April 21, 2017
Tehran’s Persepolis soccer club has dominated league play this season and locked up the championship title Saturday with three games still left in the 30-game season.
Persepolis defeated Machine Sazi of Tabriz 2-0. Machine Sazi was in last place in the 16-team league and the loss relegated it to the next lower tier of soccer leagues.
One of the goals for Persepolis was scored by Mehdi Taremi, the striker who scored all the goals in Iran’s two 1-0 victories in World Cup play last month. The other Persepolis goal was scored by Ali Alipur just 29 seconds into the match.
Persepolis has routinely been a major contender in the league, but more often ended up the bride’s maid rather than the bride. The club came in second last year. Since the league was organized in its current form in 2001, Persepolis has won the championship only twice before—in 2002 and 2008.
In the latest ranking of clubs by footballdatabase.com, Persepolis is ranked as the ninth best club in Asia—but only the 202nd in the world.
