Iran captain confident of Asian success

He has been one of the continent’s top players for the best part of a decade and is looking forward to lifting the Asian Cup in January.

Even if he doesn’t, Javad Nekounam, the captain of Iran, doesn’t fancy Australia’s chances especially if the two meet in the quarter-finals of the competition.

The midfielder has been playing in La Liga with Osasuna since 2006 and is well-respected in Spain, and around Europe. Not only that, his smouldering good looks have earned him not a few female fans all over Asia.

As committed and tigerish as he is on the pitch, he is softly-spoken off it and I caught up with him recently to talk about the upcoming Asian Cup and how it felt to miss out on the 2010 World Cup.

Nekounam, now 30 and regularly linked to clubs all over Europe, didn’t feel much in the way of Asian empathy in the summer. Iran started slowly in the final round of qualification and poor results led the team to fire coach Ali Daei with three games remaining. New manager Afshin Ghotbi collected five points but it wasn’t quite enough.

It almost was. With nine minutes remaining against South Korea, Iran had the 1-0 lead they needed to at least progress to the play-off but a Park Ji-sung equaliser ended that dream. And when North Korea drew 0-0 in Saudi Arabia a few hours later, it was all over for the West Asians.

“It was a painful time to be honest,” Nekounam said.

“I didn’t watch the Asian teams play in the World Cup. It was too upsetting but I watched the rest of the World Cup.

“As you know, Iran is very passionate about football and the national team so when we didn’t qualify for the World Cup, it was incredibly sad for the country. We hope that we can get good results at the Asian Cup and in the future. We hope to change the minds of the Iranian people about the national team. We are improving and getting better all the time.”

One of the positives in not qualifying for South Africa 2010, is that Iran have been focusing on the Asian Cup for over a year. This is a settled side and is a long way down the road to Qatar, in contrast to the likes of South Korea, Japan and Australia who are all coming to terms with new coaches, systems and players.

“There have been some changes,” said Nekounam.

“Some players have left because they have become old while some younger players have established themselves in the team.”

He is confident, especially after wins in China and South Korea that the team has what it takes to lift the trophy in Doha.

“We are one of the best teams in Asia and one of the three favourites for the Asian Cup. After Iran, South Korea and Japan are the three teams with the best chance to win.”

When I asked about Australia, he gave a little shake of the head.

“I don’t know Australia well because I haven’t played against them. At the last Asian Cup, Australia struggled against Asian teams and the same could happen again,” the Iranian said.

What will also happen again for Iran is the fact that they will take on North Korea in Qatar. The captain had been quoted as saying before the draw that they didn’t want to play the defence-minded East Asians again but he has no choice in the matter.

“We don’t think about revenge with North Korea. It is done and behind us,” he said.

“We think about the future. We are focused on the games in Qatar and doing the best we possibly can.”