of the Maldive Islands. Iran scored its first goal just four minutes into the game.
Only about 15,000 fans sprawled across the 100,000-seat Azadi Stadium to watch the home team start its quest for the World Cup.
The Maldives are a soccer minnow and were not expected to be more than a bump in the road for the Iranian team. Back in 1997, Iran started its World Cup pursuit by pummeling the Maldives 17-0 and setting an international record. The Maldives have since learned a little more soccer—but not enough.
Iranian striker Karim Ansarifard started the scoring in the fourth minute. The Mal-divians then put up a defensive wall that Iran had trouble penetrating until the second half. The Maldivians clearly were not playing to win, but only to avoid being creamed again.
In the second half, Ansarifard belted a second ball into the net in the 64th minute. In the 67th minute, captain Ali Karimi headed in a corner kick and in the 86th minute substitute Saeed Daghighi got the icing on the cake with the fourth goal for Iran.
The victory means that Iran’s new coach, Carlos Queiroz, remains undefeated in five matches with his new team. In his first friendly match, Queiroz led Iran to a goalless draw against a Ukrainian club. That was followed by wins of 2-0 against a Slovakian club, 3-2 against a Czech club and 1-0 against the Madagascar national team before Saturday’s 4-0 victory against the Maldives. So Queiroz’s team now has scored 10 goals and given up only 2.
This Asian elimination round is comprised of pairs of home and away games. Thirty Asian teams played matches Saturday. They then flew to the other country where the second match was played Thursday, July 28, after the Iran Times went to press. The 15 winners based on aggregate score will advance to the next Asian elimination round.
The current round is chiefly to eliminate the minnows and get to more serious competition. Of last week’s 15 games, only one ended in a tie and only two were won by a margin of one goal. But three games were won by two goals, four by three goals and three by four goals. At the top, China creamed Laos 7-2 (after Laos shocked China by stocking a two-goal lead early in the match) and Jordan obliterated Nepal 9-0.
Before the Saturday round, FIFA issued its monthly rankings and shunted Iran down four places from 57th in the world to 61st. But Iran remained fourth in Asia behind Australia, Japan and South Korea.
