A look at Iran’s Asian Cup opponents

Iraq, DPR Korea and the UAE are the teams competing with Iran for two quarter final berths and Persianfootball.com is taking a look at the trio.

Iraq

Title defenders Iraq directly qualified due to their surprising success in 2007. The Iraqis know their neighbours well, as a couple Iraqi players are familiar to Iran’s Professional League.

Striker Emad Reza, who had not been a part of the 2007 championship winning team, currently is the top scorer of the league, having netted 18 times in 31 rounds so far.

Winger Hawar Mullah Mohammad, the first Iraqi player to play and score in the UEFA Champions League with Cypriot giants Anorthosis Famagusta, is one of the Hazfi Cup finalists Persepolis Tehran’s absolute star players while defender Mohammed Ali Karim is earning his money at Mes Kerman.

Beside the Iranian based players, playmaker Nashat Akram and goalgetter Younis Mahmoud are the key players of Iraq’s team. Akram almost joined Manchester City in 2008, but the transfer finally failed due to a lacking work permit. Instead he joined Dutch side Twente Enschede in 2009, where he, however, mostly finds himself on the substitute’s bench.

Skipper Mahmoud is leading a rather large contingent of Persian Gulf league based legionnaires. He is the star of Qatar’s Al Gharaffa, where he scored no less than 79 goals in 102 games since 2006.

After having several foreign coaches like Bora Milutinovic, Egil Olsen, Jorvan Vieira or Bernd Stange at helm in recent years, since 2009 the team coached by Iraqi Nadhim Shakir.

Iran and Iraq played 21 times so far, Iran coming away with eleven wins and six draws, only losing four times (28-14 goals). The most recent game, the 2007 WAFF final, ended with a 2-1 win for Iran’s B team, Hossein Badamaki and Hashem Beikzadeh scoring Iran’s goals.

The last Asian Cup encounter took place in October 2000 in Lebanon, when Ali Daei’s goal gave Iran a 1-0 win during the group stage.

DPR Korea

Iran and North Korea became familiar foes during the last years, repeatedly facing each other in different competitions. The Koreans are yet to win their first game against Iran, suffering defeats in 13 of the 20 games so far, drawing seven times (26-7 goals).

Recently the two teams met three times, the latest result being an Iranian 1-0 victory in Doha’s friendly tournament in January 2010 thanks to Mehrzad Madanchi’s goal. In World Cup qualification Iran defeated DPR 2-1 in Tehran (goals by Mehdi Mahdavikia and Javad Nekounam) while a goalless draw was played out in Pyongyang.

The last Asian Cup meeting dates back to October 1992 when Iran achieved a 2-0 win in group stage, Farshad Piyous and Sirous Ghayeghran adding their names to the scoresheet.

Coach Kim Jong Hun has to rely on a strong collective with basically no stars. If any key players could be identified, it would be their solid goalkeeper Ri Myong-Guk and powerful Kawasaki Frontale striker Jong Tae-Se.

The North Koreans are known for their extremely cautious and destructive approach to the game of football, which makes them very hard to beat, but also at times makes them struggle against weaker teams applying similar tactics.

North Korea qualified for the Asian Cup via the AFC Challenge Cup, but needed two attempts with rather poor results and performances, such as being elminated by pushovers Tajikistan in 2008 or drawing Turkmenistan twice in the 2010 edition before defeating them on penalty kicks in the final.

UAE

Numerous Iranian players know their neighbouring country’s football well as many of them have played or are playing in the UAE League. Of the current contingent only three players have realistic chances to make the Asian Cup squad: Mehrzad Madanchi of Al Ahli, Mohammad Nosrati of Al Nasr and Iman Mobali of Al Shabab.

UAE’s national team consists of mostly average players, however, their strikers being an exception though. Al Wahda’s Ismail Matar and Al Ahli’s Ahmed Khalil are always good for goals and pose a threat to any Asian defense line.

The UAE are known for always employing good foreign coaches. Since 2009, Slovenian legend Srecko Katanec is leading the team.

The Persian Gulf country qualified as top team of qualifying Group C, even ahead of Uzbekistan on goal difference thanks to a late winner against the former Soviet Republc in the very last game of the competition.

Iran have only once lost to the UAE in 14 games so far (ten wins, three draws, 20-4 goal difference). The two teams met four times in World Cup qualification recently of which Iran was only able to win two. Beside a 1-0 win in Tehran (goal by Ali Karimi) and a 1-0 win in Dubai (goal by Ferydoon Zandi), Iran struggled to a goalless draw in Tehran and a 1-1 in the UAE (goal by Karim Bagheri).

Also the last Asian Cup duel, in November 1992, ended in a 0-0 draw, which, like the two recent draws, should be a warning sign to take the team seriously.