Tag: Guam

06/09/202506/09/2025

Kasra Taheri stars in Omid Team win vs. Guam

Abu Dhabi: Five second-half goals steered Iran to a comfortable 6-0 win over Guam in their penultimate Group I clash in the AFC U23 Asian Cup™ Saudi Arabia 2026 Qualifiers at the Al Nahyan Stadium on Saturday.

Iran beat Hong Kong, China 4-0 in their opener and will play the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday in what will be a top-of-the-table clash.

Guam 0-6 IR Iran

Despite dominating ball possession from the start, the Central Asian side only opened accounts in the 42nd minute through Alireza Safari.

Guam, who had no shots on target in the first half, conceded a second goal a minute after the restart when Kasra Taheri put the ball past keeper Josiah Jones.

Taheri, who came on at the start of the second half, fired home IR Iran’s third in the 74th minute and completed his hat-trick five minutes later.

Saeid Saharkhizan put his name on the scoresheet in the 84th minute, with captain Mohammad Javad Hosseinnezhad completing the scoring in the 90th minute.

08/07/2018

Ali Kaffashian investigated by FFIRI Ethics Committee

The former President of FFIRI and the AFC Vice-President was summoned by the Football Federation Ethics Committee.

According to ISNA, the issue of broadcasting rights was refered to to the Ethics Committee after the discovery of some irregularities. This will be the second time that the proceeding is opened in regards to Team Melli’s matches in the preliminary qualifying round of the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 against Guam, Turkmenistan, India and Oman in which, the former President of the Football Federation and current vice president has been accountable.

While the TV broadcast rights company MP & SILVA, as a football federation contractor, claims that they have paid $ 79,000 (totaling $ 316,000) to the football federation FFIRI for each of these games, documents of the federation does not reflect this fact and no record exists of the payment!

Accordingly, Ali Kaffashian, the head of the Football Federation’s at the time was ordered by the Ethics Committee, to submit these records to the committee.

In his first appearance at the Ethics Committee, Kaffashian promised to submit the documents, but despite the passage of more than five months from that first hearing, he had not presented any documents yet, so the Ethics Committee ordered him to appear again before the committee on Wednesday to present the documents.

Ali Kaffashian (63 years) was the President of FFIRI for two terms from 1st March 2008 to 7th May 2016. He was succeeded by Mehdi Taj the incumbent President.

16/11/2015

‘Milestone’ match for Guam

Grant Wieman

The Guam men’s national soccer team will host the most important match in the island’s history on Tuesday when the world’s No. 43-ranked team, I.R. Iran, competes in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifying game at the Guam Football Association National Training Center.

A win for No. 155 Guam would be unexpected and is probably unrealistic, but simply hosting such a prestigious match gives the Matao an opportunity that was previously impossible to imagine.

“I believe having Iran here, in a World Cup Qualification game, is the single most important milestone in Guam football history,” Guam head coach Gary White said during a press conference at the Hilton Guam Resort and Spa on Monday.

“To have a world-class team, a world-class coach, here on our shores is going to do so much for football and our development,” he continued. “… We want the local fans to see world-class football here, live, because we just don’t watch it enough.”

Guam has earned seven points in its six WCQ matches so far, each of them coming at home. They beat Turkmenistan and India and drew with Oman.

In the earlier match against Iran, in Tehran, the Matao lost 6-0.

“Playing in Iran, even though the score was what it was, the players got better as the game went on and that helped us in the next game against Oman (four days later),” White said. “Without that game, we wouldn’t have learned the lessons that we did.”

White, called “The Gaffer” by his players, said the Matao learned the importance of starting fast and limiting mistakes during that match. Iran’s first goal that night came in the ninth minute, on a penalty kick, and Iran picked up momentum from there.

“We know they will have more possession than us. That’s just the reality,” White said. “We can’t start slowly. We can’t give them easy chances. … We look at it like it’s an FA Cup game. I know (Iran head coach Carlos Queiroz) has coached a lot of FA Cup games when he was at Manchester United. You do have second division teams that do upset premiership teams, and that’s our mentality.”

Queiroz was an assistant coach for Manchester United for several seasons in the 2000s.

Both teams will enter the game shorthanded. Iran is missing four starting field players, including their top scorer and their No. 1 goalkeeper because they couldn’t obtain visas to travel to the U.S.

The Matao will likely have three defensive starters out due to injuries, suspension and missing the trip because of other commitments.

“We’re one team, we’re very unified, and we know that everyone else will have to pick up the slack,” Matao captain Jason Cunliffe said. “We hope to put on a good show and show our home fans what we’re capable of. … We’re here to fight through the very last minute. We had a tough result in Iran so we’d like to obviously change that.”

Queiroz and Iran’s captain, Andranik Teymourian, were careful with how they addressed the game. They expect to win, but they never said the word, instead speaking in phrases like “get the result that is convenient for us” and “that is on the way to our target.”

The wording made it clear they respect Guam, both as a soccer team and host nation. It is now up to the Matao to prove they deserve that respect on the pitch.

“To play at home is a great honor against such a team,” Cunliffe said. “Growing up on this island and playing football here, I never — honestly never — thought I’d be seeing the day we’d be hosting a World Cup Qualifier against Iran. It’s amazing and it’s my job as captain to make sure the boys, while we are excited about that in terms of football, for Gaffer and for the kids, to make sure we don’t get too caught up in that because at the end of the day it’s a football match.”

“It’s 11 vs. 11 on the field for 90 minutes and while I’m sitting here telling you it’s great and we’re looking forward to it, believe me when I say that out there on the field it will be a battle and we will make it as difficult for them as possible,” Cunliffe said.

Guam will host Iran at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at GFA. Doors open at 1:30 p.m.

12/11/2015

A torturous journey ahead for Team Melli, where is the justice?

After a short rest following the match against Turkmenistan, Team Melli will have to embark on that epic journey to the Pacific Ocean island of Guam, the other side of the world, to play its National team. The match in group D of the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifiers will entail a 40 hours journey and will involve several transits in airports such as Dubai and Seoul in South Korea before reaching the remote Island destination.

REMOTE DESTINATION
In this day and age and in a just culture, no person or group should be exposed to such inhumane and torturous journey for the sake of playing a 90 minutes football match. In the grand scheme of things, playing a match that means very little to both countries and teams, which adds no value to either Asian or World football standards, and costs a fortune in air tickets and other expenses.

It is a fact: [pullquote align=”right”]Human beings weren’t designed to spend hours at a time packed inside a pressure-controlled capsule [/pullquote]with recycled air and manufactured heat with hundreds of other people tens of thousands of feet in the air. Add in the jet lag and sleeplessness, and you have a recipe for true physiological torture.

This is one of the more preposterous, absurd and unfortunate side of football arrangements tha Iran Guam @ Azadi t no one dares to questions. What is a Pacific nation doing playing in Asia? . The governing bodies. FIFA and in a lessor extent AFC, as we all know rule supreme and with an iron fist. Questioning FIFA authority in terms of governance and match scheduling and arrangements , or not following its strict and more often than not, those ridicules rules of playing matches, will mean banishment from the football world and isolation from the rest of the globe.
Why is there no one in Iranian football federation or other AFC member states questioning this deal in which remote Islands of the Pacific are accepted as member of the Asian Region?

[quote class=”Speak up”]People, organizations and the fans need to speak up.[/quote]

It is beyond comprehension, logic and sanity to have teams travel thousands of miles for a football match and then probably return on the same day or after a little rest. Effect on health, mental status and the pockets are simply too great to be continually ignored and dismissed. People, organizations and the fans need to speak up.
One suspects that it is politics, rearing its dirty head in football. It could be some other dodgy arrangements with financial enumeration for FIFA or AFC. It could simply be for the sake of pleasing Big Brother, after all Guam is a United States of America protectorate, and the boys there need some entertainment so we push them in to AFC to enjoy round the globe travel and adventures.

I have nothing against Guam or any other nation for that matter, but it is simply too far and too torturous for central and western Asian teams to travel to. The same applies to Guam players by the way, we also feel for them as much as our teams. They should not be exposed to such torment either.
Last time I checked, Asia was the biggest continent in the world and it is several time bigger than Europe. Simply put, the football ruling bodies cannot and should not implement the same match scheduling because of the vast distances involved and different time zones in Asia.

It is time to act and stop this nonsense.

AFC needs to act, so does FIFA. Now that some wise guy had his fun , let us return back to sanity and stop these epic journeys. It is too late for Iran , Turkmenistan , India and Oman this time , but that leaves the two ruling bodies, enough time to ponder on this arrangements and come up with some sensible solutions that does not expose players to health risks , physical and mentally.

VISA NOT GRANTED!

On a separate issue, as if this long distressing trip to Guam is not bad enough, another major problem surfaced in the shape of granting visas for Iranian players to Guam. A US protectorate, Iranian Citizens, Visa Applications!!! that sounds alike a real case of pandemonium!! Now, we know that the FFIRI is not exactly the most organized and forward thinking football association in this world, but even if they were, the chances of getting it right would have been quite remote.
Whatever and whoever fault it is, a few players will not have received their visa’s on time or perhaps not granted a visa, as such, it is another good reason why Iran should not be involved in such competition which is beyond sporting. There are many reasons to leaving Guam in OFC to enjoy competing with its friendly neighbors who do not need visas to enter their country rather than
those get tangled with Asians with funny names.

Players such as Hajsafy , Azmoun , Haghighi and Ezzatollahei are all without a visa and will most probably not travel with the team. That is a third of the starting lineup who are unable to travel because of non-granting of Visa, so where is the justice and fair competition in that?

12/11/2015

Team Melli line up vs. Turkmenistan

Carlos Queiroz announced the lineup against Turkmenistan for today’s match in Azadi.

Injury and absenteeism has forced into many changes. The new inexperienced line up is expected to have a tough time against the determined Turkmenistan side that has already declared they are playing for all the 3 points in Tehran.

Iran needs a win today to go to the top of the table. Oman has a rest day in this round while India meets Guam later in the day.

HAGHIGHI, Alireza

HAJSAFY, Ehsan POURALIGANJI, Morteza POURGHAZ, Ezzatollah REZAEIAN, Ramin

TORABI, Mehdi EZZATOLLAHI, Saeid EBRAHIMI, Omid

AMIRI, Vahid DEJAGAH, Ashkan

REZAEI, Kaveh

02/11/2015

Styed Jalal Hosseini on the injury list.

The centre back of Team Melli, Seyed Jalal Hosseini has lost the chance of playing against Turkmenistan in the FIFA World Cup 2018 Qualifiers and possibly the trip to Guam, after suffering a leg injury during a league match.

In the absence of Hosseni , the Naft Tehran defender, Carlos Queiroz will most probably use Morteza PouraliGanji is the role as the Chinese league Tianjin Teda player performed during Asian Cup 2015 in Australia. At the time, the other pair of the central defense, Pejman Montazeri was not available to partner Hosseini and Pouraliganji did an excellent job deputizing for him despite his limited international exposure.

27/09/2015

Team Melli camps in Dubai.

Team Melli landed in Dubai this evening to set up an eight days training camp.

Iran will be meeting its stiffest test in the FIFA World Cup 2018 Qualifiers when they meet Oman in Muscat on 8th of October. Team Melli will train in Dubai in the Iranian Clubs premises until their departure date on Tuesday 6th October.

After the match with Oman, Team Melli will also play a friendly against Japan in Azadi.

Iran is leading the table of Group D with 7 points ahead of Oman on goal difference.

Rank	Team	MP	W	D	L	F	A	D	P
1	Iran	3	2	1	0	10	1	+9	7
2	Oman	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7
3	Guam	4	2	1	1	3	7	-4	7
4	Turkmenistan	3	0	1	2	2	5	-3	1
5	India	3	0	0	3	2	7	-5	0

06/09/2015

Team Melli lands in Bengaluru.

Team Melli landed in Bengaluru (Bangalore) this morning following a few hours transit in Dubai airport.

This flight was one of the most trouble-free trips that Team Melli has enjoyed for a long time. From Queiroz being denied exit from Iran due to non-payment of income tax all the way to the last trip to Uzbekistan then Turkmenistan where the chartered flight was delayed creating a stressful condition on the squad, Team Melli has endured much difficulties in their travels recently.

It is expected that Queiroz will gather the team for light training as soon as the squad checks into the hotel. The match against India as part of the qualifying rounds of the FIFA World Cup 2018 on the 8th will be the first time the two countries have met in 23 years since May 1992 where Iran defeated India 3-0 in Calcutta in the Asian Cup Qualifiers.

The rejuvenated Team Melli is in high spirit after routing Guam, the group leader , 6-0 in Azadi on Thursday. The Team line up against Guam had a good mix of senior players like Hosseini , Montazerri, Dejagah and Teymourian while the rest were young players or newly inducted players. This is far cry form the two squads in the World Cup 2014 and the Asian Cup 2015 which basically was the same team consisting of senior or aged players who have passed their best and their displays were found wanting by the fans and the media.

Head2Head

Venue	Matches	W	D	L	Goals	+ / –
Home	1	1	0	0	3 – 0	+3
Away	5	3	0	2	9 – 6	+3
Neutral	3	2	1	0	6 – 1	+5
Total	9	6	1	2	18 – 7	+11

List of matches

Date	Comp.	H / A / N	Final score	Stadium	Attendance
13.May.1992	Asian Cup Qualifier / ACQ	A	3 – 0	Calcutta	20000
07.Dec.1984	Asian Cup / Group B	N	0 – 0	Singapore	10000
07.Mar.1980	Olympics Qualifier / OLQ	N	2 – 0	Singapore	11000
13.Dec.1966	Asian Games	N	4 – 1	Bangkok	10000
19.Jun.1964	Olympics Qualifier	A	3 – 1	Rapindra Soria , Calcutta	25000
06.Jun.1964	Olympics Qualifier	H	3 – 0	Amjadiah , Tehran	30000
15.Dec.1959	Asian Cup Qualifier	A	2 – 1	Ernakulam, Kerela, India
08.Dec.1959	Asian Cup Qualifier	A	1 – 3	Ernakulam, Kerela, India
10.Mar.1951	Asian Games / Final	A	0 – 1	New Delhi , India	40000

Created

04/09/2015

Iran Will be a Difficult Game for Us: India Coach Stephen Constantine

Reported By Press Trust of India

Bengaluru: As the beleaguered Indian football team gets ready to face Iran in what is touted to be its most difficult outing in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, chief coach Stephen Constantine says he wants to “give fans “something to cheer about”.

A 23-member Indian team arrived here today for the September 8 preliminary joint qualification match against the Asian giant.

Stunned by lower-ranked Guam in their previous outing, Indian players had been training at DSK Shivajians in Pune since August 24.

Besides, India also played an international friendly against Nepal on August 31, which ended in a goalless draw.

“We have great support here. The fans are really behind the national team. I appreciate that and so do the players,” Constantine said.

“I hope we can give the fans something to cheer about. It will be very difficult match for us but that’s the time when you can discover on whom you can depend upon.” (Indian Football Season Can’t be Dictated by Television: Constantine)

As per the current raking, Iran are placed 40 in the ladder with India at 155.

The boys were given a break in the afternoon and practice would resume from Saturday morning.

Reflecting back on the training stint in Pune, the coach said, “The huge advantage that the DSK campus has is that you have everything in one place. You have your medical facilities, the pool, the gym, rooms for screening and analysis in one campus besides the two wonderful training grounds,” he stated.

“You have everything that you should have as a club never mind a national team.

“Furthermore, the willingness of the authorities who were immensely proud to serve the national team was awesome indeed. I need to thank Mr. Shirish Kulkarni and his team and look forward to continuing the relationship with them in the future,” he affirmed.

04/09/2015

Team Melli young guns put on the style in a 6-0 victory.

Guam topping the group ahead of Iran and oozing with confidence with dreams of upsetting the powerful Team Melli, was suddenly put down to earth with a 6-0 drubbing in Azadi today. This was Guam first drop of points of their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Team Melli jumped on the Matao almost immediately with a goal in the opening 10 minutes off a penalty kick from Ashkan Dejagah. The hosts went into halftime up by three goals as Mehdi Taremi and Sardar Azmoun scored before halftime. Taremi and Azmoun found the back of the net again in the second half before Mehdi Torabi rounded the scoring with a tally in the dying minutes of the match.

Despite the result, Guam remain atop Group D with six points while Iran are in second with four but holding a match in hand.

Queiroz put his confidence in his youngsters’, who put a wide smile on his face after the emphatic win against the group leaders.

Although Sardar Azmoun continued his prolific scoring records with Team Melli , it was Mehdi Taremi , the player from Bushehr , currently starring for Persepolis , who attracted most of the attentions. Azmoun run on the flank was stopped by a foul from keeper Doug Herrick. The referee had no hesitation to blow for a penalty which Ashakan Dejagah slotted comfortably into the net in the 10th minute.

The early goal opened Team Melli appetite as both Ando Teymourian and Taremi came close to adding to the tally. The latter then scored when Azmoun sent a neat pass for Taremi to slot in the goal with a side touch for his first goal and Iran’s second in the 31st minute. Azmoun added one more before half time from a slide rule cross by Ashkan Dejagah for the young forward who plays for the Russian club Rostov to outjump the Guam defenders and head into the net. Azmoun has scored several goals in such style and beginning to acquire a reputation for splendid heading goals.

Azmoun scored again on the 41^st from a neat cross by Vahid Amiri to finish the half with 4-0 margin for Team Melli.

The second half was much the same as what the fans witnessed in the first. Guam hardly venturing into Iranian territory while Team Melli players putting a siege round the Guam box.

Further goals came from Taremi who headed home Ramin Rezaeian’s cross and then a late goal by Torabi, his second for Team Melli in as many matches.

The second half was not more than a damage limitation exercise by Guam who defended in numbers and managed to limit the scoring to no more than two.

Team Melli will now face India next while Guam will play Oman who beat Turkmenistan 3-1 in Muscat.