Silk Road Derby after 18 years

Persianfootball.com – DASOGUZ, In about 23 hours “The Silk Road Derby” will get underway after a somewhat 18 years coma. The two neighbours Iran and Turkmenistan played regularly from 1993-1996.

Their rivalry began in 1993 ECO Cup hosted in Tehran, a competition for members of the Economic Cooperation Organisation. All members had participated apart from Turkey and Uzbekistan who snubbed the host, whilst Afghanistan could not take part due to various reasons. In that tournament, they played each other twice. First was in the group stage and the Second was in the Final. Iran had won both encounters 2-1, sadly neither wins count as FIFA International since Turkmenistan was not a FIFA member. The sums of other encounters from 1994-1996 were 2 draws and 2 loss for Iran. Turkmenistan is the only national team member of AFC who has a better Head-to-Head record versus Iran.

Apart from Turkmenistan’s supremacy in Head-To-Head stats, previous results of the encounters between the two shows that Turkmenistan has managed to score a goal in each game, this is very impressive since Team Melli has failed to do that. In comparison, Uzbekistan in six meetings with Team Melli 1998-2015 only managed to put two goals past the keeper of which one was an own goal by an Iranian player.

The choice of a remote venue such as Dasoguz for the match is surely to Turkmenistan’s advantage. Perhaps Team Melli fans would hope for FFIRI, to also choose remote locations such as Yazd or Zahedan to host the most difficult matches for the Third Round of the qualifications. It must be noted that Turkmenistan has not hosted a home game since their World Cup Qualifier versus Indonesia back in 2011. This could mean that despite the remoteness of the venue, the stadium could fill up to full capacity.

During the past few years, managers of Turkmenistan national team had relied on Domestic League players rather than footballers from abroad. Again, this has been the case with their recent game versus Guam. Although one can speculate that Ruslan Mingazow (FK Baumit Jablonec, Czech Republic) and Uzbekistan-based Aleksandr Boliyan (FK Dinamo Samarqand), Artur Gevorkyan (Nasaf Qarshi), Arslanmyrat Amanow (FK Olmaliq) had been rested to be ready for tommorrow’s match.

Strangely none of Turkmenistan’s Russia-based footballers have been called up for national team duty, players such as Vakhyt Orazsakhedov (FC Rostov), Dzhamaldin Khodzhaniyazov (Zenit St Petersburg), Vyaceslav Krendelev (FC Luch-Energiya Vladivostok) and Daniil Poluboyarinov (Spartak Moscow II).

Although, this match will be the first Turkmenistan experience for Carlos Queiroz, his coaching staff and Team Melli players, however they can all gain invaluable lessons from current Team Melli’s Executive Director, Afshin Peyrovani who played the Turkmens in three meetings in 1996.

One thing is for certain and that is, Team Melli should not underestimate this opponent. Players should be united and stay focused to grab the three points from this match.

Trivia

• Turkmenistan was detached from Iran as a result of 1881 Akhal Treaty. Territories were gradually annexed by the Russian Empire from 1881-1889. In 1893 Firoza was annexed by Russia and the border-town of Sarakhs got split between Russia and Iran.
• Some of Iran’s historical capital cities are now located in Turkmenistan. Nisa was capital of the Parthian Empire, while Merv was the state capital of Khorasan and also capital of the Great Seljuq Empire.
• Mashhad-born Team Melli striker Reza Ghoochannejhad’s paternal grandfather was born in Ashgabat (now capital of Turkmenistan) into an Iranian family whose ancestors were from Ghoochan in North Eastern Iran. He migrated to Iran and settled in Mashhad.
• Team Melli striker Sardar Azmoun is an ethnic Turkmen born in Gonbad-e Kavous in Iran’s Golestan province. Iran is home to approximately two-million ethnic Turkmens.

Previous meetings