November 19, 2021
The Iranian national soccer team, Team Melli, locked up two more victories in November, defeating Syria 3-0 and Lebanon 2-1, to cement its hold on first place in the last elimination round to determine the four teams that will represent Asia in the World Cup finals next year.
The victories mean Coach Dragan Skocic has no losses and only one draw in the 13 games in which he has led Team Melli. Both November games were played on the road.
The match in Lebanon November 11 was a stunner. Iran was behind 0-1 after the 90 minutes of regulation time. But in injury overtime, it first tied the match and four minutes later went on to win.
The Lebanese took a surprise lead eight minutes before the break when Soony Saad caught the visitors napping to lift the ball over goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand, only the second goal he had given up in five matches. A long cross somehow found its way to Saad at the far post, and he beat Beiranvand from a tight angle.
Iran struggled through the remainder of regulation time, but then set the stadium on fire in injury overtime.
Sardar Azmoun fired home in the 91st minute to level the game and Ahmad Nourollahi struck from the edge of the area four minutes later to seal a dramatic comeback for the visitors.
Iran played Syria in Amman November 16 because of the disorder in Syria.
Sardar Azmoun opened the scoring for the team in the 33rd minute.
Ehsan Haji-Safi made it 2-0 from the penalty spot in the 42nd minute.
With one minute remaining, Ali Gholizadeh found the back of the net after dribbling past several Syrian defenders into the penalty area
The pair of matches did not see an appearance by team star Mehdi Taremi, who was not invited by coach Skocic to join the team. No one said why he was left off the roster, but several days before the roster was announced, Taremi, who plays professionally with Porto of Portugal, criticized Skocic on Twitter.
Taremi objected to an observation Skocic made in an interview with the media in Croatia. Skocic said the players in Iran were very talented and skilled in individual techniques, but needed to do a better job at functioning as a team. Taremi objected to that, tweeting, “Iran players are tactically at a high level and the problem is elsewhere.”
Skocic’s observation is a common one that has been made often over the years.
Earlier, in October, Iran played two elimination-round matches, first beating the UAE 1-0 and then tying South Korea 1-1.
Iran played the UAE in Dubai. The sole goal was scored by Mehdi Taremi in the 70th minute when he parlayed a UAE error into a score. The UAE goalie was all alone when Taremi charged the loose ball; the UAE goalie raced out 17 meters (55 feet) to grab the ball, but Taremi beat him and easily scored with a straight shot into an empty net.
Both teams had many opportunities to score but were unable to convert on any but Taremi’s effort. The UAE looked like it would likely tie up the match when Iran’s Shojae Khalilzadeh was called for pulling down a UAE striker. But a video check showed the UAE player was offside and Iran dodged a bullet. Two minutes from the end, Iran was awarded a penalty kick, but Sardar Azmoun’s kick was blocked.
A few days later Iran faced South Korea in Tehran. The Iranian Football Federation had announced that 10,000 fans would be admitted to Azadi Stadium with proof of vaccination. It also said women would be admitted for only the second time in four decades. But not long before the game, it reversed itself and said the game would be played in an empty stadium.
There was speculation the first announcement was just a gimmick—that Iran had announced that women would be admitted to assuage the anger of FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, which is pressing Iran to allow women into stadiums. The last time women were allowed into Azadi for a soccer math was in October 2019 when they got to watch Iran thrash Cambodia 14-0.
When the Iran-South Korea game was played, the teams went scoreless in the first half. But four minutes into the second half, Son Heoung-min, who plays professionally with Tottenham Hotspur of England, beat Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand after six straight games in which he had allowed no goals. It was South Korea’s first goal in Iran in 12 years! Iran then went into overdrive, since a loss would knock it down into second place. In the 76th minute, Sardar Azmoun shot the ball in front of the goal and Iran captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh netted the goal with a header.
Two minutes later, Taremi got a chance to put the team ahead, but his strike hit the post and bounced away.
Twelve teams are competing in this final elimination round in Asia to determine who will go to next year’s World Cup finals. The 12 have been divided into two six-team groups playing a pair of home and away matches against the other teams in their group. The two top teams in each group will go to the finals.
All the teams have now played six of their 10 matches. To no one’s surprise, Iran and South Korea are well-placed to go from Group A. In Group B, Saudi Arabia surprisingly tops the standings with Australia in second place and Japan, astoundingly, trailing in third place—until the last match. Then Japan propelled itself into second place, knocking the Aussies into third place. Japan has qualified for the last six World Cup finals and a failure to qualify this year would be a huge upset.
Iran’s remaining four matches will be played against Iraq in Doha January 26, against the UAE in Tehran January 31, against South Korea in Seoul March 23 and against Lebanon in Tehran March 28.
The team’s stay in Lebanon was marred by an accusation that it might have been used by the Islamic Republic to smuggle cash to Hezbollah. Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi issued a statement saying the Iranian team had arrived with a suspiciously large number of bags. They were filmed arriving with stacks of bags that they pushed through the terminal. IranWire quoted sources as saying the extra bags were not with the players when they checked in at their hotel.
Leaders of both the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas have acknowledged receiving large financial support from Iran, with a Hamas official mentioning $22 million stuffed into suitcases dispatched by then-Qods Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleymani.