{"id":24439,"date":"2016-02-22T15:41:13","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T23:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=24439"},"modified":"2016-02-22T15:41:13","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T23:41:13","slug":"irans-hassanzadeh-is-named-most-valuable-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2016\/02\/22\/irans-hassanzadeh-is-named-most-valuable-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s Hassanzadeh is named most valuable player"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFC – TASHKENT, Ali Hassanzadeh was named the Most Valuable Player after helping Iran win an 11th AFC Futsal Championship following a closely fought 2-1 win over hosts Uzbekistan in Sunday\u2019s final.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hassanzadeh was instrumental in his side\u2019s march to the final before putting on a confident display at Uzbekistan Stadium to help see off the hosts and claim Iran\u2019s first continental title since 2010.<\/p>\n

The number seven scored six goals in six matches while also creating numerous assists as Iran netted an incredible 48 goals in the tournament.<\/p>\n

And despite being unable to add to his tally in the final, Hassanzadeh was assured in possession and solid in defence as Iran held out for a narrow victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beautiful memory from 2010 has been repeated. This championship is so valuable for myself and the team as it was our aim from the start,\u201d said Hassanzadeh.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I was chosen as the MVP, but this medallion is for all the players because the team is the most important thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the unity we have, we believe that whatever we achieve is for the whole team, so this is why I offer my prize to my team-mates as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hassanzadeh scored Iran\u2019s first goal of the tournament on the way to notching a brace in his side\u2019s 6-0 Group B opener against Jordan.<\/p>\n

He then added a third of the campaign in the 7-0 victory over China before scoring another double in the 13-2 victory over Iraq.<\/p>\n

Another goal followed in the 7-0 quarter-final win against Kyrgyzstan before Hassanzadeh drew his first blank of the competition in the 13-1 semi-final win over Vietnam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expected from the beginning that Hassanzadeh would win this award; he is a player that uses his head as well as his body strength,\u201d said Iran coach Mohammad Nazemalsharie.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis technical ability is very good and he is a very important player to our team. But overall it is his mind that is superior to others.”<\/p>\n

Photo: Lagard\u00e8re Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – TASHKENT, Ali Hassanzadeh was named the Most Valuable Player after helping Iran win…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":24440,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,84,88,93,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-c47-featured-news","category-c15-futsal","category-c22-players-spotlight","category-c13-team-melli-news"],"views":1744,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}