According to "Varzesh 3", the serial ejection of players, successive injuries, consecutive defeats, and missed scoring opportunities have all cornered Mehdi Rahmati and Gol Gohar Sirjan, preventing them from experiencing good days in Iranian football.
Gol Gohar, which had tasted three consecutive defeats at one point in the season against Sepahan, Aluminum Arak, and Tractor, returned to the scoring track with a victory over Shams Azar. They followed this up with a valuable draw against Al Jazira in the opening week of the AFC Champions League and defeated Esteghlal Khuzestan to show they had left that negative atmosphere behind.
However, all these troubles started for Rahmati and Gol Gohar from the match against Bahrain's Al-Muharraq. That was when they took a long journey to Oman, where an ill-timed red card shown to Erfan Masoumi and individual errors led to an unexpected defeat against their opponent. Yet, the Sirjan side returned to Iran hoping to pick up points from their match against Esteghlal and distance themselves from the defeatist mood. But the objective was not met; besides suffering a defeat, they lost their defender, Ehsan Hosseini, to an early injury.
Nevertheless, the showdown with Kheybar could have provided conditions for Gol Gohar to break out of the negative atmosphere and return to the path of success. However, all those misfortunes crashed down on Rahmati and his team at once—from the expulsion of their player to the injury of the Gol Gohar midfielder and an error that ultimately resulted in the navy-blue side's third home defeat.
Now Rahmati is preparing his team for the AFC Champions League match, hoping to return to happier days with Turkmenistan's Arkadag. Although the task is difficult and requires greater effort, it remains to be seen whether the Gol Gohar players can pull it off or not.
Photo: Abolfazl Amirzadeh
Source: Varzesh 3
