Qualification for the 1964 Olympics in Japan started with Iran facing Pakistan, Iraq and India as other Olympic hopefuls and the games being played on a home and away basis. In the 1st game at home against the Pakistani squad, Iran opted for an offensive 4-2-4 formation and in spite of numerous attacks in the first 15 minutes, surprisingly it was Pakistan who opened the scoring on a counter attack. But such a lead did not last long for Pakistan as Iran stormed back with four unanswered goals by Shahrokhi, Shirzadegan and Behzadi (2) to win the match 4-1. Behzadi’s second goal (and Iran’s fourth) was especially astonishing as he turned his body in mid air and hammered home a cross with a thunderous downward header. In the return leg a month later, although a 1-0 victory for Pakistan on a goal that seemed to come off of an uncalled foul spelled defeat, however, the margin of victory in the first leg proved sufficient to send Iran to the next round.
Next up was Iraq who took the Amjadieh field in the Fall. Iran’s only change in its lineup was replacing Shahrokhi with Amir Asef while such regulars such as Asli, Dehdari, Ranjbar, Shirzadegan and Behzadi once again represented Iran on the field. A goal by Arab and a hattrick by Shirzadegan and an ultimate 4-0 win rendered the return match meaningless. A 0-0 tie in Baghdad confirmed Iran’s overall supremacy thus leaving only India in Iran’s path to the Olympics. In a jam-packed Amjadieh Stadium 35,000 fans had some concerns about injuries to Jamali, Saedi, Dehdari and Jasemian (who were in turn replaced by Latifi, Talebi, Barmaki and Habibi) but instead were treated to a 3-0 win over India with goals by Barmaki, Shirzadegan and Behzadi.
Any hopes of a revival by India in the return match were squashed when Iran cruised to another victory this time by a 3-1 score with goals by Behzadi (2) and Shirzadegan and thus earned its ticket to the Olympics.
With the sweet qualification campaign for the Olympics still fresh in everyone’s memory, internal problems started to brew. A trip to the Soviet Union for some friendlies had the IFF and club team Shahin clashing over coaching decisions and as a result six Shahin players were banned from playing for the national team (although some claim the exclusions were for political reasons). Already depleted by the absence of Barmaki, Behzadi, Shahrokhi, Shirzadegan, Jasemian and Vatankhah for its Olympic matches in Japan, Ranjbar also withdrew from the squad due to personal reasons. Fekri, the team coach at the time had no choice but to bring in younger players such as Mostafavi, Ghelichkhani and Esmaeili as replacements and while these seven new players had potential but they had yet to experience the high paced game of international soccer, specifically that of East Germany, Mexico and Romania.
The result was catastrophic. A German side who seemed superior in all aspects did as it pleased en route to a 4-0 victory.
Iran regained some pride in its 2nd game in a well fought 1-1 tie with Mexico with our equalizing goal coming from the penalty spot by Nayyerloo. One of the more talked about scenes from the game was the discovery of a hole on the field and the 10 minutes it took to fill it up. A win against Romania in the final group match would have left a mathematical chance of advancing depending on the result of the East Germany-Mexico match, but in spite of a solid performance, it was the Romanians who prevailed by a score of 1-0. Thus Iran ended its games by finishing last in the group and was eliminated in the first stage of its 1st Olympic venture.
Iran roster: Asli, Bayati, Mirzaei, Arab, Habibi, Mostafavi, Latifi, Jamali, Talebi, Noorian, Nayyerloo, Fanaei, Esmaili, Ghelichkhani, Amirasefi, Saedi, Khodaparast. Coach: Fekri
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