Venue: Markaziy Stadium (Qarshi)
Kick-off: 22:00 (UTC+5)
Mehdi Mahdavikia embarks on a difficult journey to qualify the Omid (U23) team for the next Olympics in Paris. Iran’s football has failed to qualify for the Olympics for 42 years. The last time Iran qualified was two years after the revolution in 1980, but even then the Team was no show due to the ill-advised boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games.
The players Mahdavikia selected are those who can be available to make it to Paris except for a few whose age will limit them.
Unlike most of the new Iranian coaches, Mahdavikia took the right path in qualifying as a coach. He has attended several courses and had his on job training experience at Hamburg SV as a coach of age group teams. His experience is valuable for Team Melli teams, but there will always be a disconnect between him and his players because of the different football cultures the domestic player have been playing under.
The Difficulties.
The Omid team players are mostly a product of Iran’s domestic league. The majority of them play for the middle of the table or lower clubs. Iran’s domestic league at best is a poor league and of a lower standard than the more advanced Asian teams such as Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Qatar. This standard of the league reflects directly on the team, so Mahdavikia has the challenging task of upgrading the capabilities of the players by teaching them skills and modern techniques they have not been exposed to before. A better standard of coaching in Iran would have helped, unfortunately, in Iran, the coaches are even poorer than the league itself. Most of them retire as players and turn up the next day as coaches of the youth teams, the worst possible scenario in football.
The mental toughness and emotional condition of Iranian players have always lagged the others. Such weakness leads to defeats that would have been avoided, however, Mahdavikia has limited options to make his players unlearn years of poor training and mental preparation in a matter of days. If he can even partially overcome this perpetual problem then Omid Team stands a chance to make it to the semifinals at least. Basic behavior such as goal celebration is eccentric and at times embarrassing and petulant. The team needs a certain level of maturity and learning to behave under all conditions.
Discipline is another issue that hindered Iranian players at all levels. In fact, football is not immune from society, so indiscipline is quite rife. If there is no firm disciplinary measure, the problem will even intensify, and the results can be catastrophic like not even making it from the group level. That is a tough job for the Head Coach who is never been known to be a tough guy. It remains to be seen if his European career experience will have an effect on the squad and help sort out the young players.
The Positives.
A winning mentality is engraved in Iranian culture. You can count on every Iranian team to fight to the end and not give up. This is quite important especially when the team is behind.
The physique of Omid players is at a decent level, they seem to be strong and solid. A physically weak team is at a disadvantage from the word go and even more, skillful teams can suffer if the opposition is physically stronger and wins tackles around the pitch.
It is safe to say that Omid Team and Mahdavikia have no star players on the team. However, in captain Yasin Salmani, the team has a strong leader and quite a skillful player who has already scored spectacular goals in the domestic league. The absence of Allahyar Sayyadmanesh and Mehdi Ghaedi will be felt, but since they are both playing outside Iran, their availability was an issue.
Prediction
Anything above qualifying from this group is progress for Iran’s Omid team in this tournament. There are already two tough teams in Uzbekistan and Qatar so their qualification from the group is not assured.
With so many good teams in this edition, it is not very easy for Iran to make the final. A semi-final is the best the fans can hope for, but like they always say, football is unpredictable.
The FFIRI website announced that Mehdi MahdaviKia, the head coach of the Omid team, announced the final names of the U23 squad to participate in the Iraq training camp and the U-23 championship in Uzbekistan.
After replacing Reza Kakhsaz and Parsa Jafari. The two goalkeepers of Peykan and Zobahan instead of Sina Saeedifar and Alireza Rezaei, the goalkeepers of Esteghlal, announced the following: Amir Ali Sadeghi (Esteghlal) Yasin Salmani, Arya Yousefi (Sepahan) Alireza Bavieh, Mohammad Amin Hezbavi (Foolad Khuzestan) Reza Kakhsaz , Erfan Shahriari Khalaji, Saman Fallah Vernami (Peykan) Parsa Jafari, Milad Kerr, Mohammad Hossein Eslami, Mohammad Khodabandeh Lou (Zobahan) Payam Parsa, Ahmad Shariatzadeh, Mohammad Hossein Zavari (Naft Abadan) Mohammad Ghorbani (Nasiji Mazandaran) Mohammad Mehdi Ahmadi, Mehdi Hashemnejad (Naft Masjed Soleyman) Amir Jafari Siglani (Shahr Khodro) Ali Javad Kalmarzi Sabet (Roda JC Netherlands) Yadegar Rostami (playing in the Polish league) Bilal Arazi, Ali Pilaram (South Pars) Alireza Khodaei (Saipa)
The Omid National Team Camp begins at the same time as the Team Melli at the National Team Camp. According to ISNA, with the plans made by the technical staff and the announcement of Mohammad Mohammadi, the head of the Omid national football team, the camp of this team will start on the 24th or 25th of January, and players under the age of 23 will be called to the national team camp after three months. . The Omid national team camp will be held at the same time as the senior national team camp – which is preparing to meet Iraq and the UAE in the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers – and MahdaviKia’s boys will hold several training sessions and two preparatory matches for a week.
According to the plan, two Premier League teams will be the opponents of the Omid national team, to help the U23/Olympic team prepare better. Mehdi Mahdavikia and his assistants will arrive in Tehran in around the 21st of January. Previously, the work visas of three foreign assistants of Mahdavikia have been issued b
In the period between the departure of Mahdavikia and his assistants from Iran, the games played in the Premier League have been regularly reviewed and analyzed. One of Mahdavikia’s assistants has been assigned to evaluate new and potential candidates for the Omid team in Iran’s first and second division leagues for a long time so that new faces can be added to the Omid national team in the upcoming camp. Over the next five months, Mahdavikia seeks to identify new members and bolster his team’s strengths and ensure the weaknesses are mitigated in order to participate in the AFC Under-23 Championship, which will be held in Uzbekistan in mid-June.
Iran will face their toughest test yet when they play Kazakhstan in the quarter-finals of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021 at the Kaunas Arena on Monday.
In what promises to be a thrilling encounter, Kazakh fans will be hoping that the quarter-final is decided in normal time, as Team Melli won two penalty shootouts and another match after extra-time at the last Futsal World Cup.
On the other hand, Iran might want to avoid another open encounter like their Round of 16 epic against Uzbekistan, as scoring against Kazakhstan and their formidable goalkeeper Higuita, aided by defensive stalwart Douglas, has proven extremely difficult in Lithuania 2021.
Team Melli opened their campaign with a narrow 3-2 victory over Serbia before seeing off the United States 4-2, with a 2-1 defeat against Argentina being their only blemish as they finished second in Group F behind the South Americans.
In the Round of 16, Uzbekistan found a chink in Iran’s armor going toe to toe with the 12-time Asian Champions in a nail-bitting 9-8 scoreline in the Iranians favor.
Missing from the Iran line-up is Hossein Tayyebi, who featured in the two previous editions but captain Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh has still not lost his deft touch – evident in his cheeky lob over Argentina goalkeeper Lucas Farach.
The Falcons boast the best defensive record of the tournament, having conceded just two goals in four matches.
In Group A, Kazakhstan flexed their muscles in their opener against Costa Rica winning 6-1, and a 3-0 victory against hosts Lithuania followed before being held to 1-1 draw by Venezuela to top their group.
Kazakhstan advanced to the last eight stage in style with a 7-0 win over ASEAN heavyweights Thailand in the Round of 16.
They have the best defensive record among the quarter-finalists and Iran, who have been in fine form up front, will have to be at their sharpest if they are to make the semi-finals for the second successive FIFA Futsal World Cup.
Iran never lost to the Kazakh before. Their first meeting was in the final of the AFC AFutsal Championship 2000 on 12th May. Kazakhstan was a member of AFC then before switching to UEFA. Team Melli won 4-1 to lift yet another title. From then on, the two teams met 4 times with Iran winning 3 and drawing one. All the wins were with a margin of one goal.
Despite winning a thrilling match against Uzbekistan and scoring 9 goals at this stage of the Futsal World Cup, all was not well with the team.
By now the whole world knows how Iran is vulnerable in defense during the power play as every time Uzbekistan deployed that plan, they scored at will! The reason for such failure is tactical and psychological.
In football and futsal for that matter, it is common knowledge that a team is most vulnerable to be scored against right after they score a goal. Elation and celebrations of the players put them at risk of forgetting their tasks. This happened repeatedly against the Uzbek team who cleverly took advantage.
The more serious of the issues, however, is the tactical shortfalls. It seems that the coaching staff was caught off guard and did not prepare the team well to counteract the power play of the opposition. Clearly, the marking was poor with goals being easily scored due to the abysmal marking.
If Nazim Al-Sharia wants to enhance the chances of Iran qualifying for the last four, he and his coaching staff must organize the defenses much better, especially during the power play. In fact, Iran’s defense was suspect through the whole tournament with the goalkeeper being the culprit in a few goals. The only decent defensive performance was against Argentina which Iran narrowly lost 2-1 to the defending champion.
There will be a lot of pressure tomorrow Mental strength and discipline have to be priorities else no tactical masterplan can help against the best defensive team of the tournament.
Farhad Fakhim ( injured for the rest of the championship)
Hossein Tayebi (On the recovery, possible brief playing time)
Iran v Kazakhstan
Venue: Kaunas Arena
Kickoff: Monday, 20:00 (UTC+3)
Futsal Team Melli defeated its regional rival Uzbekistan 9-8 in one of the most exciting and thrilling of World Cup matches to qualify for the Quarter Finals of the competition of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021
In a spectacular encounter between two of Asia’s biggest teams, 12-time Asian champions Iran walked away winners to set up a quarter-final tie against Kazakhstan.
The all-Asian affair got off to an exciting start right from the get-go with both sides battling for possession with Iran opening the scoring in the first minute through captain Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh, before Mahdi Javid doubled their lead in the fifth minute, courtesy of Farhad Fakhim’s assist.
The two teams last met in the 2018 AFC Futsal Championship with Iran emerging 7-1 winners but Uzbekistan – bolstered by reaching the Round of 16 for the first time – refused to be overawed and pulled one back in the ninth minute through Khusniddin Nishonov.
Iran restored their two-goal lead when Hassanzadeh turned provider for Saeid Ahmad Abbasi to find the back of the net in the 16th minute, but Uzbekistan’s persistence saw them score quick goals through Dilshod Rakhmatov and Ikhtiyor Ropiev in the 17th and 18th minutes respectively to level the tie.
Iran called their first time-out to take the edge out of Uzbekistan, which proved to be a successful move as Farhad Tavakoli struck moments into the restart.
Team Melli maintained their high tempo in the second half with Abbasi and Javid scoring their second goals of the evening in the 22nd and 25th minutes respectively.
The scintillating match continued with its thrills as Anaskhon Rakhmatov reduced Uzbekistan’s deficit in the 28th minute, but Iran’s reply was immediate through Hassanzadeh, before Moslem Oladghobad scored two minutes later to make it 8-4.
Uzbekistan, however, refused to back down and closed the gap with Ilhomjon Hamroev and Nishonov beating Iran goalkeeper Alireza Samimi in the 31st and 33rd minutes.
The goals galore, however, were not yet over as Abbasi completed his hat-trick in the 37th minute but Uzbekistan fought back with Anaskhon and Hamroev giving their side hope only for the clock to run out on them.
First Half
Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh (1′), Mehdi Javid (5′), Saeed Ahmad Abbasi (16′) and Farhad Tavakoli (18′)
Second Half
Saeed Ahmad Abbasi (22′), Mehdi Javid (25′), Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh (29′), Moslem Oladghobad, Saeed Ahmad Abbasi (39′)
The regional rivals, Iran and Uzbekistan meet on Friday evening for a place in the quarter-finals of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021.
The two teams have met 30 times with Uzbekistan failing to win any match against Iran. The last time the two teams met in Bangkok, the match was competitive as the Uzbeks tested Team Melli to the limit managing to score 5 times, which is a rarity against Iran in Asian Competitions.
29-Jul-21
Continental Champ Bangkok
Iran vs. Uzbekistan
7 – 5
Scorers: Farhad Tavakoli (2), Behzad Azimi , Asghar Hassanzadeh , Mahdi Javid , Saeed Abbasi (2)
Head Coach Nazim Al-Sharia has already warned his players of any complacency especially since Uzbekistan has been preparing quite well for this world cup.
Iran will go into the match with Hossein Tayebi, the leading scorer, still not fully fit for the match against Uzbekistan in the Round of 16. The head coach said that although Tayyebi has been training with the team, he is still not 100% fit enough, and will miss the Uzbekistan match.
Saeed Ahmad Abbasi and Moslem Oulad-Ghobad, two other players who had slight injuries are fully fit and available for selection.
Meanwhile, in the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021, the three-time Asian champions Japan enjoyed a dream start against Brazil when Shota Hoshi opened the scoring in the fourth minute but Ferrao responded almost immediately for Brazil, who turned on the power in the second half to confirm a quarter-final meeting with Morocco. Thailand was beaten comprehensively by Kazakhstan 7-0 while Vietnam fought gallantly against Russia but lost 3-2 and was eliminated.
Iran and Uzbekistan remain the only AFC representatives with the quarter-final having a place for One Asian Team only.
In a post-match interview, Seyed Mohammad Nazem Al-Sharia, the Head Coach of Futsal Team Melli commented on the loss to Argentine in the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021 and qualification to the Round of 16 as the second team in Group F,
“The game against Argentina was a good match for us and one of the reasons was that the sensitivity of the Game and stress level was low as we both have already qualified. In this match, we did not go full throttle as we did not need to. It was important for us that no player gets a card and is none get injured.” Nazem Al-Sharia said.
He continued: “The referee disallowed our equalizing goal. The situation of the match would have seen a different outcome if this goal was allowed. With second place in the group, we now have to meet Uzbekistan. In my opinion, Uzbekistan is no different from Paraguay and is even better than this team.”
“The advantage of meeting Uzbekistan is that it is an Asian team and we know this opponent quite well.” The head coach of the Iranian national futsal team stressed that his team should not underestimate Uzbekistan, noting that Uzbekistan has made a lot of progress in the last few years and has played 18 very good preparation games before the World Cup. They played against Iran, Venezuela, Argentina, and Portugal and participated in the tournament in Thailand. Uzbekistan even camped in Spain.
” I do not want to under or overestimate this team, but we have to be careful.” Nazim al-Sharia emphasized
in response to the question of what is the strength of the Uzbek team that Iran should pay attention to? “Uzbekistan is a tactical team,” he said. “They also work well on free kicks and even score good goals this way.” Nazim al-Sharia added.
Commenting on the goal by Hassanzadeh against World Champions Argentina, he went on to say ” About that “chip” goal of Hassanzadeh, Asghar is a world-class international player. Those who said that the age of the national team players has increased should also watch this goal. This player has experienced four World Cup tournaments and showed how professional and international he is scoring such a unique goal”
Nazim al-Sharia elaborated on the disallowed goal against Argentina: “This goal was disallowed by the new FIFA rules. Alireza Rafieipour was in the defensive wall of the Argentine team when he hit the ball, and this is a foul in itself. Anyway, we had a plan for this freekick, and the players executed it to perfection, except for the foul.”
About the injury list, Nazim al-Sharia commented on the situation of Hossein Tayebi, Iran star striker, and whether he will be able to play against Uzbekistan or not: “Tayebi will be scanned today to see how the player is doing.”
Futsal Team Melli successfully navigated the group stages of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Lithuania 2021 with two wins and a loss. By virtue of becoming second behind Argentina, the path to the semi-finals and a repeat performance of the last FIFA Futsal World Cup 2016 can be achieved again.
Uzbekistan, a well-known team for Futsal Team Melli will be the opponent in the Round of 16 of the Championship. The Asian rivals will play in Vilnius on 24th September. Assuming Iran defeats Uzbekistan, they will meet the winners of Kazakhstan and Thailand in the quarter-finals.
Although they are no easy matches at the World Cup, it looks like a pretty attainable road to the semi-finals when they really will meet teams above them in the World Ranking, i.e. Spain, assuming no surprises there and the European powerhouse can defeat the opponents in the two rounds before the Semi.
Round of 16 | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | |||||||||||
22 September – Kaunas | ||||||||||||||
Venezuela | ||||||||||||||
26 September – Vilnius | ||||||||||||||
Morocco | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 38 | ||||||||||||||
23 September – Kaunas | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 39 | ||||||||||||||
Brazil | ||||||||||||||
29 September – Kaunas | ||||||||||||||
Japan | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 45 | ||||||||||||||
22 September – Vilnius | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 46 | ||||||||||||||
RFU | ||||||||||||||
26 September – Kaunas | ||||||||||||||
Vietnam | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 37 | ||||||||||||||
23 September – Vilnius | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 40 | ||||||||||||||
Argentina | ||||||||||||||
3 October – Kaunas | ||||||||||||||
Paraguay | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 49 | ||||||||||||||
24 September – Vilnius | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 50 | ||||||||||||||
Spain | ||||||||||||||
27 September – Vilnius | ||||||||||||||
Czech Republic | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 43 | ||||||||||||||
24 September – Kaunas | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 42 | ||||||||||||||
Portugal | ||||||||||||||
30 September – Kaunas | ||||||||||||||
Serbia | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 47 | ||||||||||||||
24 September – Vilnius | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 48 | Third place match | |||||||||||||
Uzbekistan | ||||||||||||||
27 September – Kaunas | 3 October – Kaunas | |||||||||||||
Iran | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 44 | Loser Match 49 | |||||||||||||
23 September – Kaunas | ||||||||||||||
Winner Match 41 | Loser Match 50 | |||||||||||||
Kazakhstan | ||||||||||||||
Thailand | ||||||||||||||
Ranking |
Team |
Points |
1 | Spain | 1820 |
2 | Brazil | 1804 |
3 | Argentina | 1719 |
4 | Russia | 1668 |
5 | Iran | 1629 |
6 | Portugal | 1599 |
7 | Kazakhstan | 1569 |
8 | Italy | 1510 |
9 | Croatia | 1500 |
10 | Paraguay | 1472 |
2 Goals
1 goal
Uzbekistan beats Iran in Thai Futsal Tournament semi-final
The Iranian national futsal team will face Uzbekistan in the semi-finals of the Continental Futsal Championship.
On matchday 3 of the championship, a shock defeat was registered when Kosovo were beaten by Mozambique while the host Thailand escaped narrowly after defeating Uzbekistan. Yesterday, Kosovo managed to stop Thailand the tournament host, but today it lost to a weak Mozambican team and failed to advance to the semi-final.
In the last match of the group, Thailand and Uzbekistan played a close competitive game. Thailand finally managed to defeat Uzbekistan 4-3 to jump to the top of the group. The Thai team along with Uzbekistan advanced from the first group while Iran and Egypt qualified from the second group for the semi-finals.
The semi-finals will take place on Thursday, with Iran facing Uzbekistan and Thailand facing Egypt.
Earlier in the championship, Iran emerged victorious over Tajikistan on Monday with a 7-0 win over their opponents in Group B. In its first group match, the Iranian futsal team defeated Lithuania 5-0.
Iran participates in the competition as part of the preparation for the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup, which will be held in Lithuania from Sept. 12 to Oct. 3.
Iran is in Group F along with Argentina, the U.S., and Serbia.
25-30/7/2021
Venue: Show DC Hall 1
Live Streaming: Futsal Thailand FB page and Thairat On Line Youtube Channel
Nations
Group A
A1 – Thailand
A2 – Uzbekistan
A3 – Kosovo
A4 – Mozambique
Group B
B1 – IR Iran
B2 – Egypt
B3 – Tajikistan
B4 – Lithuania
Fixture
25/7/2021
10.30 Egypt vs Tajikistan 1-0 (1-0)
12.45 IR Iran vs Lithuania 5-0 (5-0)
15.00 Uzbekistan vs Kosovo 6-3 (3-3)
17.15 Thailand vs Mozambique 6-4 (6-1)
26/7/2021
10.30 Lithuania vs Egypt 4-2 (2-1)
12.45 Tajikistan vs IR Iran 0-7 (0-4)
15.00 Mozambique vs Uzbekistan 0-10 (0-2)
17.15 Kosovo vs Thailand 6-6 (2-2)
27/7/2021
10.30 Tajikistan vs Lithuania 9-2 (3-1)
12.45 IR Iran vs Egypt 2-2 (1-0)
15.00 Kosovo vs Mozambique 1-2 (0-2)
17.15 Thailand vs Uzbekistan 4-3 (1-2)
Continental Futsal Championship – Group A Standing
1. Thailand ——————–3-2-1-0-16-13-7
2. Uzbekistan ——————3-2-0-1-19–7-6
3. Mozambique ——————3-1-0-2–6-17-3
4. Kosovo ———————-3-0-1-2-10-14-1
Continental Futsal Championship – Group B Standing
1. IR Iran ———————3-2-1-0-14–2-7
2. Egypt ———————–3-1-1-1–5–6-4
3. Tajikistan ——————3-1-0-2–9-10-3
4. Lithuania ——————-3-1-0-2–6-16-3
29/7/2021
7/8 place final
Group A 4th ranked vs Group B 4th ranked
10.30 Kosovo vs Lithuania
Semifinals
SF 1 – Group B Winners vs Group A Runners up
13.30 IR Iran vs Uzbekistan
Group A Winners vs Group B Runners up
SF2 – 16.30 Thailand vs Egypt