Iran’s Omid Team (U-23) played a friendly match against Jordan U-23 team today (Tuesday) at the Medina Al-Riaziya Stadium in Irbid City, Jordan. The match ended in a 1 – 1 draw.
The home team started offensively and in the seventh minute, the Jordanian player Hadi Al-Hurani managed to open the scoring for the host. Following this early goal, Zlatko Kranjcar players took control of the ball and the field looking for a quick response and a change the result. Iran’s offensive midfielder Mehdi Qaedi was blatantly brought down by his opponents in the box , but Jordanian referee Omar al-Ma’ani did not believe in a penalty.
During the match, Mehdi Mahdi Khani and Vahid Namdari both hit the woodwork but none of those shots ended in a goal. Eventually, Namdari the teams striker struck in the 37″ minutes, wagering, and turned the ball from the corner sent into the box and headed the ball into the corner of the opponent scoring the equalizer.
In the second half, the Omid team retained its offensive game plan. In the 48th minute, Namdari was in a one-to-one situation with the opponent’s goalkeeper, and could have easily scored his and the team 2nd goal. The Jordanian goalkeeper gallantly held his position and foiled Namdari.
The two teams’ efforts ultimately failed to score any further goals. Iran’s Omid team in their fourth game in preparation for the Olympics qualifiers ended in a stalemate.
Iran Omid Team Line up:
Shahab Adeli, Omid Noroufkan, Aref Aghasi (Hossein Saki 46′), Mohammad Moslemipour, Alireza Artah (Omid Dareh 75′), Abolfazl Razzaghpour (Hamid Reza Taherkhani 75), Mohammad Khodabandehlo, Mehdi Mehdi Khani, Mehdi Ghaedi (Abolfazl Jalali 67′), Vahid Namdari (Younis Delphi 62) and Amir Roustahi (Mohammad Reza Azadi 65)
Before the match against Jordan, the Iranian team played 3 friendly matches , once against Oman and twice against Syria, in which Omid Team had won all three matches. The qualifying stage games for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be held in Iran the first half of April, 2009. The U-23 team will play in the third group against Iraq, Yemen and Turkmenistan.