Kish island , Persian Gulf

Team Melli U-22 scored a narrow win in a friendly match against South Korea in the warmth of the Persian Gulf Island of Kish this afternoon.

The friendly match was in preparation of both team for the upcoming AFC U-22 Cup which will be held in Oman in a fortnight.

The Iranians had a lightening start when they opened the scoring as early as the 7th minute through Yaghoub Karimi who  slotted the ball home to make it 1-0 for Iran. Two minutes later the Koreans were stunned when Payam Sadeghian made it 2-0 for  Alireza Mansourian’s men.

The two quick goals by Team Melli U-22 forced the Koreans to raise their game and go on to overdrive which yielded result when Lee JongHo scored for the Korean team and reduce the deficit to the minimum. 2-1 was indeed the result that the teams carried to the dressing room at half time.

In the second half, the Koreans started as the better team and played some neat football and eventually managed to score the equalizer. Lee Jong Ho scored his second and his teams second at 74th minute.

While both teams seemed to be content with the result , Sadeghian pounced on a ball and scored Iran’s winner right on the 90th minute.The match ended 3-2 for the hosts.

 The scorers Karimi , Sepahan midfielder , and Sadeghian of Perspolis are 2 of a few number of players in the U-22 squad who have been selected or played for the senior team Melli.

The two teams are supposed to meet again on Friday , but there is already some talk about postponing the match to some other time.

Iran is in a difficult group with Japan . Australia and Kuwait in the inaugural championship in Muscat Oman.