AFC Beach Soccer Championship 2015: Iran 8-1 Thailand

Beach Soccer World – DOHA, Iran leaves no doubt in group clinching win. The 8-1 win for Iran over Thailand was convincing and surprising after seeing the other matches in Group D

Iran surgically went through the Thai defense and employed their own clamp-like defense to go along with their offensive firepower. The win secures Iran first place in the group and they will take on the UAE on Thursday in the second quarterfinal of the day. The win by the Iranians also puts Lebanon into the next round, and they will face Uzbekistan in the first quarterfinal match on Thursday. Thailand lost a heartbreaker in overtime to Lebanon in their first match and could not recover, but they showed how sound their team is and will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.

Iran came out early and showed why they are a favourite to not only advance to the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Portugal 2015, but also one of the Asian teams to do the most damage. The Princes of Persia used two rapid-fire goals to establish the early lead, and one of them was the first goal coming from a goalkeeper in this event, on a line drive boot from P. Hosseini. The Iranians added two more opening period goals and went into the first break up 4-0. The Thais ignored the deficit and began the second period playing as if the score was 0-0 and looked poised to get on the board, but Iran used their skill and experience to withstand the offenses. The War Elephants could not get on the board before Iran added to their tally, pushing the lead to 6-0 as the middle frame wound down. Thailand capitalized on a solid penalty kick to get on the score sheet and take only a five-goal deficit, 6-1, into the final period.

The physical nature of the play in the final period picked up as emotions were running high. As could be expected, Iran came out very strong, attacking the goal, but more surprising was how resilient Thailand was playing. The War Elephants could not find the early goal they needed to inch their way back into proceedings, but they also limited the Iranian chances, holding them without a goal for much of the period. Iran proved very efficient at closing out matches and despite not scoring in the final frame like had in previous periods; they still finished the game up 8-1.

Goals: 1-0: P. Hosseini, min. 9 (1); 2-0: F. Boulokbashi, min. 8 (1); 3-0: H. Abdollahi, min. 5 (1); 4-0: M. Sadeghi, min. 4 (1); 5-0: F. Boulokbashi, min. 7 (2); 6-0: M. Moradi, min. 5 (2); 6-1: Vitoon, min. 1 (2); 7-1: M. Moradi, min. 3 (3); 8-1: A, Naderi, min. 2 (3).