Japan hold Iran in entertaining u-22 Asian Cup opener

Persianfootball.com – MUSCAT, Iran kicked off the first ever u-22 Asian Cup with a 3-3 draw versus Japan, standing on joint second position of the group after the first matchday and Australia’s 1-0 win over Kuwait earlier on Sunday.

Iran featured a heavily depleted side following the withdrawal of eight key offensive players and centerback Kanzadeh, the suspension of midfielder Puraliganji and rightback Esmaeilbeigi as well as the injury of midfielder Jahanalian. Coach Mansourian had also stepped down following the loss of half of his squad and was replaced by Human Afazeli, who took on Japan without having had a single preparation match and only had a total 18 players at disposal for today’s match.

In fact, Kaveh Rezaei striker of Saipa Karaj was the only remaining first choice offensive player, but should show his class in second half.

However, first his striking partner Behnam Barzay was in the spotlight, when he slotted home from close range to give Iran a seventh minute lead.

Japan, who had decided to bring on their u-20 side to the tournament in order to build the team up for the next Olympics, quickly responded when Riki Harakawa’s shot from the edge of the area beat Iran’s and Naft Tehran’s number one goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand.

Iran dominated the proceedings and where unlucky on some occassions, especially when Japan’s keeper Masatoshi Kushibiki tipped Beira Mar’s Afshin Esmaeilzadeh’s thundering effort from outside the area against the crossbar to deny Team Omid the lead.

But it was Japan who went in front after 30 minutes thanks to a great solo effort from Takuma Asano.

Iran needed until the beginning of second half to shake off the insecurity following Asano’s goal and striking gem Kaveh Rezaei played the main role.

Just four minutes after the break the striker was stopped illegally inside the area following a cross from the right and referee Fahad Al Marri from Qatar rightfully awarded a spotkick, which Rezaei himself converted brilliantly.

Already in minute 55, Kaveh Rezaei proved why he must not be given any space inside the box, when he again got to the end of a delivery from the right, before quickly turning around himself and hammering the ball into the upper left corner with his left foot.

Human Afazeli’s men then wasted two golden opportunities to double the lead, but got under increasing pressure from Japan in the following minutes.

Shoya Nakajima’s 66th minute equalizer could almost be foreseen, but not the curve of the heavily sliced shot, which left Beiranvand second best.

The winner could have been scored on either side and in the end, despite looking slightly stronger, Iran had to settle with a not undeserved 3-3 draw.

Iran will next take on leaders Australia on Tuesday (17.00 local time), before concluding the group stage against Kuwait two days later at the same daytime.

The top two teams of the group will advance to the next stage.

While this year’s competition only serves for determining the tournament winner itself, the next edition will also serve as Olympic qualifiers.