Sports > Football > IRAN OLYMPIC SIDE LOSE TO SAUDI ARABIA BY AFSHIN DASTAFSHAN
Iran Fail to Qualify for 2008 Olympics
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Iran Olympic team (U-23s) played their last Olympics 2008 qualifying match against Iran had virtually no chance of qualifying for next year’s Olympics having lost their penultimate match to Australia. After drawing their first two home matches against Australia and Jordan it was important for Iran to win their last home match against Saudi Arabia, any team that wishes to progress from a group qualifying stage would need to win their home ties.
Iran created countless scoring opportunities in this match but as in previous games they failed to convert their chances. Saudi Arabia had already qualified for the Olympics and only used six of their first team players; their team was mainly made up of their reserve side. The Saudis proved to be a well composed side; they were solid in defence and dangerous on counter-attacks. Iran desperate to win went on attack from the whistle but their final touch let them down time and again. 26 minutes into the first half Saudi Arabia took the lead against the run of play, a lapse of concentration in Iranian defence led to a Saudi counter-attack, Abdullah Noub kept his cool and slid the ball under the diving Iranian keeper Susha Makani despite 3 Iranian defenders closing in on him, Naif Ahmed made it 2 for the Saudis just before half time.
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Second half saw Iranian youngsters taking the initiative to attack with both Vahid Amraei and Shahram Goudarzi coming close to scoring. The deadlock for Iran was broken in 74th minute with two goals in 50 seconds! First Adel Kolahkaj pulled one back for Iran from a free-kick, the Saudis had hardly restarted the match when Shahram Goudarzi beat the Saudi defence before riffling a shot home to draw the match at 2-2. At this point Iran had an overall ball possession of 63%. But the Saudis were the more composed team and scored 8 minutes later and once again thanks to slack defending by Iran, this time the Iranian keeper Makani under-estimated the space allowed to the right of his goal and conceded Iran’s third goal scored by Al-Ghannam, the match ended 3-2 to Saudi Arabia. In the end the difference between Iran and Saudi Arabia was converting their chances to goals, Iran failed to do that.
This match once again showed the harsh reality of Iranian football, the Saudis and Australians were professional sides in this group; their players had clearly been together for a couple of years, the Iranian side was only put together a few weeks before the qualifiers. The young Iranian players worked very hard, they cannot be faulted for their efforts, however, there is no substitute for regular practice, training, friendly matches and professional coaching, sadly the Iranian side was deprived of all these factors. Iran could so easily have scored five or six goals in this match but they kept missing the target.
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Iran football are out of Olympics 2008 finals. If the Iranian football federation wish their under 23 side to qualify for London 2012 Olympics then they will have to start planning for it now. The authorities would need to appoint an experienced coach to build a team for London Olympics, players with potential who will be under 23 in 2012 and not just today should be targeted from this moment on, the question is whether the Iranian authorities learn from their repeat mistakes this time round? Iran football has not qualified for the Olympics since Montreal in 1976; they will have to wait till 2012 before they can have a shot at qualifying.
Iran's Squad: Makani - Hamoudi, Hamidi, Nazifkar, Mohammadi (76' Rassouli) - Kolahkaj, Chatrabgoon - Taheri (32' Papi), Amraei, Meydavoudi (60' Hajisafi) - Goudarzi
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