Tag: Russia

Azmoun denies any approach by Napoli.

Team Melli and Zenit St. Petersburg striker,  announced that he has no information about the Italian Serie 'A' club's offer.

Sardar Azmoun, who was enjoying his most successful season before the COVID-19 outbreak, has been widely reported in the Italian press that he is a subject of interest by Napoli, and it has been announced that the Italian team is ready to pay more than 20 million euros for his services.

Regarding the offer, Sardar Azmoun said: "I don't know about Napoli's offer except for what I read in the media like everyone else. There has been no official contact from  my management on that either."

Azmoun added "I have a contract with Zenit for another year and a half. I am committed to this contract and enjoying my time here. It remains to be seen what will happen in the future."

Sardar Azmoun, who was ranked second in the Russian league goalscoring charts last season, has also excelled this season, earning Zenit the defending champions the top position of the Russian league table.

Azmoun has scored 10 goals so far this season including a hat-trick in his last game against Ural on 14th March.

Iran's Beach soccer qualifies to the Semi Finals

Iran's beach soccer team made it two out of two wins in the Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup 2019 and qualified for the Semi-Finals.

In today match, held in Dubai , the Iranian national team defeated African champion Egypt 5 - 3 with a dominant performance to keep up the pressure on the rest of the contenders in this current tournament.  In the first period of the match, the two teams were tied one by one and while Egypt took the lead, Iran soon equalized on a single beautiful tactical work and the final kick by Mustafa Kiani.

The second period was played on equal terms. With the game tied  2-2 , Iran took the initiative by further two goals by Amir Hossein Akbari and Mohammad Masoumizadeh, while Egypt scored their third goal. The third period followed with both teams being more cautious, and Egypt, which closed the playing field for most of the minutes, scored. However, the restart of Amir Hussain Akbari's single goal was compensated by the Egyptians. In the final minutes, a corner kick by Moslem Mesigar, and Amir Hosseinakbari's fifth goal rattled sealed the match for Iran with a final score of 5 -3.

Hashempour's team is 2 wins out of 2. Iran's  Beach soccer had won the first match 7-4 against Mexico. The Iranian team will face Russia in the final group stage match tomorrow evening (Thursday).

 

Iran Beach soccer starts with a victory vs. Mexico

Defending Champions Iran Beach soccer national team played its first match in the Intercontinental Cup 2019 and ended it with a comprehensive win against CONCACAF Champions Mexico.

On Tuesday, in the ninth edition of the tournament of the UAE-hosted intercontinental Beach tournament ,  Hashempour's Iranian national team defeated Mexico 7-4 in their first match for both teams.

In the first period of the match, both teams scored two goals apiece, Iran's goals were scored by Mohammad Ahmadzadeh and Mohammad Ali Mokhtari. In the second period Iran, playing a better game than the first, scored two more goals. The goals were scored by Mohammad Ali Mokhtari and Amir Hossein Akbari. The third period of the match further goals were scored by the Iranian side by Amir Hossein Akbari who scored Iran's fifth goal. Meanwhile, Mohammad Masoumizadeh scored the sixth Iranian goal while the final goal was scored by Mohammad Ahmadzadeh.

  The full results of the First Round

INTERCONTINENTAL BEACH SOCCER CUP DUBAI 2019

November 5, 2019

Group A Japan   Japan 6 - 4 Italy    Italy
Group A Spain   Spain 2 -2  (2 -1) PSO UAE Uae
Group B Egypt   Egypt 3 - 5 Russia  Russia
Group B Iran   Iran 7 - 4  Mexico  Mexico
   

The next match will be on Wednesday 19:30 Tehran time when Iran will face Egypt.

This competition is considered to be the most prestigious beach football event after the FIFA World Beach Soccer Cup under the supervision of FIFA and the World Beach Games held by Anouk (National Olympic Committees).

Hashempour: “We will show our strength once again”

Defending champions Iran are determined to claim back-to-back Intercontinental Cup crowns and equal Brazil and Russia at the top of the records

Defending champions Iran have landed in Dubai with the mission of reediting the 2018 crown and equalling Brazil and Russia as the most decorated sides at the Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup records. After clinching the Bronze Medal at the last World Beach Games in Qatar just a couple of weeks ago, the team feels in the perfect mood to take on such a challenge.

Grit, talent and perfect teamwork, plus the support of their passionate fans, give Abbas Hashempour’s team all the necessary ingredients to go all the way in this year’s competition, taking place in Kite Beach between the 5th and 9th of November.

“Only the most powerful teams take part in the Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup, so we are fully aware of how difficult it is to prevail in such a competitive arena. Russia, for example, is a team that can do real harm on you if you are not fully focused and fight fiercely every single second of the game. But we also are, as we have repeatedly shown, capable of winning any team in the world. This is what we have in our minds and our hearts, and we will try our best to beat all our opponents and reach the final”, Iran National Coach Abbas Hashempour explained.

The tough opposition will not be the only obstacle for Iran to accomplish their mission, though. The Persian side will be missing one of the key players, 2018 Rising Star Mohammad Moradi, due to injury, and some other players will also be back in competition after injuries, that leaves a question mark on their outcome during the coming days, but coach Hashempour believes the collective strength will help the team overcome these setbacks.

As the defending champions, the Iranian side will have all the eyes put on them, but this is not something the team is concerned about. “Everyone will be expecting a lot from us, but we are determined to show everybody why we are the champions. We want to demonstrate again how powerful we are”, the coach admitted.

Iran were drawn in Group B together with also-favourite Russia, Egypt and CONCACAF champions Mexico and will be making their debut, precisely, against the Azteca side (Tuesday 5th of November, 8:00 pm). That will mark the first step in their road to reediting the crown and claiming their third Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup.

The Koreans are desperate for a win against Team Melli

Paulo Bento, The Portuguese coach of South Korea who led his team to a 1-0 win against Australia, is determined to lead the team to victory against Iran too. South Korea, ranked 37th in the FIFA rankings, has been out-ranked 9th, 8th and 13th spots lower against the 21st ranked Iran, who are also the top ranking team in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). In the last five matches, Korea never won against the Iranians managing only one draw and four losses. Bento in his pre-match press conference at the PFC NFC (Training Center for Football) on October 10, said "We will continue to maintain the framework and style of our team even if we play an experimental team versus Iran," he said. "We are now building a team to make the right choices in the World Cup qualifiers." Bento said, "We will consider the technical and mental aspects of the players," "We will stick with our style of play and bring in the players we need." Bento is looking forward to the success of his aces Son hung min and Hwang Joon-jo.

How much is too much for Son Heung-min?

Son Heung-min has played a lot of soccer over the last 12 months, with minutes on the field seemingly outranked only by air miles.

It has some South Koreans wondering how much is too much.

The recently completed season with Tottenham Hotspur was intense enough, with almost 50 appearances as the club placed fourth place in the Premier League and progressed to the Champions League final before losing 1-0 against Liverpool in Madrid.

Through it all, he maintained a taxing schedule with South Korea's national team that included trips to the World Cup in Russia, the Asian Games in Indonesia and the Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates. And international friendlies on top, too.

Despite all that, the 26-year-old Son was called once again by South Korea coach Paulo Bento to fly from Europe to play 90 minutes in a low-key friendly against Australia last Friday and prepare for another exhibition against Iran in Seoul on Tuesday. There have been calls for the player to be given a break but that is unlikely to happen.

Wilmots advocating an offensive strategy

Iran national football team head coach Marc Wilmots said Monday his side will play attacking football with high-pressing tactics to beat South Korea in their upcoming friendly match.
Iran and South Korea will go head-to-head at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul on Tuesday. Wilmots, who took over Iran's helm last month, said Team Melli will not sit back against the Taeguk Warriors, who have yet to suffer a defeat at home under their head coach Paulo Bento.
"The best defense is a good offense," Wilmots said at a pre-match press conference. "We will try to create many chances with a high-intensity pressing game."
Iran national football team head coach Marc Wilmots speaks at a press conference at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul on June 10, 2019, one day ahead of his team's friendly football match against South Korea. (Yonhap)
"Since 2014, Son has grown a lot with experience from big tournaments like the UEFA Champions League," he said of the Tottenham Hotspur star. "Son is showing his best performance these days using his technique and experience."
Iran, ranked 21st in the latest FIFA rankings, have been one of the top nemeses to South Korea, currently No. 37 in the world. Iran have not suffered a defeat against South Korea since 2011. They collected four consecutive 1-0 wins before taking a scoreless draw in a World Cup qualifying match in August 2017.
Wilmots, 50, said he wants to maintain Iran's undefeated streak against South Korea.
"Iran and South Korea are rivals that motivate each other," he said. "But what I hate the most is losing. Many fans will root for South Korea tomorrow, but we'll try our best."

Mehrdad Mohammadi signs for Portuguese club CD Aves

Mehrdad Mohammadi, the 25 years old Sepahan midfielder has reached an agreement with the Portuguese side Clube Desportivo Aves to play for 3 seasons starting from 2019/20 season.

Mohammadi, whose twin brother Milad plays for Russian side Akhmat Grozny, has been enjoying an exceptional season with Sepahan , playing 29 matches and scoring 6 goals. The team under Amir Ghalenoei challenged Persepolis for the title until all the way to the end of the Persian Gulf League, eventually ending as Runner up.

CD Aves , is a small club in Portugal established in 1930. They won promotion to the top division of the Portuguese league in 2017/18 season when they finished runners up in the Iranian forward Segunda Liga. They achieved the same in season 2005/06. The pinnacle of CD Aves achievements is winning the Cup (Taça de Portugal) last season 2017/18.  The coach of CD Aves is the veteran Portuguese coach Augusto Inácio who has coached Foolad Khuzestan in 2007/08 and before joining CD Aves he was in Egypt as head coach of Zamalek.

CD Aves is currently uncomfortably laying in the 14th position in the Primeira liga with 36 points and 2 matches to go. The club is still not safe from relegation as the team in 16th place, Chaves has one match in hand with 32 points.

Vila das Aves is an industrial town and civil parish (freguesia) in northern Portugal with a population of less than 10,000 people. It is about 350 km north of capital Lisbon and 70 km from the Spanish boarder.

Omid Team to start the long road to Olympics in earnest.

Iran will kickstart their 2020 AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers campaign from 22nd March in Tehran. The team, known as Omid Team, is under the guidance of the seasoned Croat coach Zlatko Krancjar and will lock horns against Turkmenistan in their first match before crossing swords against Yemen two days later and finally, their strongest rival, Iraq on 26th March.

Omid team held has held a series of training sessions and camps including playing friendly games against Syria and Jordan prior to the competition. Omid Team also played in a competition in Qatar where three U-23 teams took part. Iran won the title of that round ribbon tournament.

Tehran is hosting Group C of 2020 AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers

 In preparation for the matches starting tomorrow, a post-match conference was held at the National Iranian National Football Center's conference hall where all the coaches expressed optimism for their team’s chances while Iraqi and Yemeni coach criticized the AFC plans for the Olympic Games qualifiers.

At the beginning of the press conference, Turkmen coach Bayram Dordayiev said: "I know Iran's football quite well, since I worked in Iran for several years. Iran's football has a a colorful history and has produced players such as Ali Daei, Mehdi Mahdavikia and Ali Parvin in its history. Football is strong and powerful in this country. Iran is strong in the Olympics age group and has a youth team that plays well in defense and attack. We have a tough group. Iran and Iraq are powerful teams and we have information about them. Ultimately, the result of any match cannot be predicted but only the playing field will dictate the victorious and superior team."

Iran's coach, Zlatko Krancjar, said: "First of all, I wish to congratulate everyone on the occasion of the Persian New Year and welcome my colleagues from Turkmenistan, Yemen and Iraq to Iran. Apart from Iraq, we do not know adequate knowledge about the other two teams, we only know the Iraqi team and played two games and hopefully in the coming days we will be able to get the necessary knowledge of the other competitors.”

About the final list of 23 players in the squad, Head coach or Iran U23 team, Krancjar said  "We should announce the list beforehand. We set up this list, and the promise is that it can deliver our objectives. Some clubs did not cooperate with the team by holding their players.  Apart from the damage that was done because of that, there is no particular problem in the team. We were looking at the legionnaires, but the domestic players were better and more prepared"

Referring to the use of players outside the Iranian league, he said ” We have Reza Shekari from Russia but  we do not have Younis Delphi due to injury.”

Iraqi coach Abdul Ghani Shahid said: "We have great hopes to qualify. We succeeded in qualifying to the Rio Olympics in the last competition and hope we can repeat it again. Many think that Iraq and Iran will qualify from this group, but I believe the standards are too close to call. Asian Football Confederation has made a strange plan for the tournament. The AFC, which always pays particular attention to the quality of the players and the quality of the tournament, holds tournaments in tandem, and this affects the quality of the work. We did not use adult players in the tournament because they were engaged in the AFC Asian Cup with the senior team and subsequently entered this competition without them by using younger players.”

Yemeni coach Sammy Na’ash also spoke at the press conference “We are in a tough and strong group. The two teams from Iraq and Iran have a special lead in this group. The AFC's planning for this tournament is not desirable, and competitions are held with the least rest for the players. We started the preparation program very late and we encountered a lot of problems, but we are doing our best to produce a good and decent performance."

Iranian Ladies referees to whistle in UEFA tournament.

Zari Fathi and Gelareh Nazemi , two of top Women Futsal referees in Iran , are off to Portugal to referee the UEFA Women Futsal Cup.

The Iranian Football Federation has reported  that the duo will be refereeing in the European Nations Futsal Cup. The Women's European competition is now down to 4 semi finalist teams. with Portugal, Russia, Spain and Ukraine. The competition will start  on  26th and finish on 28 February. The European Women's Futsal Championship stage was held in four groups of four teams, with four leading teams qualifying for the final stages of the competition.

It is a unique recognition for Iranian ladies and the first time they will whistle in European competitions after excelling in the Iranian domestic league and the Asian championships. Saying that, both the referees are seasoned and experienced campaigners and hold the FIFA Futsal refereeing badge.

Gelareh Nazemi is not the first Iranian international referee, nor even the first woman to referee men's events, but her selection for Olympics futsal competition made her a houehold name in the country.

It is yet another victory for Iranian girls and a definite sign of their passion and desire to be the best at many levels in face of a regime that has forced them to be second fiddle to their men and restricted many of their activities including wearing Hijab by force and fully covered attire even in sports that is restricting their movement or at times creating risks of injury.

 

Iran lifts Intercontinental Beach Soccer 2018 Trophy

Iran Beach Soccer Team, made history by lifting the Huawei Intercontinental Beach Soccer 2018 Trophy in Dubai after beating Russia 4-2 in the final on Saturday. The atmosphere  of the packed stands in the Kite Beach in Jumeirah was electrifying as both the Iranian and Russian fans made themselves heard even before the start of the match. for both sets of fans livened up the proceedings at the 3,500-seater, state of the art stadium with drum beats and horns. Iran were 3-0 ahead in the first period as the Russians were stunned by the wave after wave of Iranian offensive moves. By the third period, Russia managed to pull 1 goal back to make it 3-1 but Iran scored again to make it 4-1 Russia, quite fatigued from yesterdays marathon and difficult win in the semi-final but s yet still determined to make a game of it against Iran, pulled one more goal back in the 3rd period to make it 4-2. After the Russian goal, they attacked in force but they were open for Iranian counter attack of which many chances were missed to increase Iran's tally of goals. At the end of the action-packed 36 minutes , it did not matter as the two goal victory margin was maintained by Iran until the end to win their second Intercontinental Beach Soccer  Trophy after 2013. Ahmadzadeh lifted the cup as the players and Iranian fans rejoiced. For the Asian champions and winners of the 2013 competition, it was the second win against Russia and the only unbeaten team in the tournament.  

Saeid Ezatolahi finally expected to arrive at Reading

From Rostov to Reading, via Belgium, Uzbekistan and France.

The deal to bring Saeid Ezatolahi to Reading has been far from straightforward, but the Iranian international is set to finally arrive in England this weekend.

The 21-year-old completed his season-long loan move from Russian outfit FC Rostov on August 31, the final day of the summer transfer window.

But he is yet to arrive at Hogwood with all previous stages of the deal completed elsewhere across the globe.

“He hasn’t reported yet,” explained Reading FC boss Paul Clement.

“As we speak (on Thursday afternoon), he is in Paris.

“He was on international duty with Iran and they played Uzbekistan. He played a good, significant amount of the game and he set up the goal, so that’s good.

“He is in Paris to get his visa. Everything is in place now, the visa has been approved and we’re just waiting for it to be collected. Ezatolahi has spent a few days in Paris “So he’s got to go back to the office to collect it, that’ll probably be on Friday and then he’s free to travel to the UK."

“We expect him to arrive here either Friday or Saturday. He’ll do some light training on Saturday, on Sunday the players are off and he’ll start fully with everybody on Monday.”

Clement added: “After the World Cup he had some rest time. He did go back to Russia, Rostov for a couple of weeks where he was training and then there has been a period where he hasn’t been there and he’s been back in Iran.

“He lost a little bit of time but fortunately during this period where he was with the national team, clearly he’s been training and he’s already played a game.

“So he might need a bit of time, but I don’t think he’ll need that much. I’ll assess it as soon as I see him.”

Paul Clement insists there are no problems behind the scenes at Reading

The announcement of Ezatolahi’s arrival came as a surprise to many, with the deal accelerated during the final week of the transfer window.

Reading had been chasing Swansea City midfielder Jay Fulton on a permanent deal, but when that fell through they moved to snap up Ezatolahi on loan.

But Clement hopes that could turn into a longer term deal.

“I hope he has a long future here,” said the Reading manager.

“The situation with the deal at the moment is he’s on a loan for the season because when we signed him, it was obviously outside the period where we could do a permanent, so it’s on an initial loan.

Paul Clement is hoping Ezatolahi will be here for longer than one season “Hopefully he does really well and it’s a long-term thing.

“It was brought to my attention late in the window. We had a week. During that week it was about gathering as much intelligence as possible, speaking to people he had worked with.

“A really complicated deal."       - Paul Clement

“Fortunately I was able to have a good conversation with Carlos Queiroz (Iran’s national team boss), who spoke really highly of him.

“Then I spoke to the player and got a really good feel about him and we’re really pleased to get it over the line.

“It was a little bit complicated. You’re dealing with Russia, you’ve got the situation where he’s Iranian so you’ve got the visa issues, international clearance and those type of things.

“He had his medical in Belgium at Roeselare because it was difficult to get him here to do the medical because of the visa, but in the end we got it over the line.

“A really complicated deal."

“We’re looking forward to working with him. I think he’s going to be a good addition to us.”