On September 3rd, China hosted a friendly match against Asian powerhouse Iran. Both China and Iran are strong Asian teams and the purpose of this match is to practice the two nations before the Asian Cup 2011 tournament in January 2011. Continue reading more below.
China fielded an almost full-squad comprised with mostly local talents. Feng Xiaoting, who plays in South Korea’s Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, was the only oversea player included in today’s squad. Other oversea players such as Hao Junmin (FC Schalke 08/Germany) and Zhang Chengdong (U.D. Leiria/Portugal) were not called into the squad.
Iran brought a full squad that blended a mixture of oversea players and local talents. Some of the famous players include playmaker maestro Jared Nekounam (Osasuna/Spain) and Andranik Teymourian (formerly of Fulham/England).
China started the early 15 minutes with good solid counter attack. However, sloppy long passes and unfocused defense from the Chinese side brought many troubles to Yang Zhi, the Chinese goalkeeper.
In the 36th minute, the Chinese again performed with one of their trademark counter attack and Yang Hao almost capitalized the chance by scoring a goal. It was unfortunate that his shot curved over the bar.
Yet, two minutes later, a mix-up between the Chinese defense and goalkeeper made Feng Xiaoting to give away the ball to the Iranian attacks. Andranik Teymourian took advantage of the mistake by blasting a shot from 15 yards which took Iran the lead 1-0.
In the 57th minute, Iranian forward Gholami sneaked through the Chinese’s offside trap, quickly dribbled through Yang Zhi, and scored a fine goal that brought Iran the score of two-nil. This is Gholami first ever game for Iran and he scored his debut goal.
Despite strong Chinese offensive in the last third of the game, China failed to scored and Iran convincingly won the game.
China will be hosting their next friendly with World Cup finalist Paraguay on Thursday September 7th.
Iran will be playing their next friendly Asian powerhouse South Korea in Seoul with the same date as above.
The following is the Youtube video of the China 0-2 Iran game:
For those who watched the game, would you agree that Iran is becoming a stronger team in Asia now? Will there be much to do to improve China’s football standard?
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