Persepolis V Saipa a cocktail of excitement and mistakes

Footballmedia.net (Afshin Dastafshan) - The most exciting match of the season so far in the Persian Gulf League was displayed by Persepolis and Saipa on Tuesday, the match was full of excitement, some good football, also blunders and bad decisions by referee officials, there was basically a bit of everything in this match; a bit of Daei, a bit of good goalkeeping, a bit of blunders, a bit of good goals, a bit of own goal, a bit of successful penalty taking, a bit of saved penalty, a bit of yellow cards, a bit of red card, a bit of confused referees and 50,000 fans in the stadium, the heat was on.

Both sides played some good and certainly exciting football, at times it was end to end stuff, but in the end this match will be best remembered for the goalkeepers. Saipa keeper Rahman Ahmadi had quite a shaky day, he certainly had his ups and downs; in the first half Ahmadi came close to scoring an own goal, Madanchi’s low shot from long range was going wide of the goal but Ahmadi some how managed to redirect the ball towards his goal while attempting to stop the slow moving ball, he just managed to prevent the ball crossing the line, he was lucky there were no Persepolis players around.

But a mix up in Saipa defence led to an own goal by Hamidreza Farzaneh, it appeared that his attempt to clear the ball to corner hit the diving keepers hands and the ball ended in the back of the net! Ahmadi had another close call in the second half when he mishandled a long range effort from Badamaki, this time the goal post came to his rescue.

Then there was Daei, the player and the coach, at 37 he scored both of Saipa’s goal (one a penalty) but also had a penalty saved, this was a penalty saved by a brilliant young keeper rather than missed by a striker, more on that later. Daei was also the first player to be booked in the match for a push on Rezaei, there was a one to one battle between Daei and Rezaei throughout the match, Rezaei earned his yellow card in the second half. With the first half heading for a 1-0 win to Persepolis the Saipa Captain Ebrahim Sadeghi made a run for Persepolis goal but came across Bagheri on the edge of the penalty box! Sadeghi appeared to be going passed Bagheri but for a slight contact with Bagheri’s arm which resulted in a penalty, in my view Sadeghi made a meal of the contact made and earned a penalty after going down, Daei converted the kick and 1-1 the first half ended.

The second half was to be equally exciting, Persepolis were pushing hard for the second goal, Saipa keeper Ahmadi redeemed himself up to an extent by making a number of saves but Persepolis had only themselves to blame for their missed opportunities with Madanchi missing several clear cut chances, this wasn’t Madanchi’s day who at times played on the right in the first half, I would expect a Team Melli player with world cup experience under his belt to put away the chances Madanchi got in the second half, clearly the two week break as a result of the unnecessary cancellation of league matches over a meaningless three sided LG Cup had dented Persepolis’s touch in front of the goal.

A mix up in Persepolis defence allowed Daei to take possession and put Momenzadeh clear near Persepolis penalty area, Farshid Karimi’s attempt to stop the danger resulted in the second penalty for Saipa and a red card for Persepolis keeper, this was a poor decision by the referee, Momenzadeh had a Persepolis defender Hajizadeh to his left closing in fast, I am not certain he could have scored from that position as the ball was running fast and away from him, the keeper was not the last man Momenzadeh had to beat hence this was not a red card offence, Momenzadeh just like his captain in the first half made a meal of the contact this time with the keeper and went down.

Perhaps something positive came out of the saga, a young talented goalkeeper was born for Persepolis; Alireza Haghighi on his first appearance for Persepolis was given the task of facing a Daei penalty kick. Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Japan are amongst teams that have failed to stop Daei’s penalties, Daei hit the ball well and aimed for the right corner, however, Haghighi was equal to it and saved after diving the right way, he could not have made his mark against a more deadly penalty taker in Iran football history, I was absolutely delighted for Haghighi and I hope he will develop his skills and challenge for a Team Melli place in due course.

There was more drama to come, Saipa took the lead late in the match when Daei saw his marker off and headed home a cross from right, Daei at 37 is not the player he was (and agreed he is not Team Melli material today) but he still manages to be in the right place at the right time in the league! The vacuum left in Team Melli by Daei has been evident in Iran’s recent matches. Another rising star Badamaki had the last laugh though as he cancelled out Daei’s second goal three minutes into injury time in 93rd minute, the match ended 2-2 but I can’t help feeling Persepolis were unlucky not to win thanks to poor finishing and missed chances in front of the goal, I have no doubt Persepolis would have won this match had the match been played two weeks ago when the Red Army of Tehran were on top form, this is the price a number of Persian Gulf League clubs are having to pay for IRIFF incompetence.

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