Iran became the first four-time champions on top of a bit of personal history after their emphatic 8-1 win against Oman in the final as Hossein hailed the immense st“I need to thank each and everyone of our players,” said Hossein. “We have a good team, we are a family. It’s the first time we were able to defend our title. This trophy is for the people of Iran.”
“We have great quality but I don’t think we showed the full extent of it even with this result.
“I said before we focus on the quality of our players. In this tournament, we are really together, we are one mind. That’s how we showed in the game.”
Man-of-the-match Ali Mirshekari joined in the praise as he and his teammates showed their full desire and commitment until the final whistle despite holding a handsome lead in the match.
“We worked non stop,” said Mirshekari who also picked up the Most Valuable Player and Top Scorer awards.
“We weren’t thinking about the score or the time. All we were thinking is just trying to find more goals and not conceding.”
As for Oman, their gallant run in the tournament finally came to a halt but despite the defeat, head coach Talib Hilal was proud with how his players performed in the tournament, which included wins over Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
“I can say congratulations to Iran, they deserved to win the title,” said Hilal. “They were the better team today.
“My team was tired after playing three tough matches against high quality opposition in four days. Overall, it’s still good for us to be runners-up.”
“We played well but fatigue didn’t help the players. When we’re tired, we lose concentration easily and some of the goals were because of mistakes but I don’t blame them because the game was played in high intensity.”
Iran, Oman and Japan will lead Asia’s challenge at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Seychelles 2025 in May.andard within the squad.
