June 16, 2017
Iran won a berth in the 2018 World Cup Monday only the second team in the world to qualify so far—by defeating Uzbekistan 2-0 before screaming fans at Azadi Stadium.
Iran locked up a slot in the finals, to be played next summer in Russia, with two matches still to be played of the 10 matches in this final elimination round for Asian teams.
The only other team to have qualified so far for the finals is Brazil.
Iran has gone undefeated in its eight matches so far. But even more impressive is the fact that it has not given up even a solitary goal in those eight games. All of the other 11 teams in this elimination round have given up multiple goals.
The 12 Asian teams are divided into two groups of six each. The two top teams in each group will go to the 32-team World Cup finals next year. Mathematically, Iran is already guaranteed first place in its group. It has 20 points; even if Iran were to lose its last two games and second place South Korea were to win both, the best South Korea could do (after losing this week) is 19 points.
This will be Iran’s fifth appearance in the World Cup finals. It qualified before in 1978, 1998, 2008 and 2014.
In Monday’s match, Sardar Azmoun started the scoring with an easy goal in the 23rd minute. Azmoun was all alone behind the Uzbek defense with all the time he needed to roll the ball into the net.
Five minutes into the second half, team captain Masud Shojai had a chance to double the margin on a penalty kick, but he hit the bar instead.
Mehdi Taremi got the final goal just two minutes before the end of regulation time by curling a low shot into the corner of the goal, sending the fans in the stadium into ecstasy.
The game drew 59,730 fans, so there were lots of empty seats in the 100,000-seat Azadi Stadium.
All across Tehran, fans then poured into the streets holding impromptu street parties with dancing, flag waving and horn-honking.
Qatar upset South Korea 3-2. This meant a) South Korea now has no chance to pass Iran; b) tiny Qatar knocked giant China, which can win in the Olympics but not in soccer, into last place in the group; and c) Qataris, who are being battered politically by their Arab neighbors, have something to cheer about.
