mehdi Javid, and Moslim Olad Ghobad in the starting lineup for this match, but only two minutes after the start of the game Alireza Samimi committed an absolutely amateurish blunder by handling the ball outside his area.

After a review by Var, he was shown the red card to send a shock wave in the team. After this incident, while Iran was playing with one player less, the American scored the first goal. That was a second shock within a few minutes of each other. However, to their credit, Team Melli player soon returned to normal and managed to score the equalizer by Farhad Tavakoli.

Mehdi Javid, and Ahmad Esmailpour scored 2 more goals to end the first half with a 3-1 margin.

In the second half, Iran struggled to score. Despite their slick and fast passing, the players failed at the last hurdles due to profligacy and wastefulness. On the other hand, the United States determined to put the humiliating result against Argentine behind them, matched Iran, and were handled the attacks very well. The goalkeeper was the star of the team.

With ball after ball failing to find the net the United States scored its second goal in the final minutes and made the Iranians quite nervous. In the final minutes of the Americans’ power play, Iran scored the fourth goal by Saeed Abbasi to end the game in their favor with a score of 4: 2 and to secure their qualification to the next stage with 6 points.

Despite the win, the performance, discipline, and attitude of the players were far from polished. The TV Mic picked up Nazim Al Shariaa telling his player at a time out “This is what happens when you do not listen.” He then went on to explain what he told them beforehand and how the players failed to apply his plan.

The final match against Argentina will be on who heads the group. Team Melli needs a huge upgrade to match Argentina, the World Champions and if they have any real aspiration to repeat or better the performance of the 2016 Futsal World Cup, they indeed need a whole lot of improvement in every department, specifically the mental attitude strength and discipline.

Milad Mohammadi signs for AEK Athens

The Team Melli left-back, who has been in Athens since Wednesday, successfully completed the medical and ergometric examinations on Thursday, and after the completion of formalities, he headed to AEK Headquarters and signed his contract with the club.

Iran futsal to play USA for a place in the next round.

Vilnius

Iran’s National Futsal team will meet Team USA on Friday evening in matchday two of FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021 hosted by Lithuania. currently . Futsal Team Melli started in a positive note by defeating the Serbian Team 3-2.

Playing in their first FIFA Futsal World Cup since 2008, USA had a return to forget as they went down to an 11-0 defeat, albeit against reigning world champions Argentina. Their pride hurt, the Americans will need to dig deep if they are stay in contention for a place in the last 16 and go some way to matching their run to third place in 1989 and to second place three years later.

Iran are in a very different place after a confidence-boosting win over Serbia. Dominant in the first period, the Iranians clung on in the second. After their third place at Colombia 2016, big things are expected from Iran again. They will start favorites against USA, but will have to make do without the suspended Hamid Ahmadi, with Hossein Tayebi almost certain to miss out too through injury.

A win for Team Melli will ease their mind and go to the last match against World Champions without any due pressure.

Iran and USA met only once befor on in 18th October 2011 in whic Team Melli defeted the American 8-0. There is a good chance to improve this record later on this evening.

Iran regains top Asian FIFA ranking

With the continuous victories of Team Melli in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Iran regained its top ranking in Asia which Japan has occupied since Marc Wilmots took over Team Melli.

With 11538 points, Iran sets at the top and climbed 4 places up in the FIFA ranking issued by the world governing body on Thursday 16th September 2021.

In the AFC Ranking, both Iran and Australia managed a 16 points increase as a result of their perfect third-round performances in the Qualifiers.

Under the Croat Dragan Skocic, Team Melli has won all its games a perfect 100% record.

 

RanK
Team
Total Points
Previous Points
+/-
22
IR Iran
 Iran
1538.08
 1522.04 16.04
26
Japan
 Japan
1520.46
 1529.45 -8.99
32
Australia
 Australia
1493.99
 1477.21 16.78
36
Korea Republic
 Korea Republic
1479.41
 1474.96 4.45
43
Qatar
 Qatar
1445.83
 1455.23 -9.40

 

Iran sets behind Senegal (20th) and Peru (21st) while renowned teams such as Chile, Poland, Ukraine, Serbia, and Austria are behind in the ranking.

FIFA World Ranking

20
Senegal
 Senegal
1555.37
 1545.38 9.99
21
Peru
 Peru
1548.78
 1543.16 5.62
22
IR Iran
 IR Iran
1538.08
 1522.04 16.04
23
Chile
 Chile
1536.53
 1557.81 -21.28
24
Poland
 Poland
1531.82
 1516.27 15.55
25
Tunisia
 Tunisia
1526.87
 1515.3 11.57

 

Milad Mohammadi leaves Gent and knockeing on AEK Athens doors.

Milad Mohammadi, the left-back of Team Melli, who was playing for the  Belgian team  Gent, unexpectedly terminated his contract with the club and is currently a free agent without a team.

According to Greek media, Mohammadi has reached an agreement with AEK Athens and is on the verge of joining the team. Greece’s “sdna” website reported that Mohammadi had even been issued a plane ticket to travel to Greece for medicals and that the player would travel to Athens today to sign a contract and finalize the details of his transfer. According to this site, a few months ago, during the summer transfers window, AEK offered Gent a net amount of 700,000 Euros for the transfer of Milad Mohammadi in addition to some significant rewards for the Belgian club, but the player’s agent claimed that he had more suitors and believed Mohammadi will have better offers before the transfer windows close. This, whoever, did not materialize. Gent pressured Mohammadi to extend his contract, which expires in 2022, but the player refused and the Belgian club recruited another player.

Eventually, Gant and Mohammadi mutually agreed to terminate the contract. It was after that that the president of AEK Athens started his efforts to attract Mohammadi and this transfer is on the verge of being finalized. SDNA predicted that with the presence of Milad Mohammadi on the left side of the AEK defense, Ehsan Haj Safi’s position will change and the captain of the Iranian national team, being such a versatile player will occupy other posts. Karim Ansarifard is another Iranian player of the AEK team who can help Mohammadi familiarize and incorporate into this team sooner and faster.

Iran get FIFA Futsal World Cup campaign off to a flying start with win over Serbia

Vilnius Arena, Vilnius.

Iran opened their FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021 campaign brightly with a 3-2 win over Serbia in Group F at the Vilnius Arena on Tuesday.

Iran, seeking to emulate if not better their third-place finish in the 2016 edition, were always on the front foot against Serbia and will now aim to make it two wins in a row when they play the United States on Sunday.

Iran, appearing in their eighth FIFA Futsal World Cup, raced off the blocks with Mahdi Javid spearheading the attack with captain Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh dictating the tempo of play.

It was not long before the Iranians found the back of the net with Hamid Ahmadi getting on the scoresheet with his fourth-minute strike off Moslem Oladghobad assist before Farhad Fakhim doubled their advantage seconds later.

Serbia, however, refused to buckle as Dejan Majes’ tried to find a way back despite the immense pressure from the Iranian side.

The Asian champions suffered a blow in the 11th minute when goalscorer Ahmadi was given his marching orders after picking up his second yellow card, with Serbia then seeing more of the ball with Slobodan Rajcevic, Dragan Tomic, and Mladen Kocic all making attempts but goalkeeper Alireza Samimi stayed firm.

Serbia, however, were not to be denied by the Mes Sungun FSC shot-stopper as Milos Stojkovic pulled one back courtesy of Marko Prsic’s assist with two minutes left in the first half.

The opening minutes of the second half was equally balanced as both teams traded blows but neither could find a breakthrough in a tense contest with Serbia growing in confidence as the match progressed.

Despite Serbia’s best efforts, Iran refused to be breached again and put the tie beyond reach through Ahmad Esmaeilpour’s strike three minutes from time with Dragan Tomic reducing the deficit seconds later.

Final result

IRAN   3 –  2  SERBIA 

NEXT MATCH

17 September: Iran vs United States (Vilnius)

Bengaluru FC sign Iranian midfielder Iman Basafa

Twenty-Nine-Year-Old Joins Marco Pezzaiuoli’s Side On Deal That Runs Until End Of 2021-22 Season

Bengaluru FC, on Tuesday, announced the signing of Iranian midfielder Iman Basafa, on a deal that runs until the end of their 2021-22 campaign. Basafa, who most recently turned out for Machine Sazi in the Persian Gulf Pro League, is Blues Head Coach Marco Pezzaiuoli’s tenth signing of the summer.

A member of Iran’s youth teams, Basafa has represented his national side at the U17, U20, and U23 levels. The move to Bengaluru sets up the first stint outside Iran for the 29-year-old, who expressed his excitement at being part of the BFC project.

“I’m very happy to join Bengaluru FC and to come to a country like India where football is growing very fast. I’m excited for what lies ahead, for myself and for our team, and I hope to be able to contribute. BFC is a champion team with a good mentality, and I am looking forward to meeting my new teammates and working hard for the season,” Basafa said after the formalities of his deal were completed.

Sunil Chhetri the Indian football icon, the captain of Indian Super League side Bengaluru FC

 

Basafa, who started his youth career at Shahrdari Bandar Abbas, had several spells with teams in Iran’s top divisions, before making his professional debut with Shahrdari Arak in 2012. He made his AFC Champions League bow with Esteghlal FC in 2014 and went on to play for Fajr Sepasi Shiraz, Malavan, Aluminium Arak, and Pars Jonoubi Jam, racking up over 100 appearances in the Azadegan League.

“Iman is a player who is comfortable in different positions in the midfield. He’s someone who has a physical presence, is good with his head, and possesses the traits of a leader. He is also someone who likes to shoot from distance. With his experience and presence, he will strengthen the squad and we look forward to welcoming him soon,” said Pezzaiuoli.