Tag: Morocco

Asian kings Iran fire at Morocco’s expense

(FIFA.com)

16 Sep 2016

Iran put their FIFA Futsal World Cup campaign back on track with a 5-3 Group F victory over Morocco in Medellin on Thursday.

The Asian champions, who suffered a surprisingly hefty 5-1 opening defeat against Spain on the opening matchday, belatedly found form.

After a slow start from both teams, Iran moved to a three-goal lead and they held a handy 4-2 margin at the break.

The match found its intensity and as the fouls mounted Morocco’s Mohamed Jaoud who, having scored the north Africans’ first goal, was sent for a stint on the sidelines allowing Iran to add two goals in quick succession.

The second half was a more controlled affair and Morocco, fighting for their Futsal World Cup lives, pushed Iran hard in the second period.

Iran scored soon after the interval but for much of the remainder of the half it was Morocco in the ascendency, leaving their opponents happy to counter-attack.

Morocco again drew within two goals of their rivals as captain Adil Habil netted his second of the night but it was to prove a bridge too far.

Iran will look to lock up passage to the Round of 16 on Sunday when they tackle enigmatic debutants Azerbaijan, while Morocco face a massive challenge against two-time world champions Spain.

 

Coliseo Ivan de BedoutMedellin (COL)

15 Sep 2016 – 20:00 Local time
Group matches – Group F
Iran    IRAN     MOROCCO    Morocco
FULL-TIME
5-3

SCORERS

SCORERS

Futsal teams departs to Bogota with great expectations.

Asian Futsal Champion, Iran departed to Bogota to participate in the FIFA Futsal World Cup Colombia 2016 with great expectation.

Iran goes into the FIFA Futsal World Cup with significant momentum, claiming the 2016 AFC Futsal Championship where they racked up an incredible 48 goals.  This is the sixth appearance for Futsal Team Melli in the World Cup which is now ranked in the top 5 teams in the FIFA Ranking.

Seyed Mohammad Nazemalsharieh will be hoping to lead his team to the final rounds of the competition after some sterling performances in the previous World Cup. Only two teams in the world had more participation in the FIFA Futsal World Cup than Iran’s 6 times. Both Brazil and Spain took part in 7 edition of the  FIFA  Futsal World Cup.

Reunion time 
Iran will be up against some familiar faces in the group stage of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Colombia 2016, where they will take on not just Spain but also Morocco, whom Tayebi and Co edged past four years ago. Their third opponents, meanwhile, will be somewhat more of an unknown quantity in Azerbaijan.

The Asian champions will once again be kicking off against Spain, on this occasion in Medellin on 12 September. Tayebi stressed that he and his team-mates will be gunning for victory in this heavyweight bout: “I can assure you that every time the Iranian national futsal team enter the pitch, we do so to win, because we’re among the world’s powerhouses in this sport. We respect the Spaniards but we want to win our first match in Colombia. Encounters between Spain and Iran are always spectacular and tight affairs, but we’re determined to get the win.”

“We know that Azerbaijan have a strong team, even though we’ve never faced them,” he continued. “The coaching staff have watched two of their games, though, and told us that they play some good stuff. As I said before, we play to win and that match will be no exception.”

Despite his confidence in his own side’s abilities, Tayebi is nevertheless mindful that several other countries have kicked on in recent years and so it will prove a tough task for Iran to achieve their goal of advancing to at least the last four.

“I think most teams’ level has improved, which means the competition will be stiff and there will be no easy games. There are no favourites on paper and every side will be made to work hard for wins.”

“We’re going to do our best to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup and play with heart. We respect all the other teams a great deal, but we’re determined to succeed.”

Shamsaei thanks God

Inspired by Shamsaee 
Tayebi is hopeful that the strike he bagged in Thailand four years ago will not be his last on the world stage, although collective glory remains his number-one target. “I was delighted to find the net against Spain. It was the most important goal of my career. Scoring at a World Cup is something unforgettable for any player,” he said, before quickly clarifying that, “As far as I’m concerned, the team’s success comes before my scoring statistics.”

“It’s exciting to see your name on the scoresheet in a World Cup match but, like I said, the team’s targets are more important. The fact that I’ve scored at a World Cup before shows that I can play my part within the group.”

In his eagerness to do his bit and perform his role with aplomb, Tayebi is inspired by the example of former Iran stars such as ex-national team captain Vahid Shamsaee, whom he described as “one of the best players in futsal history”.

“Vahid is a real legend and I have tremendous respect for him. He’s a great man who had a lot of success in his career. I’m proud to be his compatriot. I love the way he played and I’m going to try to follow in his footsteps by living long in all the Iranian fans’ memories.”

Colombia 2016 could provide the perfect platform for Tayebi to fulfil this dream by not just adding to his World Cup goal tally, but accomplishing something that not even the great Shamsaee was able to – helping his country through to the semi-finals of the global showpiece.

This year’s competition will be a total of 6 groups in the competition with each group having four teams. After the group stages, the top 2 teams from each group will proceed to the knockout stage along with the 4 highest ranked third place finishers.

Solid preparations 

 

11 times Asian Champion Iran team has been actively preparing for the FIFA Futsal World Cup for over 4 months and played several tough matches. In Mashad, Team Melli played two matches against fellow qualifiers Uzbekistan with convincing wins 3-0 and 6-3 for Iran. Earlier, Iran participated in a 4 nation Futsal tournament in Thailand, where they drew with Kazakhstan 3-3, lost to Thailand 7-5 and beat Japan 4-2.

 

Team Roster

 

1 Sepehr MOHAMMADI Goalkeeper 27 years old

2 Alireza SAMIMI Goalkeeper 29 years old

3 Ahmad ESMAEILPOUR Pivot 27 years old

4 Mohammad KESHAVARZ Defender 34 years old

5 Hamid AHMADI Defender 27 years old

6 Mohammadreza SANGSEFIDI Wing 26 years old

7 Ali HASSAN ZADEH Wing 28 years old

8 Ghodrat BAHADORI Wing 26 years old

9 Afshin KAZEMI Defender 29 years old

10 Mohammad TAHERI Wing 31 years old

11 Mehran ALIGHADR Wing 27 years old

12 Hossein TAYEBI Pivot 27 years old

13 Farhad TAVAKOLI Defender 27 years old

14 Mahdi JAVID Pivot 29 years old

 

Head Coach: Seyed  Mohammad NAZEMALSHARIEH (IRN) 46 years old

Assistant Coach: Mohammad  HASHEMZADEH (IRN) 39 years old

 

 

Thailand futsal overpowers Iran

Iran’s Futsal Melli team lost to its nemesis Thailand 7-5 in the four nations tournament  in that match played today Sunday in Bangkok.

Iran’s goals were scored by Ahmad Esmaeilpour, Farhad Tavakoli, Mohammadreza Sang-Safidi , Mehdi Javid and Mehran A’lighadr.

On Saturday evening, Team Melli  futsal team was held to a 3-3 draw in the first match against Kazakhstan , which serves as a warm-up for the 2016 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Futsal World Cup in Colombia later this month.

“Kazakhstan is among decent futsal teams in the world, so it will be so helpful and advantageous for our players to face such squads. We played a tough game. The opposite side had earlier eliminated Italy national futsal tyeam in Euroean games.

“Kazakhstan national futsal team is in a fairly great form. Although the match ended in 3-3 draw, it was a good litmus test for our futsal players,” Ali Sanei, technical coordinator at the Iran futsal team, said after the match.

The four-nation tournament in Thailand started on August 18, and will conclude on August 23, 2016.

The 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup will be the 8th edition of the FIFA Futsal World Cup. The tournament will be held in Colombia between September 10 and October 1.

Iran has been drawn alongside Azerbaijan, Morocco and Spian in Group F of the forthcoming sports event.

The Colombian hosts, Panama, Portugal and Uzbekistan form Group A, while Cuba, Egypt, Russia and Thailand form Group B.

Guatemala, Italy, Paraguay and Vietnam are put in Group C. Group D consists of Australia, Brazil, Mozambique and Ukraine.

Argentina, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan and the Solomon Islands shape Group E.

Intensive preparation for Futsal team ahead of the World Cup.

Team Melli Futsal is on the road to an a=intensive preparation program ahead of the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2016 in Colombia.   

After the completion of the fourth round of league matches, the squad of 14 players will be named for Team Melli Futsal on Tuesday 16th August. Next day , the squad will fly to Bangkok to take part in Thailand’s 4 nations Cup.  After playing against Kazakhstan , Japan & host Thailand in the tournament, the squad will return back to Tehran on 25th August .

 “After a short stop in Tehran, the squad will fly to Mashad to play Uzbekistan in a friendly. ” Ali Sanei , the teams’ Technical Manager announced yesterday. The teams will meet twice in Mashad.

Sanei added that the team has already set up a mini camp in Tehran the aim of which was to check on the physical conditions of the players and attend to any injuries as early as possible before flying to Colombia.” we will do our utmost best to ensure that the players are in the best physical and psychological shape during the next few weeks. We need to be at our best in the World Cup as our chances are quite high and players are well motivated for this championship.”

 

Fixture

20/8/2016
15.30 Iran – Kazakhstan –
18.15 Thailand – Japan –

21/8/2016
15.30 Japan – Kazakhstan –
18.15 Thailand – Iran –

23/8/2016
17.00 Iran – Japan –
19.45 Thailand – Kazakhstan –

 

 

FIFA Futsal World Cup Colombia 2016

Group F

QATAR DETERMINED TO BOUNCE BACK

www.afcasiancup.com

14 January 2015 Michael Church

Sydney: Djamel Belmadi is hoping his Qatar team can put their disappointing 4-1 loss at the hands of the United Arab Emirates behind them as they prepare to take on three-time AFC Asian Cup winners Iran at Stadium Australia on Thursday evening.

The Algerian coach was still at a loss to explain the Group C defeat in Canberra on Sunday as the Gulf Cup champions prepared for the crucial meeting with Team Melli off the back of their first defeat in 11 games.

“We lost the opening game because we played (it) like a friendly game,” said Belmadi. “It was not our day or our real level, especially after the good competition in the Gulf Cup.

“We expected something different. But now it’s the past and we have to make a reaction. Of course we are all disappointed. They have got the ambition to make a different game tomorrow.

“My main job was to work more psychologically than something else. Of course, we had to analyse what happened in this game and to correct it.

“But I know this group that I have. I have chosen them and I know that we are able to change things and we can do much, much better even when things look difficult, even for some people impossible. But for us, it’s not impossible and we’ll try to show it tomorrow.”

The Qataris face an Iran side that won their first game 2-0 against Bahrain and for whom victory in Sydney on Thursday evening would mean securing a place in the quarter-finals.

With Carlos Queiroz’s side having impressed at the FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil in June, Belmadi knows his team face a tough challenge to pick up their first win of the tournament.

“It will be a decisive game against a big team that qualified for the World Cup and who played against strong teams at the World Cup. We are prepared and we know it’s going to be a tough game,” he said.

“But we’re also used to playing against teams that are stronger on paper than us, like Morocco and Australia. The team is relatively young and the average age is 23 years old and even though we’re here for the competition we’re here to learn and to learn fast. The same team played at the Gulf Cup and we ended up winning the competition.

“We have a plan and like always we will try to find the solution because it’s a good team, well organised, really aggressive and they don’t give you too much space, so we will have to find a solution. Every team has some weakness, like the others. We will try to find this weakness and try to find the way to score and to win this game.”