Iran Gets A Goal When It Counts, Takes Control Over Group

The 2015 AFC Asian Cup has been well underway to the point that it has come down to the moment where in some groups they have teams battling for first place. That was the case earlier this morning in Group C for both Iran and the United Arab Emirates who were both tied for first with six points. If the game finished in a tie, UAE would take the group based solely on goal diffential, but that wasn't in the cards for both teams today. Iran has been one of the more impressive teams from the Middle East ever since Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz took over for the team before the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The team even had a pretty impressive run even though they didn't go far in the tournament.  They were about to face a team in UAE at Brisbane Stadium that wanted to prove that they could hang with the best. For the most part, UAE was hanging with Iran in the first half, but Iran was just too good and they had the better chances near the net. Queiroz's mind and ability to strategize is what would get the best of the other team in this game.

In the second half, Queiroz made some adjustments by bringing in two key players into the second half in Ashkan Dejagah and Reza Ghoochannejhad. Iran were on the attack a little more while UAE sat back and made no substitutions at all during the game which in my opinion hurt them. Iran were by far creating the better chances, but a lot of them would fall short. UAE had some chances in the game, but they could capitalize on the Iranian defense by gaining any rebounds. Eventually by certain time, it seemed that both teams were indeed going to be playing for a tie as none of their chances looked promising as the 90TH minute of the game started to approach. That was until Iran had one of many of their corner kicks late. The kick wasn't well executed, but the clearance by UAE was just as pitiful as Andranik Teymourian was able to keep the ball in play by lobbying it back into the box where it found the head of Reza Ghoochannejhad who found the back of the net in the 91ST minute of play to give Iran the win and sole control of first place with nine points. Winning a group is very important as you are able to avoid a team that may be on a role when it comes to the knockout stage. My player of the game award goes to the obvious candidate of Reza Ghoochannejhad who found the back of the net. A close second for me was going to be Ashkan Dejagah who I thought made an impact. Now Iran will wait to see who ends up being the runner of group D which will probably be Iraq.