PLDC - In the fourth week of the Iranian
Professional League, Esteghlal Tehran faced Abu Moslem in Mashhad in a very
intense and exciting game on the second day of Ramadan on Friday, 8/11/2002
and Esteghlal managed to equalize against their opponents with the score of
2-2. This draw prevented the same incident which happened to the club six
years ago, when the
club lost three games in a row.
The match was refereed by the very capable Khodadad Afsharian. A header by
Javad Zarincheh (Esteghlal captain) scored an own goal for Abu Moslem in the
10th minute of the match and gave the host the lead early in the game. Abu
Moslem then began to strongly defend its goal mouth and did not allow any
infiltration.
Abu Moslem kept the guests busy during the whole match with their repeated
counters. In the 44rd minute of the match, a foul on an Esteghlal striker by
Abu Moslem goalkeeper (Ahmad Khormali) in the goal mouth area was judged to
be a penalty and Khormali receives a yellow card. Hasheminasab then scores
the penalty to draw the game in the 46th minute. The first half ended on as
1-1 draw after three minutes of injury time.
In the 48th minute (second half) Vahedi Nikbakht received a yellow card for
his objection to the referee and Abu Moslem posed a threat for Esteghlal.
Hasheminasab of Esteghlal then scored the second goal for his team in the
52nd minute to put his team ahead. Reza Enayati of Abu Moslem next scored
with a header (on a rebound header from Esteghlal defender) in the 27th
minute of the second half to make things even. Enayati together with Abu
Moslem kept us their attacks from the 75th minute of the match and Esteghlal
too kept trying to use their opportunities.
The match finally ended without any further goals and with much pressure
from Abu Moslem on their guests and a number of close calls by both clubs.
This now places Esteghlal in 8th place in the league table with 4 points and
Abu Moslem have held on to their position as fifth with 6 points.
