Courtesy: FIFA.com

Iran’s Magnificent Seventh

07 Jun 2005

Despite some unexpected early slip-ups, including a 3-1 loss to Japan and a 3-3 draw with Thailand in the second phases of the group stages, Iran were crowned champions in this year's AFC Futsal Championship in Ho Chi Mihn City on 4 June, following a deserved 2-0 victory over Japan in the final.
So far, the unstoppable Team Melli have collected all seven titles of the annual event which began in 1999. Japan have been the only team who have looked like breaking their dominance, but they have tasted defeat in the last four finals against the Iranian side.

However, this year it seemed that Japan had a good chance of lifting the trophy, especially as they had defeated the eventual victors just a week before the final. But the champions proved to be worthy winners on the day and of the tournament itself.

Iranian striker Vahid Shamsaee, top scorer of the tournament with 23 goals, put the favourites ahead after just three minutes. Mohsen Zarei doubled the advantage five minutes later, which effectively ended the game as a contest. Indeed, following the second goal, Jurandir Azeredo's men were rarely troubled by the Japanese side.

The coach was a relieved man at the final whistle. The re-match with Japan was as hard as the game earlier in the tournament, but this time we played better and we converted our chances," he said. "Japan are tough opponents, but we played to our strengths."

New challenges for Team Melli
In the opening group stage, Iran beat Bhutan (27-2), Kuwait (1-0) and Lebanon (10-3) to qualify for the second face where they came up against Japan, Thailand and China.

Despite reaching double figures against Bhutan and Lebanon, the narrow victory over Kuwait sent alarm bells ringing that the domination that Iran have enjoyed in this competition could be beginning to fade.

That view was re-enforced in the next game when they slipped to defeat against Japan. Kogure Kenichiro bagged a second half brace, while Fuji Kenta added the third. In the closing minutes, Hossein Sultani pulled one back for Iran, but that was little more than a consolation.

In the next match, a 3-3 draw with Thailand saw the defending champions on the verge of elimination. Only another 10-3 victory, this time against China, saw them through to the semi-finals, where they comfortably defeated Uzbekistan 4-1.

Pretenders to the throne
While the press and the public alike regarded this Team Melli as the weakest in their history, their struggle reflected the rapid development of the other Asian nations in the futsal arena.

Iran had not lost or even drawn a single match in the six tournaments prior to this one, so their defeat to Japan and draw with Thailand has been heralded in Asia as the end of their domination.

The progress of the other teams can be exemplified by Chinese Taipei, the hosts of last year's FIFA Futsal World Championship. After gaining valuable experience in the FIFA tournament, the young team proved to be the surprise package as they pulled off two victories over Korea Republic.

Lebanon leading the developing teams
During the two-week event, a new format was introduced after the initial group phase. While the top eight teams played against each other for the tournament title, the rest of the 16 losing teams were placed into four groups in an auxiliary competition.

After exciting the group stage at the first phase, Lebanon got into the winning habit by beating Malaysia 5-1, Indonesia 5-3 and Macau 10-1. This was enough to take them into the semi-finals were they edged out Palestine in a close match. A 6-2 win over Iraq saw them claim the title.