Iran overpower Japan to win 3rd Asian Beach Soccer Cup

PATTAYA: Iran were at their awesome best as they defeated Japan 6-0 in the AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup Thailand 2023 final at the Jomtien Beach Arena on Sunday.

The win saw Iran draw level with Japan on three titles each, with both teams now casting their eyes on preparing for the FIFA Beach Soccer World UAE 2023 in November.

head coach Ali Naderi Hosseinabadi praised his players for puting on their best performance and atributed their success to the hard work in training.

“I’ m so happy we won the title ,” said hos se in ab a di. “This is the culmination of one year’s worth of hard training and I want to thank all of our players. “They are the best in this tournament, and we dedicate this championship to our families in Iran.

“We analysed the Japanese team and saw their weaknesses in some positions, like goalkeeping. We came up with a plan and used it to our advantage to score goals.

“We continued playing the same throughout the match as Japan did not change their approach and that worked well for us.”

It was a tense start with neither team allowing the other space but it was Iran who had the first look on goal with Amir Akbari sending his overhead kick just above the bar.

Despite Japan’s man-marking, Iran scored the opening goal in spectacular fashion when Movahed Mohammadpour collected a long pass from keeper Seyedmahdi Mirjajili before finishing acrobatically in the fourth minute.

Japan struggled to find their footing and suffered another setback in the eighth minute with Mirjajili the orchestrator again when he set up Ali Mirshekari for another acrobatic finish leaving Shinya Shibamoto well beaten.

Three-time champions Japan came alive in the 11h minute with Takaaki Oba threatening with an overhead effort before Shibamoto’s long-range drive forced a fingertip save from Mirjajili.

Japan were missing the atacking play which had seen them breeze to the final and had no answer to Iran’s aggression when they conceded again in the 20th minute ater Mirjajili’s throw was deflected by Movahed to an unmarked Moslem Mesigar to slam the ball home.

The East Asian side almost found a way through with Takuya Akaguma seeing his shot graze the bar before Ozu skied his free-kick in the closing stages, leaving them with a mountain to climb heading into the break.