Iran’s Journey to Russia… Epic Surf to Victory in Guam! [VIDEO]

Persianfootball.com (Dededo, Guam) – The fans are celebrating after an epic performance from Iran at the Guam F.A. National Training Center that came within a stone’s throw of setting a new all-time record for Team Melli and made quite a mark in the history books.

The 6-0 victory against Guam becomes Team Melli’s second highest margin win on an opponent’s home turf and just fell short of the 7-0 record set in Laos in 2004, but still well ahead of the 4-0 victories in Singapore (1980) and Lebanon (2000) that it knocked out of second place.

What made the night even more epic was the intimate nature of the National Training Center and the camera angles that invoked a feeling of being right there in the stands to witness this historic performance, for the millions of Team Melli fans glued to their screens thousands of miles away.

The AFC High Definition coverage of the match also gave Iranian fans a rare close-up of Ashkan Dejagah’s yellow boots and Carlos Queiroz’s new relaxed casual attire, as he proudly looked on, taking in Team Melli’s star status among the locals during the pre-match preparations.

And Iran’s first competitive match on US territory finally got underway after a moment of silence in solidarity with France, reviving memories of another epic night in 1998 when Team Melli posed with the US national team in Lyon, on-route to its first and only World Cup victory.

Twelve minutes later, another piece of Team Melli history was in the making… Mehdi Taremi scored Iran’s first goal and went on to score another in the 63rd minute to join legends Ali Daei and Karim Bagheri, as the only Team Melli players to have scored more than one goal in two matches against the same opponent in a World Cup campaign!

And midfielder Kamal Kamyabinia was not to be outdone with the history making as he scored Iran’s second goal in the 32nd minute to join the illustrious list of players who have scored a goal for Team Melli within 45 minutes of their debut.

Defender Ramin Rezaeian scored Iran’s 3rd in the 49th minute to register his first ever Team Melli goal and the third consecutive qualifier in which an Iranian defender has scored. Things went from bad to worse for the hosts when John Matkin received a red card for a foul in the box in the 50th minute.

Attacking midfielder Masoud Shojaei converted the penalty to give Team Melli fans a rare treat with only his third goal in the last five years. A minute later it was another rare treat as striker Karim Ansarifard scored Iran’s 5th goal and his 3rd in the last 4 years.

The match took a bizarre turn in the 70th minute when Carlos Queiroz used Iran’s last substitution to replace Taremi with defensive winger Khosro Heydari. The move was presumably to signal that Team Melli was being gracious and had no intentions of embarrassing the 10-man Matao with more goals.

But within two minutes of that decision, Iran were also down to 10 men after keeper Alireza Beiranvand was sent off for a careless challenge outside the box, and defender Ezzatollah Pourghaz was forced to take his place as custodian – a first for Team Melli in a competitive match.

Iran seemed content to just pass the ball around for the remaining 20 minutes and Carlos Queiroz put a real damper on the celebratory mood when he put his future with Team Melli in question during the post-match conference.

It is unlikely the fans would approve his departure after back-to-back historic performances that also included Iran’s first ever victory against Turkmenistan in an official FIFA match and Saeid Ezatolahi becoming the youngest goal scorer in Team Melli’s history.

With Turkmenistan registering a surprise 2-1 victory at home against Oman following the Guam-Iran match, this is also the first time in this campaign that the fans are letting out a sigh of relief and they’re unlikely to be impressed with any drama spoiling the party for the next few months.

In another major surprise today, Qatar became the first team to advance to the next round of the Asian qualifiers ahead of all the continent’s big guns, including Japan, Australia and Korea. Team Melli’s next match is on March 24th against India at Azadi Stadium, where a victory will all but guarantee Iran’s place in the next round.

Until then, the focus of the fans will shift to Iran’s U-23 team and the road to Rio as Team Melli Omid fights for its long awaited return to the Olympics with all eyes on young and talented stars such as Sardar Azmoun, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Saeid Ezatolahi and Milad Mohammadi.

PFDC Player Ratings*

Mehdi Taremi: 8.5 (MOTM)
Mahdi Torabi: 7.7
Milad Mohammadi: 7.5
Kamal Kamyabinia: 7.1
Karim Ansarifard: 6.9
Ramin Rezaeian: 6.9
Ashkan Dejagah: 6.8
Ezzatollah Pourghaz: 6.8
Andranik Teymourian: 6.7
Masoud Shojaei: 6.1
Morteza Pouraliganji: 5.3
Alireza Jahanbakhsh: 5.2
Khosro Heydari: 4.9
Alireza Beiranvand: 4.3

*Note: Average ratings for each player from the PFDC community (1-10).

Highlights in High Definition (no commentary)