Mexico stomps Iran.....................
.................on the soccer pitch:
Mexico Breaks Through Iran Defense in Win
By STEVE BRISENDINE
NUREMBERG, Germany (AP) - Iran seemed content to play for one point. So Mexico took all three. Mexico broke through Iran's defense late in the second half, scoring twice in the final 15 minutes for a 3-1 victory in the teams' Group D opener Sunday.
Omar Bravo's second goal of the match, in the 76th minute, put Mexico up 2-1. Three minutes later, two second-half substitutions hooked up for the clincher when Zinha headed in Francisco Fonseca's cross.
After trading goals in the first half, Iran dropped as many as five defenders back from the 60th minute on. The strategy worked until defender Yahya Golmohammedi, who scored the equalizer in the 36th minute, made a bad pass.
Zinha fed the ball up the middle to Bravo, who beat goalkeeper Ebrahim Mirzapour for the go-ahead goal. Mirzapour's poor clearing kick set up the scoring sequence for the Mexicans.
Mexico's set pieces failed to come together early in the match, but paid off in the 28th minute after a foul by Iran's Ali Karimi.
Pavel Pardo's free kick from the right side found Guillermo Franco in the box. Franco cleverly headed the ball to Bravo lurking virtually unmarked near the back goalpost. He gave it a right-footed tap past forward Vashid Hashemian and Mirzapour for a 1-0 lead.
Iran's equalizer was a textbook bit of opportunism by Golmohammedi. Mexican goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez could only deflect Hashemian's close-in header off Karimi's corner kick, and Golmohammedi took the ball at the top of the area and fired it just under the crossbar into the roof netting.
Sanchez, who flew to Mexico on Thursday for his father's funeral and rejoined the team Saturday night in Nuremberg, was tested early when he had to dive to his left to stop Hashemian's header in the 11th minute. |
