Tag: Keshavarz

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.

Futsal team cruise past China with a 7-0 win

Tashkent: Iran’s Futsal team continued its impressive showing at the AFC Futsal Championship with a 7-0 win against China.

 Mohammad Keshavarz netted a second-half brace as Iran closed in on a place in the AFC Futsal Championship quarter-finals after they thrashed China 7-0 at the Universal Stadium on Friday.

First-half goals from Mohammad Taheri, Ashgar Hassanzadeh and Hamid Ahmadi helped Iran to a 3-0 lead at the break in front of some boisterous support before they turned on the style in the second twenty minutes. Keshavarz then notched his double before further goals from Hossein Tayebi and Ghodrat Bahadori rounded out what was a convincing win for the 10-time champions.

“We showed a powerful performance and that’s another step towards our ultimate goal of winning this tournament,” said coach Mohammad Nazemosharie. “I also wanted to make sure that all the squad played because we have specific plans for each moment of the match and we did that well today.”

Iran got off to an explosive start as they scored one of the fastest goals in the history of the competition when they slotted home immediately from the kickoff.

A loose pass from China captain Lu Yue was seized upon by Taheri who guided his shot past Wei Zheng to hand Iran a dream opening.

Five minutes later they doubled their lead following a delay when Wei went down with injury.

Iran took a quick re-start and with the Chinese defence still adjusting Hamid Ahmadi fed Hassanzadeh who tucked home his shot at the far post to make it 2-0 after six minutes. The speed and movement of Iran was causing China all sorts of trouble and only the post prevented them from going further ahead as Mahdi Javid’s effort missed by the narrowest of margins with five minutes remaining.

The third did eventually arrive though on 17 minutes as Ahmadi smashed home a powerful shot from the right to send his side into the break three goals to the good.

Iran began the second period as they had the first and after several shots that just missed the target they went 4-0 up in the 24th minute as a mistake from Zhao Liang presented them with a three-on-two situation.

Keshavarz didn’t need the extra numbers though as he did it all himself, stroking his shot past Wei with ease and barely 20 seconds later Iran further extended their lead as Reza Sangsefidi fed Tayebi who made it 5-0.

Tayebi then turned provider in the 28th minute when he layed the ball off to Keshavarz who blasted home his second from midway inside the Chinese half.

Iran were toying with a tiring Chinese side and Bahadori was left completely unmarked with eight minutes remaining and he launched a rocket of a shot that flew past Wei to make it 7-0. Only some over elaborate passing and wayward finishing preventing Iran from further adding to their tally as they underlined their status as one of the tournament’s favourites.

“Usually over the past years when we’ve played Iran we have conceded a dozen or so goals each match and Iran is a powerhouse in Asia,” said China coach Shan Zhiping.

“So honestly, I feel happy with the performance because the number of goals we are conceding is becoming fewer.”

Photo: AFC

Candelas admits possible error of judgment on missing players.

On the eve of Futsal Team Melli travel to Vietnam, Jesus Candelas talked to the press about his team, the championship and missing players.

In a very rare case for a coach in  Iran’s, and certainly by futsal/football coaches , Candelas admitted that not inviting Nazari and Keshavarz to Team Melli  could turn out to be an error of judgment from his side!

Candelas expressed his satisfaction with the training camp and the preparation matches played in Tashkent and Moscow which helped him to identify some weakness points, fill some gaps and rearrange the team in preparation for the AFC Futsal Championship in Vietnam. Candelas said that Keshavarz , the Team Captain was recovering from slight injury. “I made a decision to take him along with us to Uzbekistan to complete his recovery with the team. In hindsight, I should admit that this might not have been the best decision as far as Keshavarz was concerned, but I must commend him for his effort and perseverance during the trip.” Candelas said

On the reasons why the famous goalkeeper Mostafa Nazari was not invited to the team, Candelas said “I try to do my job within a specific framework and criteria. I have to say that the decision made on both Keshavarz and Nazari were difficult ones. I also do not want to say that it was definitely the right decision, but from the angles I was looking at , I came up with such decision which I thought it was right at the time based purely on technical issues. The question now is not about inviting them or not which was taken on technical merits. Of course, we could have had other consideration when taking the final decision, in any case I think we have a strong squad capable of challenging for the title.”

Asked about Keshavarz statement yesterday, where he said that he was disrespected and hence he will temporary announce his retirement from the team , Candelas preferred not to comment on the issue on the eve of his team’s departure. However , he emphasized that both Keshavarz and Nazari are quality players and while he is around, Team Melli’s doors will always be open for them. “I have no problem at all inviting them again for the next tournament or matches that we have to play. Right now , my focus is on the AFC Futsal Championship and I will leave it at that”

Futsal Team Melli will play Australia, Indonesia and China in Group C of the 2014 AFC Futsal Championship starting on 30t April in Ho Che Min City , Vietnam.