10/19/2007
Kaveh Mahjoob

A Two Team Race!

Both Perspolis and Sepahan won in the extra times to continue their quest for the league championship. Week 10 of Iran’ s Persian Gulf League (PGL) witnessed some of the most exciting matches of the season and once the dust settled, other contenders lost while the top two teams won with impressive efforts.

In front of more than 70,000 home fans, Perspolis played her best match of the season against Esteghlal of Ahvaz. The Blues of Ahvaz finished second last year and were in Tehran to create another surprise following their victory against Sepahan. The REDs fans enjoyed a well played game by both teams but it was the home team that had the upper hand even when their central defender and the national team player Nosrati was ejected and Perspolis played with 10 players for the last 25 minutes of the match. In the 93rd minute, Perspolis scored her third and winning goal when the 91st minute substitute Khairkhah passed a perfect ball to Badamki who sent the ball over the head of the keeper for the REDs’ winning goal. This was Badamaki’s second goal of the match.

Fans in the stadium appreciated the brave move of Afshin Ghotbi, Perspolis head coach, when he with his team at 10 players took out a defender and placed a forward to increase his team’s offensive production in the last minutes of the match. With this victory, Perspolis remained in the first place with 24 points.

In Isfehan, Sepahan returned to winning ways once more and defeated the fourth place Malavan in the 95th minute on an own goal. Sepahan showed resilience to defeat the visitors in this even match.

Esteghlal traveled to Rasht and defeated the team in crisis of Pegah. The victory, only the third for the popular BLUEs, pulled up Esteghlal in the standings from the 11th to 7th position. With 13 points, Esteghla is 11 points behind their archrivals of Perspolis.

Last year’s champ Saipa lost again. This time, they traveled to the tough venue of Abadan to play Sanat Naft. In front of 15,0000 screaming fans, Saipa lost 2 – 0 to fall further off of the contention. Coach Ali Daei is now finding his team with 12 points in the 11th place.

COACHES IN TROUBLE

Abumoslem (Coach Fired) – As expected, the once football legend, Khodad Azizi was fired as the head coach of Abumoslem. His one season and 9 weeks with Abumoslem was a turbulent one. Azizi didn’t get along with the team management and criticized his players in public.

Zoabahan – With the 16th (Abumoslem) and 18th (Pegah) place teams’ head coaches fired over the last two weeks, rumors are out that 17th place Zobahan head coach is next.

Here are the results of the 8th week:

(Home teams are noted first)

Perspolis 3 – Esteghlal of Ahvaz 2

Sepahan 3 – Malavan 2

Pegah 0 – Esteghlal 1

Saba Battery 0 – Mes 1

Sanant Naft 2 – Saipa 0

Paykan 2 – Pas 1

Barg 1 – Shirin Faraz 0

Rahahan 1 – Moghavemat Sepassi 1

Abumoslem 3 – Zobahan 2

TABLE RANKINGS

1 – Perspolis 24 points

3 – Sepahan 19 (two games in hand)

2 – Saba Battery 17

4 – Malavan 15

5 – Barg – 14

5 – Esteghlal Ahvaz 13

6 – Esteghlal 13

…

11 – Saipa 12 (one game in hand)

BEHIND THE NUMBERS

1 – Ten weeks into the season, the only undefeated team is Perspolis.

3 – Malavan (4th place) has lost three matches this season. In each of these losses, a defender has scored an own goal.

3 in 4 – Minutes 17 – 20 of the match between Paykan and Pas saw all three goals of the match scored.

7 in 8 – Karimi of Sepahan has scored 7 goals in 8 matches.

20 – The streak is on. Going to the last season, for the 20th week in a row, Perspolis has not lost a match.

95 for 2 – For the second time in three weeks, at home, Sepahan won with a goal on the 95th minute of the game.

70,000+ – This season, Perspolis has gotten used to huge home crowds. Another 70,000 fans showed up to cheer for the home team in the most exciting match of the week.

Kaveh_Mahjoob@hotmail.com