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PFDC - DUBAI, On the
second day of the Dubai Football Challenge 2007, Iran and VFB Stuttgart,
both of whom had coincidentally lost their first game in the tournament,
met at the Al Nasr Stadium in Dubai to play their last game of this
tournament.
As expected, Iranian National Coach Amir Ghalenoi started with seven new
players compared to the first match where his team had lost to Hamburg
SV 2-1.
Ghalenoi fielded Hadi Aghili and Hadi Shakouri instead of Jalal Hosseini
and Amir Hossein Sadeghi in defense, Ibrahim Asadi took over Alireza
Vahedi’s left wing position, Hossein Badamaki, Iman Mobali and Kianush
Rahmati formed the midfield triangle in the middle, and Mehdi Rajabzadeh
who had just joined Team Melli camp after playing his last game of the
first of half of the Iranian Professional League with his club team
Zobahan, replaced Rasoul Khatibi upfront next to Enayati. Khatibi, who
had scored Iran’s only goal last game, had been called by his club Al
Sharjah FC for an upcoming game. Hassan Roudbarian was the goalkeeper of
Iran in this match while Rahman Ahmadi was his substitute on the bench.
The first twenty minutes of the game was exciting, with both teams
creating decent chances. Iran started with a direct freekick by Mobali
but German international goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand saved the shot. In
response, Stuttgart played a good passing combination and reached Iran’s
penalty area but Hadi Shakouri was able to cut out Stuttgart’s attack.
Again, it was Iran’s turn, this time through Javad Kazemian who dribbled
the ball through the Stuttgart defense on the right flank and made a low
but sharp cross which Hildebrand fumbled on but was able to gather a
fraction of a second before Ibrahim Asadi reached the ball.
Few minutes later, from a Stuttgart corner, Iran created a counter
attack where Hildebrand was able to come out of his goal and kick a
through pass meant for Kazemian, only to see his shot reaching Iman
Mobali whose back was towards the Stuttgart goal and couldn’t lob the
ball over Stuttgart’s advanced goalkeeper.
In the 20th minute, Kazemian had to be replaced by Alireza Vahedi
Nikbakht due to a minor injury and Asadi was moved to the right flank,
leaving the left flank to Vahedi, like the previous game.
In the next 13 minutes, Iran created good passing combination scenes
involving Enayati, Vahedi, Badamaki, Rajabzadeh and Mobali but all in
vain and won a few corners, the most noticeable one being a Badamaki
cross which Hildebrand pushed out of the goal with his finders but none
of them were converted into a goal.
In the 33rd minute, Amir Ghalenoi backed up by the spectators started
arguing with the referee over a series of controversial calls,
especially a suspicious handball in which Stuttgart's Mexican import
Osorio fell on the ground and Badamaki tried to dribble past him but
Osorio's hand obstructed the motion of the ball. The referee didnt
consider the scene a penalty kick, however, he decided to send off the
Iranian National coach for rebelling against the decision. Ghalenoi,
however, stood there trying to negotiate with the referees and when it
didn’t lead to any results, he called his team off the pitch, gathering
them around himself and claiming that if he was sent off, his team would
withdraw from the game.
After roughly ten minutes of arguments between the referees, tournament
officials and Iran Coaching staff, Ghalenoi finally left the field, went
up to the VIP section and the game was once again carried on, with
Nasser Ebrahimi now standing at the field line, instructing his players.
The game had lost its excitement by then and nothing happened until the
45th minute when the referee added only two minutes of extra time to
everyone’s surprise. This could be probably because of the short gap
between the end of this game and the beginning of the next game which
would be between UAE and Hamburg SV. The officials had probably decided
they couldn’t afford to add ten minutes of extra time and extend the
game by another ten minutes.
Iran started the second half with no change in its players, while
Stuttgart started using its substitutions. After just two minutes,
Enayati scored a goal which was rightly disallowed for offside.
However, just three minutes later Enayati headed a pass from Badamaki
forward to the left flank where Alireza Vahedi had made a run and made a
low but sharp cross inside which Rajabzadeh had no problems tapping in
after Hildebrand’s dive had missed the cross to make it 1-0.
Immediately, a similar scene happened on the other side, however,
Roudbarian was able to save the weak but accurate shot by Stuttgart’s
midfielder. Iran was attacking through the flanks in the second half and
again, Hildebrand punched out another Badamaki’s ball, this time a lob,
from the goal to yet another corner.
In the 57th minute, Stuttgart came close to equalizing through their
German midfielder, Christian Genter but was unlucky that his shot just
passed Roudbarian’s goal post.
Seven minutes later, the game again looked more than just a “friendly”
one when Mobali who was tackled to the ground was pulled up roughly by
Osorio. This made Iran’s captain, Alireza Vahedi angry and he reacted by
pushing the German player. The referee however, stopped the commission
there by booking Mobali and Osario both.
The last 25 minutes of the game were more of substitutions and rough
tackles followed by yellow cards rather than an attractive game.
Finally, the referee blew the final whistle and Iran beat VfB Stuttgart,
1–0, thanks to Rajabzadeh who had scored in the 50th minute.
Lineups:
Iran: Roudbarian - Shakouri, Nosrati, Aghili - Kazemian (20. Vahedi
Nikbakht), Rahmati, Mobali (78. Nouri), Badamaki (85. Mirghorbani ),
Asadi - Rajabzadeh (85. E. Sadeghi), Enayati.
VfB Stuttgart: Hildebrand – Osario, Meira, Delpierre, Boka – Gentner
(62. Gerber), Pardo (46. Tasci), da Silva, Hitzlsperger (46. Hilbert) –
Gomez (46. Cacau), Tomasson (70. Beck)
Goal: 1-0 Rajabzadeh (50' / Assist: Nikbakht Vahedi)
Yashar Fasihnia reporting from Dubai
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