Hamedan: Hosts Iran began their AFC U-14 Championship campaign with a 4-1 win over Timor Leste in the tournament’s opening match at the Hajibabaei Stadium on Monday.

Four different players were on the scoresheet for the hosts who will now face DPR Korea on Wednesday.

“I am very happy with the way we started the campaign but the score today was a little inflated,” declared Iran coach Heidar Sharifi.

“They (Timor Leste) were speedy and were very technical, had they come to Hamedan earlier and been properly acclimatised the story would have been different.”

Zabhiollah Kohkan opened the scoring for Iran in the 22nd minute, converting Mohammed Reza’s excellent cross.

Two minutes later. Vahid Namdari headed home a Reza corner to double the lead.

Leading 2-0 at the break, Iran went on to score two more goals in the second half to seal a comfortable win.

A sublime dummy by defender Amirhossein Esmaeilzadeh left Mohsen Godarzi unmarked, the playmaker firing home past East Timor goalkeeper Frangenio Da Cruz to stretch Iran’s lead even further.

Mohammed Zolfaghari duly bagged the host nation’s fourth, before Kornelis Nahak netted a consolation goal for Timor Leste in stoppage time courtesy of a penalty.

“I am happy with the way we fought against a physical Iranian side,” Timor Leste’s Korea Republic coach Kim Shinhwan told reporters.

“We had to travel a long way from Timor and we were not at our best physically. I hope to fix today’s problems in the next two matches and qualify for the semi-finals,” he added.

Timor Leste will face Saudi Arabia in another early kick-off on Wednesday.

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COMMENT

The one interesting episode of this match between Iran and Timor Leste in Hamadan was the insistence of some female relatives of the players to attend the match despite the long standing official ban.

Iran is one of the very few peculiar countries in the world that does not allow woman into sport stadiums. The ban was introduced after the Islamic revolution on the pretext of protecting the females against evil and immoralities while maintaining the Islamic values. Mixing of men and woman in close proximity to each other is considered one of the greater sins. According to the clerical hierarchy perspectives in Iran, only the filthy scrooges who seem to flock to the stadiums to watch football, not the decent folks who should spend his leisure time worshipping! The clerics do not think that females have enough mental agility to think for themselves or have enough sense to figure out where and when the stadiums are not favorable, so the clerics do the thinking and ban them all together, for their own good!

That is the official version of the ban not our views, in case you wondered. 

On this occasions though, some brave acts and strong personality Persians mothers, the type that Iran is renowned for, insisted and demanded that they are to be allowed to watch their sons. Despite the security guards attempts to prevent the group of females from entering, with the help and support of other male fans , the female relatives of these young boys defied the rules and forced themselves inside the stadium. The Mothers took their rightful place , sat and watched their sons play football like any true and loving mother or sister would do in a civilized society.

Another victory for the Persian Mothers. Bless them.