LOS ANGELES (June 11) -- Last year Iran and the United States met in the championship match of the Freestyle World Cup. This year the two world wrestling powers -- both with a large contingent of fans at the Forum in Los Angeles -- will collide on Sunday morning at the Freestyle World Cup in Pool B for a spot in Sunday night's championship.
Both teams finished with 2-0 records on Saturday. The host U.S. squad was completely dominant on the opening day, winning 15 of 16 individual matches and beating India and Azerbaijan.
"I felt really good about how many points our guys put up on the scoreboard," said U.S. coach Bruce BURNETT.
The Americans opened with a 7-1 victory over India. USA's returning world medalist James GREEN (70kg) and world champion Kyle SNYDER (97kg) both earned technical fall shutout victories. India's lone win came at 74kg.
The United States followed up its victory over India with an 8-0 shutout victory over Azerbaijan. The American wrestlers fed off the crowd and outscored Azerbaijan 57-8. GREEN picked up his second 10-0 technical victory at 70kg. Alex DIERINGER, filling in for Olympic champion Jordan BURROUGHS, handled Ashraf ALIYEV 8-0 at 74kg.
J'den COX claimed his second victory of the day at 86kg, stunning World No.3 Alexander Taymurazovic GOSTIEV 3-2. The United States closed out the dual meet with victories from world champion Kyle SNYDER (97kg) and Olympic champion Jake VARNER (125kg).
"It was really, really impressive, but we won all the close matches," BURNETT said of the dual meet against Azerbaijan. "Then we opened some up. I wouldn't say some people expected us to win all the ones that we did. We knew we were capable of doing that."
SNYDER, who became the youngest American wrestler ever to win a world title, is looking forward to Sunday's showdown against Iran.
"[Iran] has more fans than we do, and it's in America, so it's going to be really exciting," said Snyder.
Four-time defending champion Iran was nearly as dominant, claiming victories in 13 of 16 matches.
"We came here looking forward for this important match," Iranian head coach Rasoul KHADEM said of wrestling the United States. "Fifty days prior to the Olympic Games the most important thing is to get to know the opponents and the techniques."
The Iranian coach was hoping his 74kg wrestler Hassan Aliazam YAZDANICHARATI would get a chance to wrestle Olympic champion Jordan Burroughs on Sunday. Burroughs announced on Friday that he was pulling out of the event to be present for the birth of his second child.
"We were expecting to see and meet Jordan BURROUGHS but that did not happen," said KHADEM. "Now we all have to wait until the Olympics for Jordan and Hassan to meet, and that was what the Americans were expecting."
Iran was tested in its opening dual meet against Azerbaijan, but held on to win 5-3. The Iranians won four of the first five matches in the dual meet to go up 4-1. Azerbaijan battled back, winning the next two matches. A key win for Azerbaijan came at 86kg where World No.3 Alexandr Gostiev defeated Alireza Karimi 5-2. With Iran leading 4-3 heading into the final match, World No.6 Komeil GHASEMI closed out the dual meet with a hard-fought 6-4 victory.
Iran then crushed India 8-0 in the second round. Seyedahmad Seyedmahmoud MOHAMMADIPAHNEHKOLAEI (65kg), Hassan Aliazam YAZDANICHARATI (74kg), Alireza Mohammad KARIMIMACHIANI (86kg) and Amir Mohsen MOHAMMADI (97kg) all earned technical fall victories against India.
In Pool A, Russia was the lone country to finish the opening day with two victories. In perhaps the most competitive dual meet of the opening day, Russia edged Georgia 4-4 on criteria.
The dual meet started out with a battle of two wrestlers ranked in the top 10 in the world. 2015 world champion and No.1 Vladimir KHINCHEGASHVILI of Georgia earned a hard-fought 3-2 victory over World No.9 Gadzhimurad RASHIDOV of Russia at 57kg. Georgia kept the momentum on its side, winning the next match at 61kg. World No.5 Magomed KURBANALIEV blanked Zurabi IAKOBISHVILI 6-0 at 65kg. At 70kg, World No.5 Davit TLASHADZE of Georgia cruised to a 13-4 win over Radik VALIEV of Russia.
Russia then battled back, winning the next three matches, which included victories from Khetik TCABOLOV (74kg), Shamil KUDIIAMAGOMEDOV (86kg) and Abdusalam GADISOV. The past world champion GADISOV was pushed hard, but hung on for a 10-9 victory. World No.1 Geno PETRIASHVILI won for Georgia at heavyweight, 4-0, but it wouldn't be enough as Russia claimed the dual meet victory with two more classification points.
After its narrow criteria victory (4-4) over Georgia, Russia topped Mongolia 6-2. Mongolia won the first match with Bekhbayar ERDENEBAT defeating Azamat TUSKAEV 5-3 at 57kg. The Russians then took control of the dual meet, winning six of the final seven matches.
Wrestling is scheduled to get underway at 10:30 a.m. PT on Sunday with the final matches in each of the two pools.
