10/14/2007
Kaveh Mahjoob,lastkick.com

The Tehran Derby!

Whenever a new season of Iranian football begins, all fans circle up the calendar with the two dates when the REDs and BLUEs play. Week 9 was the first of the two circled days on the calendar.

In front of 90,000 excited fans, Perspolis and Esteghlal met for the 63rd time. Fans didn’t seem to mind why the federation had changed the schedule of the match from a holiday to a work day at 3:30 PM. It was the game that mattered.

On one side, it was Afshin Ghotbi, Perspolis head coach in his first derby nervous and all taking in the electrifying atmosphere the crowd had created. On the other side, Iran’s greatest goalkeeper ever now again as the head coach of his beloved Esteghlal. Hejazi had gone through a miserable season but knew a win in this one match would make it all work for the fans.

As it is the case for the derbies, the game was played more with emotions and less with game plan. The game was mostly even but minutes after the second half began, on a long low shot, the BLUEs’ Omid Ravankhah scored. From that point on, Perspolis placed pressure on Esteghlal and finally managed an equalizer when a nice cross by Shaise Rezai landed on Khalili who scored his 7th goal of the season.

With this result, Perspolis remained at the top with 21 points while Esteghlal is now 10th with ten points.

In Ahvaz, Sepahan tasted the first defeat of the season. Esteghlal of Ahvaz started the season poorly but game by game they have turned better performances. Defeating the yellow jerseys of Isfahan that are a tie away from playing in the Asian Champions League final was sweet for the BLUEs of Ahvaz.

For the third week in a row, Saba Battery tied a match and although still undefeated it is looking less and less like a serious contender once it was thought to be.

COACHES IN TROUBLE

Abumoslem – During the Pas – Abumoslem meet, the visitors scored an own goal. By then Abumoslem had used all her substitutions. In an act that would likely remain as one of the oddest by a coach in Iran, Abumoslem’s head coach Azizi took out the goal scorerr and his team continued on with 10 players. After the match, news media reported that Abumoslem’s GM attacked the head coach.

Esteghlal – Hejazi’s team tied Perspolis but still only has 10 points in 9 matches in 10th place. The pressure to perform remain.

Here are the results of the 8th week:

Home teams are noted first

Esteghlal 1 – Perspolis 1

Rahahan 1 – Sanat Naft 1

Malavan 1 – Saba Battery 1

Moghavemat Sepassi 1 – Paykan 1

Shirin Faraz 1 – Saipa 1

Pas 3 – Abumoslem 0

Zobahan 2 – Pegah 2

Mess 1 – Bargh 3

Esteghlal of Ahvaz 3 – Sepahan 2

TABLE RANKINGS

1 – Perspolis 21 points

2 – Saba Battery 17

3 – Sepahan 16 (two games in hand)

4 – Malavan 15

5 – Esteghlal Ahvaz 13

6 – Rahahan 12

7 – Saipa 12 (one game in hand)

…

10 – Esteghlal 10

BEHIND THE NUMBERS

2 – Nine weeks into the season, there are still two teams without a loss; Perspolis and Saba Battery.

5 – Number of matches this week with an identical 1 – 1 score.

6 – Of all the games between Perspolis and Esteghlal, one match would always stand out. In the early 1970’s, Perspolis defeated Esteghlal 6 – 0. One of the two Esteghlal goalkeepers was the current head coach of Esteghlal; Nasser Hejazi.

13 – Great Iranian goalkeeper Abedzadeh played in 13 Tehran derbies. Five times he was the keeper for Esteghlal and 8 times for Perspolis. Interestingly, his side never lost a match and he holds that record.

19 – The streak is now at 19. For 19 weeks, Perspolis has not lost a match.

26 – As 26 goals were scored in 9 matches this week. It ties the first week of the season for the most goals scored in a single week this year.

63 – As the 63th derby of the two most popular teams in Iran took place this week.

90,000 – As the number of fans in the stadium for the Tehran Derby.

Kaveh_Mahjoob@hotmail.com