A thrilling finale to the Persian Gulf League season which saw the championship change hands three times in 90 minutes, ended today. Tractorsazi Tabriz, Naft Tehran and Sepahan Esfahan were all in it for the championship title, with the first two meeting in Tabriz and Sepahan facing Saipa t home.
The final day of the league began with Tractorsazi leading the table and needing a win against the other contender Naft Tehran to secure the title for the first time in the history. Naft was in the same situation as Tractorsazi , while Sepahan not only needed all the three points of the match against Saipa , but also for the two teams drawing in Tabriz , in order to snatch the title.
SNATCHING THE TITLE
Snatch is the most appropriate term for Sepahan eventual Championship title as they have been chasing the leaders for weeks without actually making the top until 9 minutes from the season end.
The match in Tabriz in an over-filled Yadegar Imam stadium estimated to be at 70,000 started shockingly for the host as Ezzati scored Naft’s goal within 9 minutes. That result meant the title was for Naft, but Tractorsazi soon responded. The brilliant partnership between Ando Teymourian and the Brazilian forward Edinho , produced two goals for the Azeri team. The first one came on the 37th minute when a nice weighted cross from Ando found unmarked Edinho on the right. The top league scorer, calmly dribbled the on rushing Naft Defender Shiri, before slotting the ball to the right far corner of Biranvand goal to score the equalizer.
Eight minutes later on the stroke of halftime , the roles was reversed as Edinho, on the left flank, was the provider of an immaculate low cross which found the on rushing Teymourian, to head home past Biranvand reach to the far end of the Naft goal. On both of Tractorsazi goals , Biranvand was found wanting and guilty of poor positioning and action.
Now , Tractorsazi was the champion despite Sepahan leading Saipa in Esfahan.
In the second half Tractorsazi cemented their lead with a third beautifully taken goal by the young and promising forward Farid Karimi, who was surrounded by 4 Naft players but managed to beat them and easily put the ball under Biranvand’s open legs!
3-1 for Tractorsazi as Yadegar Imam Stadium erupted.
MORE THRILLING MOMENTS
But there was more action and thrill awaiting the fans. The fate of this match turned upside down when only two minutes after Tractorsazi’s goal, Ando Teymourian, the most experienced of Tractorsazi players, got his marching orders from Iran’s top referee Alireza Faghani. With just short of half an hour to go, suddenly Tractorsazi was feeling the heat.
In the 76th minute and after consistent waves of Naft attacks, Ali Ghorbani pulled another goal back for his team to make it 3-2. Tractorsazi had 14 minutes to hold on to their lead to win the title, but Lenardo Padovani , the Naft defender took full advantage of a horrible mistake by Hamed Lak in Tractorsazi’s goal to score the equalizer.
It was a massive heartbreak for Tabrizi fans.
SEPAHAN ESFAHAN, RECORD BREAKING TITLE.
Sepahan were still leading Saipa for the remainder of the 9 minutes of the League season 2014/15 as the two goals scored by Mehdi Sharifi in Esfahan was good enough for the Esfahani team to win its record 5th title.
Hossein Faraki, proved beyond shadow of doubt that he is currently the best Iranian football coach by far, winning his second title in a row with two different clubs.
TEAM MELLI FORTUNES
As far as Team Melli is concerned , the matches of the last few rounds and the thrilling finale , showed plenty of promise and talents to replace the old guard in the team, if only one Carlos Queiroz allows that to happen. The Portuguese coach , was nowhere to be seen in any stadiums for the last day of the league as he has left Iran and missed the thrills of what he labels as a boring league.
The worrying part is that Team Melli will be truly struggling in the goalkeepers department as Naft Tehran’s Alireza Biranvand and Tractorsazi’s Hamed Lak both where culprits in their performances. Their standard was consistent with their earlier showings in the league. Both are on Team Melli squad list but certainly liabilities and hardly worthy of a place in Team Melli. With Peykan relegated and with them Mehdi Rahmati, it is difficult to see him bounce back that soon or be picked up by Queiroz. There are no other significant talents who can be considered a worthy candidate for Team Melli goalkeeper position discovered in the league.