Tag: Arya Barzegar

Omid Team in WAFF Semi-Finals

The lineup for the semifinals of the 2023 WAFF U-23 Championship is complete after Iraq, Oman and Iran won their respective groups and Jordan joined them as the best second-placed team of the round.

The semifinals of the three-group, nine-team tournament — organized by the West Asia Football Federation — will be played on Sunday with Iraq facing Oman and Jordan taking on Iran.

In Group A, hosts Iraq cruised to a 3-0 win over the UAE to finish top of the standings with four points, ahead of runners-up Jordan only on goal difference.

Group B saw a dramatic end as Palestine led Iran 1-0 deep into stoppage, a scoreline that would have ensured progress to the last four with a maximum of six points from two matches. However, Iran equalized through Arya Barzegar in the 97th minute to break Palestinian hearts and finish top of the group instead.

Despite still claiming four points and second place, the Palestinians missed out on a semifinal spot as Jordan — who also finished with +1 goal difference — had scored more goals in Group A.

Meanwhile, in group C, Yemen defeated Lebanon 2-1 in what turned out to be a dead rubber as both teams were eliminated. Oman had already guaranteed the top spot with six points from their two matches.

18-June-2318:00IRAN U23JORDAN U23
18-June-2321:00IRAQ U23OMAN U23

All times GMT + 3

Al-Madina International Stadium, Baghdad

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Team Melli defeats Nicaragua in Azadi.

Iran’s last home game before the FIFA World Cup ended up in a mundane 1-0 win for Team Melli. Torabi scored the only goal in the First half.

Nicaragua, ranked 120 steps below Iran, managed to limit World Cup-bound Team Melli to two shots on target in the entire 90 minutes +, one of which ended up in a goal.

Behind the closed door and playing with mostly domestic league players, there was little to be gained from the World Cup preparations perspective, except for perhaps some last-chance look by Queiroz and his coaching staff on which domestic league players will make it on the plane to Doha

Playing weaker teams, however, had always been a risk and that proved true this time against Nicaragua. Omid Ebrahimi, one of the veterans of the team and almost certain to be included in the World Cup squad, left the field of play after only a minute or two from being substituted in, falling a victim to a clumsy challenge by the Nicaraguan player. He was treated on the field but then left on a stretcher. His conditions looked serious enough for him, to miss the World Cup.

The goal scored by Mehdi Torabi in the 15th minute was perhaps the only decent move by Team Melli in the entire match. Noorafkan gifted an accurate pass to Torabi who beautifully controlled the ball while neatly wrong-footing his marker, before slotting powerfully into the Nicaraguan goal.

The rest of the match was concentrated mostly in the middle of the field. Surprisingly, the Nicaraguan players seemed to be the more energetic of the two sets of players. Coming from tropical weather to Tehran, all of them protected themselves against the cold temperature by wearing gloves. However, they were more energetic than Team Melli players despite their long trip. The guests were not shying from any tackles and challenged every ball, sometimes too roughly, and gave the host a run for their money.

On a positive note, Queiroz introduced 3 new young players by giving debuts to Aria Brazegar, Mehdi Hashemipor, and Ali Sadeghi. Barzegar who was on the starting lineup had a truly dreadful debut as he could not pass or shoot any decent ball. The others substituted in, however, showed some nice touches and enough confidence even daring to try long-range shots.

Team Melli meets Tunisia next. A much more serious challenge. However, the whole squad will be available by then.