| | PASADENA, Calif. -- The U.S. men's soccer team, undergoing
almost a complete makeover since the miserable showing in the 1998
World Cup, still couldn't beat Iran.
In a rematch of their shocking loss to Iran in France, the
Americans dominated Sunday's exhibition game at the Rose Bowl in
most regards but had to settle for a 1-1 tie.
|  | | Chris Armas, who later scored for the U.S., slows down Iran's Khodadad Azizi in the first half. |
"For us, it was the first game of the year and we approached it like any other game," said Chris Armas, who scored the tying goal
for the United States in the 48th minute.
"I'm not a goal scorer," said Armas. "I just wanted to
take the best chance I had on the ball."
Coach Bruce Arena, who took over the U.S. team after Steve Sampson resigned in the wake of the poor World Cup performance, found some things to like about the performance.
"The first half, we didn't do a good job on (Khodadad) Azizi;
he got the ball his share of times and was splitting our defense,"
Arena said. "But the last 65 minutes, I thought we played quite
well.
"We were not a fit team. Most of the players have been off for two or three months."
The game was the third in the United States for the Iranian
team, on a brief "soccer diplomacy" tour. The two nations do not
have formal diplomatic relations.
As often happens when the U.S. plays a national team from
another country in the Los Angeles area, the Americans were the
"visitors" at the Rose Bowl.
There was an extremely loud and lively but well-behaved crowd of 49,212, about half the Rose Bowl capacity, with some 90 percent or so of the fans Iranian-Americans chanting, "IRAN! IRAN!"
throughout the match.
There were few American flags, and many of those were waved by fans with an Iranian flag in their other hand. Many fans also had an Iranian flag painted on one cheek and an American flag on the
other.
Still, Arena was disappointed that the crowd didn't have more fans cheering for the U.S. team.
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U.S. U-23s top Armenia
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The U.S. under-23 national team defeated Armenia's full national side 3-1 Sunday in the second game of a doubleheader at the Rose Bowl.
Only about 3,000 of the 50,000 crowd remained for the game
that followed a 1-1 draw between the United States and Iran.
Conor Casey found an open net from five meters in the
seventh minute. Armenia got level 10 minutes later on Tigran
Petrosyantz's shot from 20 meters. The Americans regained the
lead off a 51st-minute corner kick, the ball falling to Peter
Vagenas for a 20-meter volley.
Landon Donovan, named the outstanding player in November's
FIFA under-17 World Youth Cup, completed the scoring in the 89th
minute.
The Americans used the game as preparation for Olympic Games
qualification in Hershey, Pa., April 21-30. They will be joined by five other qualifiers from The Football Confederation (formerly CONCACAF) that will be determined in regional finals beginning in March.
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"I think it's about time people started getting behind our
national team," he said.
Iran coach Mansour Pourhaidari was pleased with his team's play, but not with the outcome.
"Every coach wants to win. We wanted to win, and maybe with a little more concentration, we could have come out with the
result," he said.
During the pregame introductions, the American players presented flowers to the Iranians. At the '98 World Cup, Iran's players had given flowers to U.S. players in an exchange of gifts.
The Americans, with a new coach and mostly new players since their 2-1 loss to Iran in Lyon, were on the attack constantly,
getting off 18 shots to nine by Iran.
But Iran scored on Mehdi Mahdavikia's goal seven minutes into the game, then withstood most of the Americans' offensive
onslaught.
"We did not play a defensive game," said Pourhaidari. "We preferred to play to open space for (Khodahad) Azizi and Ali Daei, and focus on the Americans who we knew would attack. That was our basic attack plan."
The United States tied it when Cobi Jones, who gave the
Americans consistent penetration down the right side, sent an
arcing cross from just outside the right side of the box.
Armas, charging in from the left side, slammed the ball into the open net with his left foot. Iranian goalkeeper Hadi Tabatebei,
forced to guard the right post with Jones dribbling down, could not
get back in time to stop Armas' hard shot.
The U.S. nearly took the lead in the 70th minute. Jones
made a run and found Armas alone in the box, only to have Armas hit a poor shot wide to the left from eight yards.
"We were flat in the first 20 minutes," said Jones, "but
after that, I think we were the better team. We had the best of
80 percent of this game."
The Americans consistently mounted threats in the first half,
but could not finish their opportunities. Jones barely missed in
the second minute, breaking free down the right side but banging
his shot off the left post.
Brian McBride struck a header from close range in the 34th
minute, but the ball went directly to Tabatebei. Ten minutes later,
Claudio Reyna, getting a clear shot from about 15 yards after a
scramble in the box, blasted his shot high.
Iran came very close to going up 2-0 early in the game. One
minute after feeding Mahdavikia a pass for his goal, Azizi
controlled the rebound after U.S. goalkeeper Brad Friedel stopped a
shot. Azizi, on the left side eight yards from the goal, whirled
around and fired a shot with his left foot, but the ball went into
the side of the net.
Jones, McBride, Reyna and Frankie Hejduk were the only starters in the game who also started the World Cup match against Iran.
Iran finished its U.S. tour 1-1-1, losing 2-1 to Mexico in
Oakland and beating Ecuador 2-1 at the Los Angeles Coliseum before
playing the Americans.
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