Only in Iran do we see a team win both home and away games
and still get eliminated.
Yes, it is true. Sepahan, despite winning the return leg 2-1 has been
eliminated. It was just in form with the rest of the day (unless one is a
Volleyball fan who would have been delighted with the semifinal victory over
South Korea) as we saw Zob-Ahan throw away an excellent chance of advancing
from the tie with some lackluster and overly cautious performance in the second
half and the extra time.
Zob-Ahan’s coach, Mr. Ebrahimzadeh failed to heed all the
danger signs of the away leg as the Korean club Samsung Bluewings continued to use the flanks and
create chance after chance until they scored their equalizing goal (after Ghazi
had put Zob ahead, earlier) which seemed to pump most of Zob’s fight out of
them.
But the biggest blow came not from the opponent’s team, but
from the referee who, during a Korean set piece, in the melee in our box
somehow saw something that even the TV replays from various angles failed to
show. Zob’s Ahmadi was red carded and the team left with 10 men. The resultant
penalty was slotted and it was literally mission for the 10-man Zob-Ahan who
now had to score 2 goals in the remaining 18 or so minutes!
I believe Hadadifar’s absence in the middle of the park,
controlling and directing the play for Zob Ahan was really a big blow for them
and they looked weak in creating opportunities for their forwards.
Sepahan was not to be left behind, although they did make a
great match out of it. They started very brightly as they scored a goal within
the first minute of the game through Emad Reza’s well placed shot from range and
doubled their tally by 12th minute by Ashjari’s long ranger from the
middle leaving the Qatari team and their fans jittery and busy biting their
nail for most of the match. Halfway through the game, Talebi scored a goal
which was correctly called offside, Seyed_Salehi had a great header cleared on
the line by the acrobatic Al-Sadd keeper, and Emad Reza was fouled just outside the box
which was wrongfully ignored by the Japanese referee.
Thus was the story until that infernal and eternal law of football came to play; "if you dont score and make use of your opportunities, be sure that you will concede". Despite dominating the game and possession, creating several dangerous chances, Sepahan conceded a goal near the end of the game which deflated their players and much like their compatriots, Zob-Ahan, stared down the line with little hope of scoring 2 goals in a very short period. But Al-Sadd's coach, the Argentine Fossati's reaction after scoring their only goal of the two leg tie was quite pitiable. Pumping his hands in the air and running around pointing to their club supporters, one would have thought they have beaten Barcelona by 4 goals in the World Club tournament ... and not merely for the single goal in the game that they still lost and made the totaly tally of "scored goals" 3-1 ... had it not been for the foolish mismanagement of Sepahan's officials. It was quite the peculiar reaction of a losing coach indeed.
Thus was the miserable day of Sepahan and Zob-Ahan in their bid to make an all-Iranian semifinal ... which turned out to be a non-Iranian one eventually.
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