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Captain Reza Heidarian of Iran celebrates his team's second goal
FIFA - The scoreline makes
for impressive reading, but in truth Iran's defence often looked
decidedly shaky in this Group D game from the FIFA Futsal World
Championship Chinese Taipei 2004. Their campaign is nonetheless up and
running again, though, whereas defeat for Cuba sees them needing to
thrash Portugal and hope Argentina beat Iran.
"I must congratulate this Iranian team because they played very well
tonight," said Clemente Reinoso after the match, "but if only we had
converted the great chance we had after the second goal, the result
could have been a lot different." There were many things for the Cuban
coach to be proud of again tonight, though, even if he has his regrets.
Cuba coach Clemente
Reinoso gets his message across.
Unlike two days ago, when
Iran's over-dependence on Vahid Shamsaee was at the heart of the 4-0
loss to Portugal, this time it was positively beneficial. After just two
minutes of play, the Iranian star opened the scoring with an excellent
individual effort (1-0, 2'). After that, things grew quiet, and there
was precious little to trouble the exceptional Wilfredo Carbo in the
Cuban goal. Iran then resorted to counter-attacks before finally
doubling their advantage through Heidarian (2-0, 8').
Shamsaee hat trick
Less solid than against Argentina, Cuba knew they were in for a tough
match, and it became even tougher when they conceded two more goals
before the break: Mohammadi (3-0, 18') and Heidarian (4-0, 18') the
scorers. At that stage, it seemed possible the floodgates might open in
the second half.
Doubtless given a severe talking-to by their coach, the Cubans came out
of their dressing room with a whole new attitude. They began to dominate
and pulled themselves back into the encounter when Guerra struck the
target (4-1, 23') and, minutes afterwards, Mesa almost scored what would
have been one of the goals of the tournament. Having beaten half the
Iranian team, he found himself one-on-one with Nasseri, but was expertly
foiled by the Iranian goalkeeper (26').
From that point onwards, the action was non-stop, with the Cuban team
eager to get forward but leaving a lot for their goalkeeper to do, and
Iran looking ragged in defence, yet always a danger in attack. For a
while, Cuba had the better of the new match dynamic, and Saname was able
to reduce the deficit to just two goals again (4-2, 33'). In the same
minute, Chapman beat the goalkeeper….only to clatter the ball into a
post. It was another costly miss, and Cuba were soon made to pay when
Lotfy hit back (5-2, 35'), followed by Fakhim (6-2, 37') before Shamsaee
gave Iran a five-goal advantage. Shamsaee then secured his hat-trick in
a hectic last minute (8-2, 40'), with Mesa still having time for one
last Cuban response (8-3, 40').
"Our first half was good," said Iranian coach Mohammad Ansarifard at the
final whistle, "but in the second half, Cuba tried to get back into the
game and their attacking strategy posed us a lot of problems. I'm sure
we will be a lot better when we take on Argentina, though." |
