Tag: Ahmadi

Iran Futsal to the final after a bone crushing defeat of Vietnam.

Futsal Team Melli reached the final of the AFC Futsal Championship 2016 with a commanding win against surprise semi-finalist Vietnam. Iran’s 13-1 win was one of the biggest semi final margins in the history of the competition. The first half ended 7-1 for Team Melli.

Vietnam paid the price of naivety of their coach. Their quarter-final win against defending champion Japan, led to unrealistic , though legitimate belief in the team that they can conquer Iran.

However, It was clear from the first few minutes of the match that Vietnam cannot match Team Melli for skills and technique.

In the pre-match press conference , the ambitious Spanish coach Bruno Formoso said his team was looking beyond Iran and into the final. However, he failed to analyse the opposition properly and his plans went tragically wrong as his team was 3-0 down in less than 9 minutes in the 1st half. The major mistake was playing offensively against Iran and trying to match them for ball possession and attack.

Mahdi Javid opened the scoring for Iran before Farhad Tavakoli scored two quick goals to put Team Melli comfortably 3-0 ahead.

After the 3rd goal, Vietnam coach asked for a time out where he decided to play with all players in the filed ( 5 -0)  to score at least one goal against the mighty Iranians. Again , Vietnam players simply could not match the Iranians.

Despite the fact that Iran’s coach was revolving and playing all his squad, Nazim AlSharia  mainly used the reserve restig the likes of Taheri, Tayebi, Hassanzadeh and Keshavarz.

Vietnam brave resistance fell apart in the second half as Ahmadi , Hossein Tayebi , Mahdi Javid and Tavakoli  (scoring  his 4 goals) , Keshavarz  added another 6 goals in the second half for Team Melli.  Vietnam could not add to that solitary goal scored in the first half.

Iran’s injured Captain Mohammed Keshavarz , returned to the team and played the last 10 minutes helping himself to two goals in the process.

Iran will be meeting Uzbekistan in the Finals for a repeat of the for 2010 championship edition when the mighty Iranians defeated the host 8-3 in front of the passionate Uzbek fans.

Davari under cyber-attack from Iranian fans.

The personal facebook page of Daniel Davari , Team Melli’s goalkeeper , has been littered with attacks on the German-Iranian keeper after his feeble display against Guinea.

Some over-zealous Iranian fans have resorted to  the personal facebook page of Davari to display their anger and disapproval of Queiroz selection of this young keeper and target Davari to some verbal abuse. After some personal problem developed between Queiroz and Rahmati , believed to be originally initiated by Queiroz attempts to recruit Davari , the Esteghlal Keeper quit Team Melli in protest considering Queiroz approach to Davari as a vote of no confidence in his ability. Such move by  Esteghlal &Team Melli veteran goalkeeper , conveniently played into Queiroz hands as the Portuguese coach finally managed to get Davari into Team Melli as a possible long term replacement to Rahmati and Ahmadi, while refusing to name Rahmati in the team’s squad again.

Davari’s poor handling of two shots against Guinea leading to 2 goals, the first was a mild one that slipped under his arm,  raised  many question’s about Davari’s  suitability for the World Cup and international arena, especially since the opposition was nothing like the powerful teams in Iran’s group in the World Cup.  Many experts expressed their concern in the media , some believing that Davari’s selection criteria was due to Queiroz obsession with any players of Iranian origins or ancestry , who plays in Europe . That Davari plays in the Bundesliga, was good enough of a reason for Queiroz, some experts claim.

However , some fans went beyond the norm and etiquette. Unable to get to Queiroz , the person who is culpable for the selection of Davari, the wrath of some fans were directed at Davari personally the same way that these over-zealous fans have targeted Messi after Argentina was grouped with Iran in the World Cup draws.

That is not a good omen for Davari , who might find it difficult to come to terms with such events. Although many fans defended the German-Iranian keeper on his facebook page, it is remained to be seen if Davari can get over this unscathed.

Davari has made his debut against Thailand in the qualification rounds of the AFC Asian Cup last November, where he successfully managed a shut-out.  He conceded 3 goals in his next two games including the Guinea match.