Iran coach : Mansour Pourhaidari
Ecuador coach : Alfredo Encalada.
LOS ANGELES -An hour after the game, there were singing, joyful fans lingering in the Coliseum tunnel outside the Iranian locker room.
For many of the Iranian-Americans, it was perhaps their first time to see the soccer team from their native country.
They also had reason to celebrate – Iran's national team beat Ecuador 2-1 Wednesday night before an appreciative crowd, with their supporters constituting some 25,000 of the estimated crowd of 35,000.
Now 1-1 on their U.S. tour, the Iranian players move on to their highly anticipated rematch against the Americans on Sunday at the Rose Bowl.
Iran surprised the United States 2-1 in France in the 1998 World Cup, a forgettable tournament for the Americans.
Cheered by the large, loud contingent of fans at the Coliseum, many wearing green, white and red face paint and waving Iranian flags, Iran took a 1-0 lead in the first half against Ecuador, built a 2-0 lead in the second, and limited Ecuador to a late goal.
Iran began its U.S. tour last weekend in San Jose, Calif., losing its first match 2-1 to Mexico.
Against Ecuador, Iran held on to win after Ecuador's Moises Candelario scored off an indirect kick in the box in the 88th minute.
Ali Daei, who also had Iran's lone goal against Mexico, opened the scoring against Ecuador in the 27th minute. Ali Mosavi extended the lead with his goal in the 68th minute.
After Iran had two apparent goals wiped out by offside calls, Daei knocked in a header.
Mosavi's goal came when, timing his charge to the goal so he was not offside, he got a step on the defense, trapped a long free kick in the box and beat the goalie with a left-footed drive.
Iran's soccer team is the second sports team from that nation to tour the United States since the Iranian hostage crisis that began in 1979, when militants seized the U.S. Embassy and held 52 Americans for 444 days. An Iranian wrestling team visited the United States in 1998.
In the first match of a doubleheader at the Coliseum on Wednesday, Daniel Osorno scored in the 52nd minute as Mexico's Under-23 team tied Guatemala's national team 1-1. Juan Carlos Plata scored for Guatemala in the 16th minute. |