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Iran starts in style
Date: 29 November 2006 | Uploaded: 11:45 PM
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 Assad (R) and Umair (4) keep an eye on Iranian strikers |
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Doha, QATAR - Iran welcomed 15th Asian Games in style by beating Maldives 3-1 in their opening game played a while ago.
At Al- Garrafa Stadium infront of about 800 spectators, the defending champions opened their scoring in the 15th minute from Borhani. A powerful header from unmarked world class striker gives no chance to Imran to save the ball.
Maldives had their moments quite rare in the first half and Ibrahim Fazeel looked to be in his best form making all Maldivian efforts infront of tall Iranians. In such a chance he could have scored for the home team, but he shot was saved by the keeper.
Iran increased the margin to 2-0 from Mazyar, whose powerful shot in the 22nd minute went straight into the goal. A better effort from Imran could have saved the ball.
Maldivian players looked to be in difficult condition to deal the physical game plane of Iran and fouls were on the scene all the way to the half time. Iranian player Shic was cautioned in 25th for fouling Ashfaag.
With two down in the first half, Maldives concentrated on scoring goals in the second period. Ibrahim Fazeel could be on the score chart early in the second half, but his effort missed by inches over the cross bar.
During the early period of the second half, Iran went close to score their third goal, but Mehrdad's close range shot (inside 6 yard box) in the 48th minute was saved by Imran.
Similar to first half, Imran was busy handling the powerful shots of Iranians.
Maldives' only goal was scored by substitute player Assad Ali in the 78th minute. A big blunder from Iran defenders paved way for Assad to mark his name on the board. A back pass from Iranian defender was caught by Assad before the keeper and made no mistake in sending the ball back into the helpless opponent's net.
A minute after the goal, Assad again made a shot on Iran's goal but was saved.
Iran increased the tempo in the later stage of the game and ended fruitful as Adel's 87th minute shot turned out to be their third of the night.
Through out the game Iran made 13 shots and 9 of them were on target while Maldives made 5 and out of that 3 were on target. Ibrahim Fazeel made most of the efforts from Maldives side.
Earlier in Group D, India and Hong Kong's match ended as a 1-1 draw. India took the lead in the dying minutes of the game and surprisingly Hong Kong leveled in the extra period of the game.
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User Comments |
wow! this result is gud enough for us. i just think our players felt the pressure too much since it was the first game i sure saw all the goals, i just think our players felt too much pressure and im sure theyl do much better in the other two games. - becks
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Well done Assad! It will be historical goal against the Asia Champions. Keep it up and get place from first team. - RedSpirit
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Here in Malaysia, we are very lucky to see the Maldivian matches LIVE on ASTRO. I think Maldivians back in Maldives deserve to watch the matches on TVM, because Asian Games is much better than Saff Championship or Saff Games. The organizing, pitches and telecast is great! Maldives need to be more prepared to these games, rather than going to Bangkok and just making headlines for all the wrong reasons! Last night if OPPO scored with the chance he got in the second half, i would suggest that we could have come out of the game with a 2-2 draw.Stoitchov did a great job in organizing the team. Everyone should back the staff and players and lets hope Maldives could do a 'GREECE MIRACLE'. Remember how Greece won EURO 2004. Who would have predicted that! So why not we hope our team to succeed atlest to the quarterfinals. Three Cheers to Maldives. I predict Maldives to win agaisnt INDIA and HONGKONG. Their match last night was not so classy. Our players are more capable of beating them. Let us all pray! - balak
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maldives has achived a very good score when compare to a team like iran.you can do much better....maldives.keep it up - usaid
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A very good result i will say. and to see that we scored a goal shows that we didnt just stop the iranians at our goalmouth. well done Maldives. Now go on and win the other matches and do us proud. well played. for others who are not happy we didnt beat iran by 5 -0. go to and play on your PS2. you might just do that, - patriot
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the last time we met it was IRAN 3 MALDIVES 0... but now its IRAN 3 MALDIVES 1... thats a good result...LITTLE BY LITTLE WE WILL GET TO THEM thanks! - shafiu
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maldivian national flag has been change? all the other countrys they use the national flag clours in national team but maldives y they are using blue v have to think abaut it. - den
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I am not here to rain on your parade, but I would say Stoickov it wasn't good. - Juggy
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Thanks for the efforts made by Maldivian Players against the Giant Iran. We can still perform betteer in upcoming games. Well done boys... Cafu
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That really is a good achivement to narrow down the the gap from 17 to 2 goals within a matter of years with the giants of asia. This should motivate our players and hopefully we'll do even better with the other two teams. If TVM had telecasted the match we sure would have celebrated the achivement on the roads of Male'. - fruitful??
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Alhamdhu-li-Allah. Very good performance against champian. Insa'Allah we can do still better against other 2 teams and could reach 2nd round. - benzo
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according to what you guys described Maldives played a very good game compared to our previous encounters with Iran. So i guess it would have been good if you guys had praised our team. This article is like it had been written by a non-Maldivian because of the lack of spirit - No 1
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i dont think iran play well against maldivian players. our players perform quit well in the second half. iran play a very physical game. but we wish we could have better result against India and Hongkong - yaanu
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congra... thats also good... the last time we met it was IRAN 3 MALDIVES 0... but now its IRAN 3 MALDIVES 1... thats a good result... & i think we can play better with the other 2 teams in the group... thanks u23 national team... thats good for now... - RedDevils
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