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17.August.1997 at 00:00
Friendly
Varsity Stadium , Toronto
Attendance : 15000
Referee: BAHMARMAST Esfandiar - USA
Opponent Confederation: CONCACAF
Canada
0 - 1
Iran
Referee: BAHMARMAST Esfandiar - USA Friendly / Canada Cup-match

Goalscorers
None Karim BAGHERI (pen.) (45)
Opening Line-up
DOLAN Paul
WATSON Mark
FRASER Iain
DEVOS Jason
FLETCHER Carl
BIELLO Mauro
DESANTIS Nick
AUNGER Geoff (cpt)
KOUZMANIS Tom
KUSCH Garret
BERDUSCO Eddy
Ahmadreza ABEDZADEH
Mohammad KHAKPOUR
Ali Akbar OSTADASADI
Ismael HALALI
Afshin PEYROVANI
Mehrdad MINAVAND
Mehdi MAHDAVIKIA
Karim BAGHERI
Khodadad AZIZI
Ali Asghar MODIR ROUSTA
Farhad MAJIDI
Bench
CLARKE Jeff
ARRISTODEMO Rob
STALTERI Paul
ONSTAD Pat
Yahya GOLMOHAMMADI
Mohammad NAVAZI
Sohrab BAKHTIYARIZADEH
Ali MOUSAVI
Hashim HEYDARI
Mohsen GAROUSI
Substitutions
ARRISTODEMO Rob -> BIELLO Mauro (45)
STALTERI Paul -> KOUZMANIS Tom (45)
ONSTAD Pat
CLARKE Jeff -> FLETCHER Carl (53)
Hashim HEYDARI -> Ali Asghar MODIR ROUSTA (80)
Mohammad NAVAZI -> Ismael HALALI (83)
Yellow cards
AUNGER Geoff 22
WATSON Mark 39
DESANTIS Nick 81
Afshin PEYROVANI (36)
Mehdi MAHDAVIKIA (60)
Red cards
None None.
Match report
Canada mostly used it's North American players as the more famous players in Europe were allowed to stay with their teams. The Iran team were without their superstar Ali Daei who was not brought over because he'd told the coach how to run the team. The Iran coach was the only person who drew a mixture of boos during the introduction. During the game the fans started to boo Jason DeVos everytime he got the ball.

The Canadians were just hanging in in the first half thanks to goalie Paul Dolan. The 2nd half when they changed to a 4-3-3 set up they looked better and the game was very even after that. The Canadians didn't have many substitutes dressed but Iran had ten but with the game being so close looked afraid to bring any in until two were used in the last 10 minutes. Canada used eight starters that they haven't used as starters before as the local media announced and this will be very valuable for this Fall run for World Cup 98.

Attendance was announced as 15325. The crowd was mostly made up of Iranian supporters but the organizers must have known that when they first announced Toronto as the game site. I feel the organizers shouldn't have played Iranian folkmusic over the PA system at halftime instead use the usual Lynx stadium rock jock-jam songs. I came with my friend Rick (from my fan days of the old CSL League North York Rockets) and we watched with some guy from Nigeria who was impressed with Dolan. Being in the last row '25' wasn't bad at all because I could stand without getting in anyone's way.

Admission to the game allowed people to stay and see the A-League game between Toronto Lynx and Worcester Wildfire. The Lynx players Paul Dolan, Tom Kouzmanis and Paul Stalteri did not play in that game (only American Alexi Lalas would do that kind of thing!). It was announced that it was Lynx player Peyvand Mossavat's birthday and he was born in Tehran Iran and would be a starter but the crowd quickly dwindled to 2500 by the start of that game and down to 1500 by intermission as the Iran fans joined a crowd outside the stadium cheering the departure of the team in a bus.
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