Heartbreak For The Blues

Perhaps the story of this match was the new generation of young Zobahan players. Many of them, under the age of 19, captured the attention of millions of TV viewers and the fans with their brave and outstanding performance. Among them, the 17 year old Mosalman and the 18 year old goalkeeper, Sadeghi, were simply fantastic. The Serbian coach of Zobahan, Georgovich, will likely see huge dividends for his investment in youth.

 

For the second week in a row, the game of the week involved Esteghlal. This time, Esteghlal played Sepahan. Sepahan was riding high from their
3 – 1 win against UAE’s Al Wahda in the Asian Champions League semi-final first leg when it faced Esteghlal.

 

Early in the game, a defensive mishap resulted in a nice shot by Sepahan’s Iraqian forward, Abolhail.  In the second half, the two teams played an entertaining and offensive match until Esteghlal defender Ghorbai found himself inside the box with a deflected ball and scored the equalizer. The Blues fortunes turned sour when in the 95^th minute on a counter attack, Abolhail received a long ball and scored on a strong shot that hit the left pole and went inside the net.

 

Last year’s champion, Saipa, saw her match postponed due to the World University Championship. Saipa has several key players in Iran’s squad for these games.

                                                                                                 

On the road and in Ahvaz, second place Saba Battery exchanged a win for a tie in the last minutes of their match against last year’s runner up; Esteghlal of Ahvaz.   With Sepahan’s victory, Saba lost a spot and moved down to third place.

 

Next week’s games will be overshadowed by the Perspolis  - Esteghlal match. Although Perspolis is enjoying a 10 points lead over their long term rivals, the traditional derby usually has its own dramas and the season performance of a team doesn’t guarantee success. A crowd of 100,000 is expected for the match.

 

 

FIRST COACHING CASUALTY

Pegah – As expected the first casualty of coaching was Pegah’s Jahanpoor. The recently promoted club has gone through eight matches with four ties and four losses. More importantly, the team has only scored once in these eight matches.

 

Here are the results of the 8th week:

 

Home teams are noted first

 

Perspolis 2 – Zobahan 1

Sanat Naft 2 – Shirin Farz 1

Esteghlal of Ahvaz 2 – Saba Battery 2

Abumoslem 3 – Moghavemat Sepassi 1

Rahahan 2 – Paykan 2

Pegah 0 – Pas 0

Barg 0 - Malavan 2

Sepahan 2- Esteghal 1

Saipa – Mes (Postponed)

 

 

TABLE RANKINGS

 

1 – Perspolis 20 points

2 – Sepahan 16 (two games in hand)

3 – Saba Battery 16

4 – Malavan 14

5 -  Rahahan 10

6 – Saipa 11 (one game in hand)

…

9 - Esteghlal 9

 

BEHIND THE NUMBERS

 

4, 4, 4, 1 – Pegah has 4 losses, 4 ties and 4 points. In eight matches, they have managed 1 goal and now they lost their coach.

 

15 – Last time the recently promoted Pegah won a league match was 15 matches ago on March 11^th 2004.

 

18 – Perspolis’ streak is now at 18. They have gone through 18 league matches dating back to last season without a loss.

 

20 – For 20 months, Iran’s Football Federation has not had a permanent president. The scheduled election in 10 days is now marked with controversy and it may get postponed.

 

95 – The game is no longer 90 minutes long. Sepahan scored the winning goal in the 95^th minute to defeat Esteghlal.

 

Kaveh Mahjoob