Special Team Melli News

[donsaeid]

ايران در ديدار برابر اردن متوقف شد


تيم ملي فوتبال ايران كه در چارچوب مسابقات اردن در امان به مصاف تيم اردن رفته بود، به نتيجه مساوي بدون گل رسيد.



اين ديدار در ورزشگاه القويسمه امان برگزار شد.
حسن رودباريان، محمد نصرتي، هادي شكوري، هادي عقيلي، امير اظهري، عليرضا واحدي نيكبخت، كيانوش رحمتي، عباس آقايي، آندرانيك تيموريان، علي كريمي و حميد شفيعي در اين بازي براي تيم ايران توپ زدند.
تيم ايران نتوانست بازي قابل قبولي را از خود نشان دهد.
ايران ديدار نخست خود در اين تورنمنت را برابر عرراق انجام داد كه آن را با نتيجه 2 بر صفر از آن خود كرد.

[donsaeid]

به دليل عدم صدور رواديد

معدنچي، طالب*لو و كاظمي به چين تايپه نمي*روند


با وجود رايزني*هاي فدراسيون فوتبال، سفارت چين تايپه تاكنون رواديد سه بازيكن تيم ملي فوتبال ايران را صادر نكرده است.



به نقل از مسئولان فدراسيون فوتبال، سفارت چين تايپه فقط حاضر شده براي 20 بازيكن و 10 همراه رواديد صادر كند در حالي كه هر فدراسيون طبق قانون مي*تواند 23 بازيكن را براي هر بازي به كنفدراسيون آسيا معرفي كند.
بنابر اين به دليل اين كارشكني مسئولان سفارت چين تايپه، تا به اين لحظه مهرزاد معدنچي وحيد طالب*لو و حسين كاظمي به دليل نداشتن رواديد قادر نخواهند بود، تيم ملي را در چين تايپه همراهي كنند.
البته فدراسيون فوتبال دست از تلاش برنداشته و حتي مراتب اعتراض خود را به مراجع ذي*صلاح كه كنفدراسيون آسيا باشد، اعلام كرده*اند اما باز بعيد است كه اين تلاش به نتيجه برسد،
چرا كه در هفته*اي كه در آن بسر مي*بريم، هفته سالگرد استقلال كشور چين تايپه است و در اين يك هفته اين كشور در تعطيلات رسمي بسر خواهد برد، بنابر اين عملاً كسي در فدراسيون فوتبال چين تايپه نيست تا بخواهد به مشكل تيم ملي ايران رسيدگي كند.

[donsaeid]

نيل اسپورت: قدرت فوتبال ايران تيم*هاي خاورميانه را مقهور كرده است



شبكه تلويزيوني نيل اسپورت عنوان كرد: قدرت فوتبال ايران تيم*هاي خاورميانه را مقهور خود كرده كه نشان از فاصله اين فوتبال با ساير تيم*هاي منطقه دارد.


اين شبكه تلويزيوني ورزشي نيل با اشاره به پيروزي اخير ايران بر عراق و توقف تيم اردن از سوي تيم دوم اين كشور، اظهار داشت: قدرت فوتبال ايران تيم*هاي عربي منطقه را مقهور كرده است و اين يك هشدار جدي به آنها خواهد بود.
مفسر نيل اسپورت افزود: ايران با شكست سوريه در خانه آنها موجب حذفشان از مرحله نهايي جام ملت*هاي آسيا شد و پيشتر قطر، اردن و بحرين نيز در مقدماتي جام جهاني قرباني فوتبال ايران شدند. امارات متحده عربي نيز ماه گذشته در تهران مغلوب جوانان ليگ ايران شد.
وي با اشاره به پتانسيل بالاي فوتبال ايران، گفت: آري هان، سرمربي كنوني تيم ملي كامرون كه مدتي در پرسپوليس حضور داشته، مي گويد ايران معدن استعدادهاي فوتبال است و اين مطلب نشان مي*دهد كه ايراني*ها از فوتبال كشورهاي عربي منطقه فاصله گرفته اند.
مفسر نيل اسپورت به حضور 9 بازيكن ايراني در ليگ امارات اشاره كرد و افزود: اين فوتباليست*ها به ليگ امارات غناي تكنيكي بخشيده اند.

[Rasputin]

The Electronics Company ‘LG’ of South Korea have been a sponsor of four sided football tournaments in the Middle East especially Iran for a number of years, Iran is a major market for South Korean car and electronics industry, there are now as many Korean “Kia Pride” cars on the streets of Iran as there are Paykans, Korean Electronics companies (LG in particular) dominate the Iranian market with cheaper than Japanese electronics goods such as flat screen TVs, one look at LG’s Iran web site and you can see how well established they are in the country http://ir.lge.com/index.do



It is therefore no surprise to find LG are eager to sponsor football tournaments in the Middle East with Iran national side as one of the participants, with football being the most popular sport in Iran one of the most effective form of advertisement for LG in Iran is to sponsor football tournaments. The most recent LG Cup tournament that took place in the Middle East was in Jordan last week October 4th - 6th, however, let me take you back one year before addressing the latest LG Cup.



With Iran struggling to find teams to play friendly matches against in preparation for World Cup 2006, LG Cup provided Iran with a life line in November 2005, Iran was provided with the opportunity to play two international friendly matches under LG sponsorship, however, with five days remaining to Iran playing Macedonia in the opening match of LG Cup 2005 in Tehran the Iranian authorities banned LG sponsorship in retaliation for South Korea supporting the United States’ stand on Iran’s uranium enrichment activities!



Team Melli was already suffering from Iran’s isolation in the international community with no team prepared to play Iran, the News of LG Cup cancellation only days before kick-off came as a serious blow to the team players and management, the then Iranian head coach Branko Ivankovic was informed of LG Cup cancellation on live TV by an Iranian reporter during sports News, Ivankovic had no idea the tournament had been called off by the Iranian authorities over political wrangling with South Korea (a totally non-sporting matter). And the rest is history, the National Iranian Oil Company ‘Iranol’ stepped in and paid the cost of running the tournament and renamed LG Cup to Tehran Cup but anyone who watched the games could tell that the players and fans had lost interest in the tournament.



Eleven months later here we are in October 2006 and another LG Cup tournament but this time it was held in Jordan (October 4th – 6th), this was by far the poorest quality football tournament I have seen. For start there were only three teams participating; they were the hosts Jordan, Iraq and Iran!



In Iran’s opening match against Iraq the Iranian side was made up of players from Iran’s top league now called the Persian Gulf League (previously the Iranian Premier League) with the exception of Andranik Teymourian who plays for Bolton Wanderers (England), Ali Karimi (Bayern Munich) joint the team for Iran’s second match against Jordan. Iran beat Iraq 2-0 and drew with Jordan 0-0, Jordan and Iraq did not play each other which means only Iran played two matches! I guess Iraq on zero points and a goal difference of -2 won bronze for finishing third out of three!



Let’s now analyse the latest LG cup and whether it benefited Iran. The head coach of Team Melli Mr Ghalenoei has claimed he used the LG Cup to test new or younger players, this may sound good on paper and I support this notion in principle, however, the fact remains that Mr Ghalenoei has named the 37 year old defender Fekri in his squad to play in the Asian Cup qualifier match against the Chinese Taipei this coming Wednesday October 11th, this is in contradiction to Ghalenoei’s claims of giving new younger players a chance, it should also be noted that Ghalenoei has given very little playing time to 21 year old star Hussein Kaebi who was Iran’s best player in WC2006. Iran are likely to use the same players as in their last two Asian Cup qualifiers with the exception of Hashemian who has withdrawn from this match.



In order for Iran to participate in the latest LG Cup the Iranian federation cancelled league matches in Iran with the exception of Esteghlal V Saba Battery (interesting how Ghalenoei’s former club Esteghlal was not affected by the cancellations), this was an unnecessary interruption to the league that clubs such as Persepolis could have done without, Iran is a country that played in the world cup in Germany this year, should a world cup finalist cancel their top league matches in order to play third rate Asian teams in a badly run and disorganised tournament that only had three teams (one being Iran, another the hosts Jordan plus war torn Iraq)? I have always been against Team Melli playing warm-up matches against Iranian clubs as I have always demanded tougher opponents for Iran’s national side however having watched Jordan and Iraq against Iran I strongly believe several Iranian clubs would have provided a stronger challenge to Team Melli than Iraq and Jordan did!



Last but not least; what exactly happened to Iran’s ban on LG sponsored tournaments over South Korea’s objection to Iran’s uranium enrichment activities! Iranian authorities cancelled the LG Cup in Tehran last year over the nuclear dispute, this was a damaging decision to Team Melli at the time, but eleven months later Iranian authorities had no objection to Team Melli participating in a worthless LG Cup playing two third rate Asian sides! This decision did more harm to Iran football than good with interruptions to Iran’s Persian Gulf League. For the record with North Korea on the verge of testing their nuclear weapon South Korea will be even more against Iran’s nuclear activities than they were last year, clearly Iranian authorities have difficulty deciding whether to LG or not to LG.

[donsaeid]

تيم ملي فوتبال ايران، قهرمان رقابتهاي سه جانبه اردن شد

در حالي كه رقابتهاي فوتبال سه جانبه اردن جمعه شب به پايان رسيد، امروز ازسوي فدراسيون فوتبال اعلام شد كه تيم ملي ايران به مقام نخست اين مسابقات دست يافته است . تيم ملي ايران در اين دوره از رقابتها كه در شهر امان برگزار شد، تيم عراق را با نتيجه دو برصفر شكست داد و سپس برابر ميزبان مسابقات اردن، به نتيجه مساوي بدون گل دست يافت.

معمولا چنين مسابقاتي كه يك حامي مالي مشخص دارد و چند دوره آن نيز تاكنون در ايران برگزار شده، باحضور چهار تيم انجام مي*شد اما اين بار در اردن تنها سه تيم حضور داشتند و همين مساله باعث شد تا در پايان مسابقات، چهره قهرمان در پرده*اي از ابهام بماند.

اما امروز فدراسيون فوتبال اعلام كرد كه تيم ملي ايران با كسب ۴ امتياز از دو بازي خود به مقام قهرماني و ۱۰۰هزار دلار جايزه نخست آن دست يافته است .

تيم ايران كه اكنون در دوبي بسر مي*برد، امروز ازطريق اين شهر و هنگ كنگ، عازم چين تايپه خواهد شد تا ديدار برگشت خود را برابر تيم ملي آن منطقه در چارچوب رقابتهاي مقدماتي جام ملتهاي آسيا برگزار كند.

ديدار اين دو تيم روز چهارشنبه ۱۹مهرماه در تايپه برگزار خواهد شد.

بازي رفت اين دو تيم كه اسفند ماه سال گذشته در تهران برگزار شد، با نتيجه چهار بر صفر بسود تيم ايران خاتمه يافت .

بازيكناني كه قرار بود تيم ايران را در سفر به چين تايپه همراهي كنند عبارت بودند از:
ابراهيم ميرزاپور، حسن رودباريان، وحيد طالب*لو، محمود فكري، محمد نصرتي، هادي شكوري، عليرضا واحدي نيكبخت، حسين كاظمي، مهدي مهدوي*كيا، علي كريمي، فرهاد مجيدي، حسين كعبي، مهدي رجب زاده، رحمان رضايي، مهرزاد معدنچي، پژمان نوري، علي انصاريان، جواد نكونام، آندرانيك تيموريان، جواد كاظميان، غلامرضا عنايتي، رسول خطيبي و وحيد هاشميان.

وحيد هاشميان به دليل مسائل باشگاهي هنوز براي حضور در اردوي تيم ملي اعلام آمادگي نكرده است. ازسوي ديگر گفته شده كه براي مهدي رجب زاده، مهرزاد معدنچي، محمود فكري، وحيد طالب*لو و برخي ديگر از بازيكنان تيم ملي ايران هنوز رواديد صادر نشده كه فدراسيون فوتبال پيگير آن است .

[donsaeid]

ابراهيم زاده: اقتدار فوتبال ايران را به آسيايي ها نشان داديم


كمك مربي تيم ملي فوتبال ايران پس از پيروزي 2 بر صفر مقابل چين تايپه گفت: با اين پيروزي اقتدارمان درآسيا را به اثبات رسانديم.



منصور ابراهيم زاده پس از پايان مسابقه با چين تايپه تصريح كرد: حريف با توجه به ميزباني*اش مي*خواست با ارائه يك بازي كاملا تدافعي و بسته مقابل ما امتيازي را به دست آورد و بيشتر در نيمه زمينه خود بازي كرد.
وي افزود: بازيكنان ما با توجه به توانايي بالايشان توانستند خط دفاع حريف را شكسته و با گشودن دروازه چين تايپه ، 3 امتياز با ارزش را كسب كنند.
ابراهيم زاده راجع به دليل استفاده از تمامي لژيونرها برابر چين تايپه عنوان كرد: سال گذشته تمامي نفرات تيم ملي به فيفا و كنفدراسيون آسيا معرفي شده بودند بنابراين مجبور بوديم كه با تمامي لژيونرها در اين مسابقه بازي كنيم.
وي درباره نحوه شكل گيري تيم ملي B اظهار داشت: اين تيم در تورنمنت اردن تشكيل شد و در واقع با تشكل گيري اين تيم برخي از چهره*ها چون رجب زاده، رودباريان و نوري توانستند با ارائه بازي*هاي درخشان به تيم ملي A ايران راه پيدا كنند.

[donsaeid]

در *آخرين رده*بندي جديد فيفا

تيم ملي فوتبال ايران دو پله صعود كرد


در آخرين رده*بندي اعلام شده از سوي فدراسيون بين*المللي فوتبال (فيفا)، تيم ملي فوتبال ايران دو پله صعود كرد.



به نقل از سايت فيفا، در اين رده بندي تيم ايران با 658 امتياز در رده چهل و هفتم قرار گرفت.
تيم ايران در اين گزينش با يك امتياز كمتر بعد از جمهوري ايرلند قرار گرفت اما موفق شد تيم*هاي شيلي، پرو**، ژاپن، توگو و كره شمالي را پشت سربگذارد.
اين گزارش حاكيست، در اين رده بندي تيم ملي فوتبال برزيل با 1574 امتياز در صدر و به عنوان بهترين تيم جهان باقي ماند.
بعداز اين تيم فرانسه با 1534 امتياز و دو پله صعود در رده دوم قرار گرفت.
تيم ملي آلمان نيز با كسب 1291 امتياز و يك پله صعود به رده هشتم آمد. اما تيم ملي ايتاليا، قهرمان جهان با سه پله سقوط از رده دوم به پله پنجم انتقال يافت.
جدول رده بندي 10 تيم برتر جهان در ماه سپتامبر به شرح زير است:
1- برزيل 1574 امتياز
2- فرانسه 1534 امتياز
3- آرژانتين 1492 امتياز
4- انگليس 1477امتياز
5- ايتاليا 1474 امتياز
6- هلند 1327 امتياز
7- جمهوري چك 1312 امتياز
8- آلمان 1291 امتياز
9- پرتغال 1272امتياز
10- اسپانيا 1255 امتياز

[Rasputin]

TEAM MELLI DISAPPOINTING AGAINST CHINESE TAIPEI

Iran sealed their qualification to Asian Cup 2007 finals with a win over Chinese Taipei this week, however Team Melli’s performance left a lot to be desired! Chinese Taipei are ranked 154th in the world and should be no match for the giants Iran, so the 2-0 win over Taipei is not something Iran can sing and dance about.



Chinese Taipei came close to scoring twice in the first six minutes of the match, a stronger Asian side such as Australia or South Korea would have put both of those chances away and taken an early lead. Iran’s head coach Mr Ghalenoei continues to use variations of his favourite 3-5-2 formation despite the clear failure of his tactics. Even the inferior Chinese Taipei managed to penetrate Iran’s defences a few times.



Iran were a disorganised side, they lacked cohesiveness and composure, the passing was poor, the Iranian players gave the ball away far too many times, players such as Karimi missed clear cut chances in front of the goal time and again; these were elementary mistakes especially since Iran was under no pressure, the team was unsettled and desperate to score. The lack of discipline and team work meant only two goals for Iran against a fourth rate Asian side.



With two teams qualifying from four in the group there was never any doubt about Iran and South Korea qualifying for the finals but Syria ranked 114th in the world still managed to give Iran a scare early in the qualifiers. Iran’s progress to the Asian Cup finals was mainly due to inferior opposition from Syria and Chinese Taipei. South Korea and Iran will play their last qualifying match in Tehran next month but with both sides already qualified the match will only decide who tops the group.



Mr Ghalenoei called up all his European based players for this match, ten of the starting line up players were from Branko’s squad of WC2006 with the exception of Nouri in the left back, one would be forgiven to think Iran was preparing to play the world champions, the match against Taipei was an opportunity to try out new players, Fereydoun Zandi who was dropped from Team Melli for instance should have been given a chance to prove his worth. Zandi’s services have been missed on Iran’s left flank as have his accurate crosses and free-kicks.



Hussein Kaebi got his first chance to start a match in Team Melli since the world cup; this was due to the absence of Fekri who along with Madanchi was unable to travel to Chinese Taipei due to visa problems! One wonders how a football federation that has been aware of this fixture since the beginning of this year could fail to secure visas for their team players, this can only happen in Iran!


In a post match interview Mr Ghalenoei claimed Taipei had played ‘an outstanding game’! He claimed Taipei had given Iran a hard time! I am not sure if Mr Ghalenoei was referring to the same Iran Taipei match I watched but I can assure Mr Ghalenoei that most of Iran's Persian league clubs would have beaten Taipei and without the assistance of any European based players, the trick is in how to use your assets (i.e. players) and your game plan. Iran had no game plan against Taipei, Nosrati was moved to right back which is not an area he normally plays in, as a result Kaebi was pushed forward where he and Mahdavikia were getting on eachother’s way, with Madanchi and Nikbakht absent and Zandi dropped from the team by the coach Iran had no left flank in this match! The two forwards Enayati and Khatibi failed to impress.



Only four months ago under the much criticised Ivankovic Iran were playing a far better game using mainly the same players as in Ghalenoei’s team, they were a solid disciplined team, Ghalenoei has been in charge of Team Melli for 3 months now, Iran’s performance has continued to deteriorate with every match, Iran is now in a situation where Ghalenoei finds it necessary to call up his European based players to defeat a team ranked 154th in the world!



When South Korea changed their head coach in October 2005 there was an immediate turnaround in the team thanks to Advocaat’s experience and professionalism as well as his selected assistants, that was the product of appointing a qualified coach, IRIFF’s decision to appoint an inexperienced (at international level) amateur coach such as Ghalenoei and his assistants has had the opposite affect. Although heavily criticised at the time and up to an extent justified Iran were still playing a far more organised and composed football with these same players before Ghalenoei became the head coach!



I do wonder how much more convincing IRIFF need before they replace Ghalenoei with a quality coach, there is still time for Iran to build a strong team for Asia 2007 finals if a quality experienced coach is appointed, if Persepolis FC could appoint the likes of Haan and Denizli then why is it that the country’s national team could only appoint Ghalenoei! Time is not on Iran’s side; unless Ghalenoei is replaced by an experienced coach who has a record of achievements at international level then Iran will be humiliated in the Asian Cup finals next year.

[persiano]

hmmm .. getting better now ..

[AJ_Arzhang]

i think we need to think about the future players more than the players we already have. we need to traine the future players so they will be top class soccer players.

[donsaeid]

پيشنهاد فدراسيون امارات به ايران

تيم فوتبال امارات 19 آذر با ايران ديدار مي*كند


فدراسيون فوتبال امارات پيشنهاد ديداري تداركاتي با تيم ملي ايران را به مسئولان فدراسيون ايران داده*اند.



به نقل از سيدرضا افتخاري نايب رئيس فدراسيون، يوسف رئيس فدراسيون امارات در ديداري كه با افتخاري داشته پيشنهاد برگزاري يك ديدار تداركاتي در امارات با تيم ايران داده است.
اماراتي*ها دو تاريخ را به فدراسيون پيشنهاد داده*اند كه بايد فدراسيون ايران با نظر امير قلعه نوعي آن را بررسي كند.
فدراسيون امارات تاريخ 19 آذر يا يك هفته قبل از آن را براي برگزاري بازي پيشنهاد داده است؛ البته اينطور كه افتخاري بيان كرد، بعيد به نظر مي*رسد فدراسيون غير از تاريخ 19 آذر روز ديگري را بتواند براي برگزاري اين بازي قبول كند چراكه برنامه*هاي ليگ برتر بهم مي*خورد.
فدراسيون امارات از تيم ملي ايران خواسته تا در تورنمنت چهارجانبه كه براي ماه ژانويه 2007 برنامه*ريزي كرده*اند، شركت كند. در اين تورنمنت از تيم*هاي بايرن مونيخ و هامبورگ هم دعوت بعمل آمده است.
انتهاي پيام/

[donsaeid]

با پايان ماه رمضان

اسامي تيم ملي فوتبال اعلام مي*شود


امير قلعه*نوعي، سرمربي تيم ملي فوتبال ايران در چند روز آينده (تا پايان ماه مبارك رمضان) فهرست جديد بازيكنان اين تيم را اعلام مي*كند.



در جلسه اي كه صبح امروز ميان سرمربي تيم و روساي فدراسيون برگزار شد، قلعه نوعي اعلام كرد با پايان ماه مبارك رمضان، اسامي جديد بازيكنان براي بازي با كره جنوبي را اعلام مي*كند.
در كنار اعلام اسامي بازيكنان، برنامه*هاي اردويي و تمريني تيم ملي براي برگزاري اين ديدار را به فدراسيون ارائه مي*دهد.
قلعه نوعي كه صعود ايران به مرحله نهايي را به عنوان تيم اول مهم مي*داند، براي اين بازي هم از تمامي لژيونرها دعوت خواهد كرد تا به اردو ملحق شوند.
در همين راستا براي اينكه تا زمان برگزاري بازي مشكل هماهنگي پيش نيايد، از اكنون فدراسيون فوتبال نامه*هاي خود به باشگاه*هاي بازيكنان لژيونر را ارسال كرده است.

[donsaeid]

با اعلام فهرست 23 نفره از سوي فدراسيون

تيم ملي با بازيكنان اميد به مصاف كره جنوبي مي*رود


فدراسيون فوتبال اسامي 23 بازيكن دعوت شده به اردوي تيم ملي را جهت ديدار با كره جنوبي در چارچوب مرحله مقدماتي جام ملت*هاي آسيا اعلام كرد.


به نقل از پايگاه خبري فدراسيون، اين اردو از ساعت 18 روز جمعه 12/8/85 به مدت دو روز در هتل المپيك برگزار خواهد شد.
اسامي بازيكنان دعوت شده به اين اردو به شرح زير است:
سيد مهدي رحمتي، سياوش اكبرپور، بهشاد ياورزاده، محسن يوسفي (استقلال تهران)، محسن ارزاني، سيد جلال حسيني (سايپا) شيث رضايي، مهرزاد معدنچي، احسان خرسندي، مهرداد اولادي (پيروزي تهران)، جلال اكبري، محمد نوري (فولاد مباركه سپاهان اصفهان)، خسرو حيدري، سيد مهدي اسلامي، سامان صفا (پاس)، محمد غلامين، ميلاد نوري (پيكان)، پژمان منتظري، عادل كلاه كج (فولاد خوزستان)، حسين ماهيني، سعيد چاه جويي (استقلال اهواز)، مازيار زارع (ملوان انزلي) و اسماعيل كريميان.

[Rasputin]

PERSEPOLIS V SAIPA A THRILLING LEAGUE

Week 6 of the Persian Gulf League (formerly Iranian Premier League) came to conclusion this week with Esteghlal moving to the top of the table but the most exciting match of the week took place between Persepolis and Saipa.

While a single goal was enough for Esteghlal to beat Malavan on Wednesday, Persepolis and Saipa fought a four goal thriller on Tuesday before settling for a share of the points in a 2-2 draw.

Persepolis V Saipa was a much awaited fixture with Saipa leading the table at the time but Persepolis could have moved to the top with a win, so there was all to play for, this fixture had been postponed due to Iran’s participation in the meaningless LG Cup two weeks ago. Team Melli veteran striker Ali Daei played in his second match as Saipa Coach and player, Daei took over as Saipa coach after the sudden departure of Saipa’s German coach Lorant.

This proved to be the most exciting match of the season so far, there were four goals, one saved penalty, six bookings, one sending off, four confused referees and 50,000 fans at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium. Saipa opened up the scoring after 20 minutes but at the wrong end of the pitch when a mix-up in front of the goal resulted in Hamidreza Farzaneh of Saipa scoring an own goal whilst trying to clear Nikbakht’s cross, Saipa keeper Rahman Ahmadi had a bit of a nightmare in this match and almost scored another own goal while trying to redirect a slow moving ball but he almost sent it into his own net, Ahmadi made a mess of another save in the second half but this time the goal post came to his rescue, he managed to make up for his mistakes in the second half by making a few crucial saves.

Saipa managed to pull the match level in the dying minutes of the first half when a suspicious penalty was awarded against Bagheri for bringing Saipa’s captain Sadeghi down, the situation seemed 50-50 but the penalty was awarded; Daei converted the kick to draw the first half 1-1.


Persepolis missed numerous clear cut chances to take the lead in the second half with Mehrzad Madanchi as the main guilty player, he could have wrapped things up for Persepolis but missed at least three sitters by shooting wide. A mix-up in Persepolis defence allowed Daei to pass the ball to Momenzadeh who made a run towards Persepolis goal, the keeper Farshid Karimi’s attempt to stop the ball resulted in a second penalty for Saipa, this was another suspicious decision as Karimi appeared to make minimal contact if at all but Momenzadeh made a meal of the situation and went down in the penalty area.

There was worse to come as the referee issued a red card to Persepolis keeper Karimi for bringing Momenzadeh down, this decision sealed a bad day for the officials, a red card should only be issued if an attacking player is prevented from scoring with a deliberate foul by the last man in defence, slow motions proved Persepolis defender Hajizadeh was in a position to challenge the attacking Momenzadeh hence the keeper was not the last man in defence and should not have been red carded.

This was the big moment for Alireza Haghighi who made his first appearance for Persepolis, his first task was to face a Penalty kick from Ali Daei, a well taken penalty was saved by the young Haghighi who made his mark for Persepolis in no uncertain manner. Despite being down to ten men Persepolis continued to play their game and gave as good as they got however Saipa took the lead through Daei’s second goal of the match 7 minutes form time, Persepolis had the last laugh though when Badamaki drew the reds level in 93rd minute with almost the last kick of the match. Esteghlal, Saipa and Persepolis secure first to third places in the table respectively but there is a long way to go in the league yet, it will be hard to beat this match in terms of excitement though.

[nima_abmangol]

be nazare man branco kheili bara team melli zahmat keshid