October’s Albion International Round Up: Part Two
Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Tomer Hemed were both on the scoresheet in the second round of October international games.
It was an historic occasion in Tehran as Iran hosted Bolivia and a small group of women were allowed to watch the Iranian national team for the first time ever. Next they’ll be allowing them to do outrageous things, like vote!
If they could vote, those women might install Jahanbakhsh as President after he became the first man to score in front of the fairer sex when he gave Iran a 17th minute lead.
The Albion’s record signing thought he had a second just before the half hour mark but it was disallowed for offside. Henry Vaca equalised for Bolivia just after the restart but Mehdi Torabi notched what proved to be the winner for Iran with a 63rd minute strike.
Hemed meanwhile scored Israel’s first goal in their 2-0 UEFA Nations League win at home to Albania. That made it a good international break for Brighton’s Israeli Men (hallelujah) as Beram Kayal had teed up Charlie Mulgrew’s own goal in their 2-1 win over Scotland three days previously. Kayal also started against Albania.
Elsewhere in the Nations League, Shane Duffy played the full 90 minutes as Ireland lost 1-0 at home to Wales in a drab encounter in which the only moment of quality, Harry Wilson stunning free kick, was enough to win the game.
Over in Africa, South Africa were unable to find a way past the might of the Seychelles as they drew 0-0 away with the Pirates, which surely would be a better nickname for Somalia?
Percy Tau did get the ball in the back of the net but that was correctly ruled out for offside. He had a couple of other opportunities but it was a largely disappointing night for Bafana Bafana against opponents they’d hammered 6-0 at the weekend.
Nigeria beat Libya for the second time in three days although there was no clean sheet this time for Leon Balogun as the Super Eagles squeezed past their hosts 3-2 in Sfax, Tunisia.
Nigerian media blamed Balogun for pushing up as Libya scored their second goal and equaliser through Ahmad Benali. Luckily, Odion Ighalo was on hand to score a brilliant individual winner with 10 minutes remaining to move Nigeria above South Africa at the top of their qualifying group.
Neither Yves Bissouma nor Gaetan Bong featured for Mali or Cameroon respectively, Bissouma being dropped to the bench for his country’s 1-1 draw with Burundi after coming off after an hour of their 0-0 stalemate with the same opponents at the weekend while Bong wasn’t selected by Clarence Seedorf for either of his nation’s matches against Malawi.
