Can Ghotbi do it?

It is most likely that Afshin Ghotbi will be taking Iran to the the Asian Cup in Qatar, where Iran will take on Iraq, DPR Korea and the UAE in Group D, but to what extent can he have a decent impact? Or will he even be replaced before the Asian Cup?

Qualifying for the Asian Cup might be taken as indicator that he deserves to be the coach for the final tournament, but also it could be seen as rather  unsurprising to qualify as one of two teams out of Jordan, Thailand and Singapore.

Additionally, Ghotbi stepped in after Team Melli with Ali Daei at helm had overcome Singapore 6-0 and drew Thailand 0-0.

Ghotbi started his Asian Cup qualification campaign with a 1-0 win over Jordan in Azadi Stadium thanks to Javad Nekounam’s 72nd minute header. Team Melli then lost in Jordan after a ground shot by Amer Deeb found the back of the net. Iran went on to face Singapore at the National Stadium in Singapore, coming away with a  3-1 victory, Hadi Aghily, Mehrzad Madanchi and Gholamreza Rezaei scoring the goals for Iran. The already qualified Iranians then defeated Thailand 1-0 in Tehran, with Nekounam scoring a late goal.

Iran obviously lacked a goalgetter in this campaign, as the top goal scorers in the qualifiers were Javad Nekounam, Gholamreza Rezaei and Mohammad Nouri, with two goals each.

With many coaches looked at and negotiated with, such as Faith Terim and Sven-Göran Eriksson, Ghotbi always seemed to be just a loss or away from getting the boot, but managed to hang on.

The draw on Friday gave Iran a feasible task in group stage, but a likely quarterfinal clash against giants Australia or Korea Republic might put an advance to the semifinals in doubt.

It might be hard to tell what will be more exciting – the question how far Iran will get in the competition, or if Afshin Ghotbi will remain headcoach until the beginning of the tournament, or even beyond it.