Tag: Costa Rica

Perfect record for Iran U-17 with 3rd win in a row

Team Melli U-17 blanked Costa Rica 3-0 to top Group C with an all-win record in the FIFA U-17 World Cup on Friday.

Iran had already secured a place in the Round of 16 with wins over Guinea and Germany, thus coach Abbas Chamanian elected to use give opportunity to some players while resting others.

In their final group engagement at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the Team Melli youngsters scored through Mohammed Ghobeishavi (25th minute), Taha Shariati (29th) and Mohammad Sardari (89th) to top the group with nine points from three matches.

Germany, who beat Guinea 3-1 at Kochi in the other match of the day, finished second with six points, and will now travel to Delhi to play against Colombia in the knockout round.

Costa Rica and Guinea finished the group stage with one point each.

Team Meli U-17 , who topped this group with 9 pints, will stay in Goa and will play against one of the third best teams from either Group A, B or F on  Tuesday 17th October.

Keen to top the group, Asian powerhouse Iran employed five defenders and kept the rival attackers at bay, while finding the back of the net on three occasions.

After brief period of midfield battle, Iran slowly opened up the rival defence with raids from the flanks leaving Costa Rica team feeling panicky, and as a result , conceded two penalties in a span of four minutes.

Amferny Arias, while going for an aerial ball, brought down Younes Delfi inside the box and referee Hamada Nampiandraza awarded the spot kick, which Iran captain Ghobeishavi converted by sending the ball to the bottom right corner.

Under tremendous pressure in the face of Iranian offensive, Costa Rica again conceded a penalty when defender Karin Arce needlessly pushed down Younes Delfi while going for an aerial ball inside the box. On this occasion, defender Shariati had no problem converting the spot kick.

Costa Rica, who needed a win to keep their hopes of qualification alive, found the going tough and were not allowed space by the Iranian defenders.

After the break, Costa Rica coach Breansse Camacho brought his trump card Jose Alfaro in the hope of changing their fortunes, but to no avail.

Team Melli cruised through the second half before adding a third goal just before the final whistle through substitute Mohammad Sardari. The only disappointment for Iran at the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was a second yellow card of the competition for Captain Ghobeishavi, which will rule him out of their Round of 16 match.

Iran U-17 Stuns Germany 4-0

Iran stunned Germany 4-0 in the biggest upset of the tournament so far to qualify for the knock-out round of the FIFA U-17 World Cup on Tuesday.

Iran, who controlled the proceedings throughout the Group C match, scored through Younes Delfi (6th and 42th), Allahyar Sayyad (49th) and Vahid Namdari (75th) at the Nehru Stadium in Margao.

Nothing went right for the Germans who were disorganised in the midfield and they could not trouble the rival defence. Their defence also kept a lot of space which the Iranians exploited with repeated forays.

Iran's Younes Delfi celebrates with team mates after scoring his team's first goal against Germany in their Group C fixture. Getty

Iran’s Younes Delfi celebrates with team mates after scoring his team’s first goal against Germany in their Group C fixture. Getty

Iran, who beat Guinea in their opening match, now sit on top of the group with six points and thus qualified for the round of 16.

Germany, who beat Costa Rica 2-1 in their opening match, now need to win against Guinea in their final group match in order to qualify for the knock-out round. Guinea and Costa who played out a 2-2 draw today have one point each.

Iran play their last match in Margao against Costa Rica on 13 October while Germany travel to Kochi to play against Guinea.

Iran, who adopted a defensive approach in their last match, today preferred to play an attacking game and the move paid off as they took the lead in the sixth minute when Younes Delfi took a shot which deflected from rival defender Jan Boller’s leg and found the net.

The early goal put the Germans in complete shambles. The Iranians attacked the German citadel regularly and could have increased the lead but keeper Luca twice denied Mohammed Ghobeishavi from scoring.

Luca Plogmann once again had to dive to bring a save from llahyar Sayyad in the 25th minute.

The pressure on the Germans was so much that they conceded another goal in the 42nd minute as Younes Delfi once again scored with a glancing header from a free kick taken by Mohammed Sharifi. The Iranians were 2-0 up at half time.

The Iranian defence gave a good account of themselves and did not allow the Germans any space to operate inside the danger zone.

The Germans had only one chance to score in the dying minutes of the first half when John Yeboah’s try went over the bar from close.

After the change of ends, Younes Delfi could have scored a hat-trick but German keeper Luca once again came off to his side’s rescue and denied him in the 48th minute when he blocked his shot.

But a minute latter, Delfi made a good move on the right and send a cross into the box which Allahyar Sayyed headed the ball into the net to kill the contest in favour of Iran.

Substitute Saeid Karimi then played a one-to-one pass with Vahid Namdari who shot home from close to complete the rout.

Iran defeats Costa Rica in FIFA U-20 World Cup

 

  • Iran pick up their first win at the FIFA U-20 World Cup since the inaugural edition in 1977
  • A tight encounter of few chances decided by solitary goal
  • A low left-footed strike from Iran’s No9 undid Costa Rica

Mohammad Mehdi Mehdikhani secured an opening win for Iran as his late goal saw off Costa Rica 1-0 in FIFA U-20 World Cup Korea Republic 2017 Group C.

Despite Iran’s fairly well-established FIFA World Cup™ pedigree, having appeared at three in the last 20 years, this was only their third ever outing at U-20 level – and the first of those came in the inaugural tournament. Because of that, you could forgive them for being a tad ring-rusty. In truth though, Costa Rica were not much sharper.

Both struggled to fashion opportunities in a tepid first half. Iran began the brighter of the pair, looking to utilise a distinct height advantage. As time wore on, Costa Rica’s stronger possession game saw them begin to dictate the pace of the match, though a sloppy final ball undermined their chance of fashioning any clear openings.

The pattern continued until the latter stages where Iran first came close from an audacious Omid Norafkan corner, clipping the top of the bar, before the deadlock was broken with nine minutes to go. Unmarked at the far post, Mehdikhani chested down and fired low into the bottom left corner to snatch three points from what looked like a certain stalemate.

It took Iran 40 years to register its only 2nd win in the FIFA Youth World Cup, now known as the FIFA U-21 World Cup. 

Despite a few good moves , Costa Rica did not manage a single shot on goal in the match, while the Iranians did shoot on target  although none were effective except for the Mehdikhani goal late in the game.

After Iran scored,  the habitual problem of Iranian football was evident in their game.  Iranian teams from club level all the way to Team Melli , have problems controlling the games when ahead , or as it is commonly know, putting the game to bed. Despite the solid and strong defense by the Iran U-21 team which the skillful Costa Rica’ forwards failed to penetrate during the whole match, their last few minutes were erratic, confusing and quite weak. Both the defenders and midfield players lost the ball in tackles, passed the wrong ball and in general were in disarray with only minutes left of the match.

Thankfully the opponents shooting was not up to scratch and their finishing , a lot to be desired, In reality, Iran should have closed the game in a much better style.

Iran U-21 next match is against Zambia who beat former champions Portugal 2-1 in the earlier game in the same group.

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Group matches – Group C
Iran     IRAN      –    COSTA RICA       Costa Rica
FULL-TIME
1    –      0
 
 Iran

1 N.MIRZAZAD (GK)      2 A.SHAHSAVARI ;  3 M.DERAKHSHANMEHR ; 5 N.TAHERI ; 6 M.SOLTANI (65′ N. MOKHTARI); 8 A.SHOJAEI (79′ A. RAZZAGHPOUR) ; 9 M.MEHDIKHANI ; 10 R.SHEKARI ; 11 R.JAFARI  (90′ S, KHADEMPOUR); 16 O. NORAFKAN (C) ; 20 A.AGHASI

Costa Rica
13 PINEDA. E (GK) ; 2 MESEN. D ; 4 SMITH. I ; 5 GONZALEZ .E; 6 HERNANDEZ. L (C) ; 8 MARIN. J ; 10 MARTINEZ. J ; 11 LEAL. R ; 19 SALINAS. Y; 20 JUAREZ. E ; 21 TORRES. G

Resounding victory for Iran Futsal

Iran national futsal scored  a resounding victory (7-2) against Guatemala team in their first game of the Grand Prix de Futsal 2014 Tournament , which started in Brazil from 12 to 16 November.

Futsal Team Melli began the match in a whirlwind style with Hossein Tayyebi .

The Iranian Legionnaire who plays for the Russian club MFK Norilsk Nickel , scored three quick goals in the first few minutes of the match leaving the Guatemalans players shell-shocked. Iran emphatically took advantage of the  turnovers and some defensive mistakes Guatemala players committed, and comfortably went ahead.

Iran vs. Guatemala Grand Prix 2014

With these goals, the Iranian team dominated the match and at the end of the first 20 minutes, Javid and Shajari scored a goal each to extend Iran`s lead to 5 goals.

In the second half, Iran changed strategy and opted for counterattacks and through Tavakoli and Hasanzadeh m scored two more goals , the sixth and seventh goal.

After the opening match of the Grand Prix, the coach of Iran, Jesus Candelas, commented on the performance of his team. “The game started well for my players who were quite eager to score and pick up pace and we did well in our start. We are here to improve our performance and, therefore, to win these matches is quite important,” he said.

About Costa Rica, next opponents of the Iranian, Jesus is cautious. “The next game we have to get better. I know their style quite well , but regardless , we are going for another win against Costa Rica” said the coach.

With this victory, the Iran will be prepared to face Costa Rica in the second round of this tournament on Friday.

 

Group A
-> Brazil
-> Colombia
-> Vietnam

Group B
-> Costa Rica
-> Guatemala
-> Iran

Fixture

 

Grand Prix 201412/11/2014 – 16.00 Local Time
São Bernardo do Campo (Brazil)

Iran – Guatemala
7 – 2  (5 – 0)
Match details:

Hall: Ginasio Adib Moises Dib
Goals:
Iran: Hossein Tayyebi (3) – Mahdi Javid , Mohammad Shajari , Farhad Tavakoli, Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh, 
Guatemala:  Alejandro Enriquez , Marvin Sandoval 
Starting Line up:
AliReza Samimi
Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh
Abolghasem Orouji
Farhad Tavakoli
Hossein Tayyebi 

12/11/2014
(1) 16.00 Iran – Guatemala 7-2 (5-0)
(2) 19.15 Brazil – Vietnam 8-1 (4-0)

13/11/2014
(3) 16.15 Costa Rica – Guatemala –
(4) 21.00 Brazil – Colombia –

14/11/2014
(5) 16.00 Colombia – Vietnam –
(6) 19.45 Iran – Costa Rica –

Grand Prix 2014 – Group A Standing
1. Brazil ———————-1-1-0-0–8–1-3
2. Colombia ——————–0-0-0-0–0–0-0
3. Vietnam ———————1-0-0-1–1–8-0

Grand Prix 2014 – Group B Standing
1. Iran ————————1-1-0-0–7–2-3
2. Costa Rica ——————0-0-0-0–0–0-0
3. Guatemala ——————-1-0-0-1–2–7-0

8 Years wait will be over comes Monday

It has been 8 years since team Melli last kicked a ball in the World Cup. 8 years wait and patience for the avid and passionate fans to see their beloved Team Melli perform at the highest level of world football again. Ironically , the last time the team played was against an African team , Angola. The next match is against another African team and the champions of the continent, Nigeria.

Nigeria , coming to Curtiba with all sort of variable loads from the expectation of the Nigerian people , to their problems on and of the field , in all cases that does not matter to them as they are here in Curtiba  to conquer Iran. Far from being an indestructible team , though Nigeria has obvious shortfall that the Wiley Queiroz must have been drooling over and over. The battle of tactics will be quite interesting to watch.

This World Cup has started with a bang. While we are still in the first round with more than half of this rounds matches have not even been played, surprises are a aplenty. Who could have imagined that the tiny Costa Rica, the team that has never beaten a South American team in the World Cup before and a team that was labeled by the punters as the punching bag of the big boys in the presence of three previous world cup winners teams, Italy, England and Uruguay in the same group. Yet it can defeat Uruguay 3-1 and convincingly for that matter. This is football, where nothing is impossible.  This is the World Cup where dreams and fairy tales can become reality. This is the World Cup where the victory goes for the ones who want it more. 

Even with moderate expectation from our Team Melli , we expect a victory against the Africans. Team Melli is truly and well capable of doing that.

Team Melli will be ready to roar tomorrow with this expected line up

Ahmadi

Pooladi

Hooseini

Montazeri

Sadeghi

Heydari 

Hajsafy

Nekounam

Teymourian

Dejagah

Ghoochannejad