Focus on Australia 2015 for Iran’s World Cup qualifying heroes

Persianfootball.com – TEHRAN, Four months after the sensational World Cup qualifying final, Iran’s national team has gathered again, this time for tomorrow’s Asian Cup qualifier versus Thailand in Tehran’s Azadi stadium.

Iran are in good position in the quest for a spot in Australia 2015 after the 5-0 thrashing of Lebanon and the 1-1 draw in Kuwait so far.

After wasting all four FIFA matchdays prior to October 15 due to lack of funding and lack of planning, thereby even risking Carlos Queiroz successful term as head coach, the frequently criticized AFC Asian Cup qualifiers finally will give Team Melli some match praxis.

Like often in Iranian football all problems officially are suddenly supposed to have been sorted out and officials could be seen shaking hands and making up under the flashlights of reporters.

With the focus back on the task ahead, Queiroz gathered 28 players with mostly familiar faces. The time for experiments seems to be over for more than a year already and so shooting stars Payam Sadeghian and Bakhtiar Rahmani were ignored and have to be patient a bit longer – an ability that doesn’t seem to be the biggest strength of at least the Foolad Khuzestan playmaker, who was already cited with critical words in the press.

Nevertheless some youth was injected to the experienced squad with European based teenage duo Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Sardar Azmoun were added alongside IPL youngsters Mohammad-Reza Khanzadeh and Sajjad Shabazzadeh.

Question marks

While the NEC winger has recovered from a minor injury in time, Azmoun came back from the victorious u-19 team injured and might not be available for the Thailand game.

Beside the Rubin Kazan player, Mehrdad Pouladi and Khosro Heydari are suffering from injuries, but other than the young striker the two fullbacks will certainly be out of Tuesday’s match.

No crystal balls will be needed to predict most of the starters. The few question marks regard the goalkeeping and playmaking positions.

While there is little reason to replace Rahman Ahmadi in goal – the 33-year-old Sepahan keeper only conceded one goal from the penalty spot in the five competitive games he played in 2013 so far – the availability of young Bundesliga goalkeeper Daniel Davari certainly offers an incentive to consider a change.

And whereas a fit Mojtaba Jabbari is an absolute key player in Team Melli, the playmaker didn’t play for weeks after rather amateurishly falling apart with Sepahan coach Zlatko Kranjcar and additionally just recently joined Al Ahli of Qatar – and that after Carlos Queiroz’s populistic vows in spring that no player from the Qatar Stars League would be considered by him in future.

Considering the usual exaggeration of quotes in the Iranian media and that has been reported ahead of the final World Cup qualifiers when the atmosphere was very nervous to say the least, such announcements of course have to be taken with a grain of salt. But still the situation would justify trying an alternative alongside Javad Nekounam and Andranik Teymourian.

Confident visitors

Meanwhile Thailand will be without the services of midfield ace Jakkraphan Kaewprom due to injury, but nevertheless coach Surachai Jaturapattarapong. who recently replaced German Winfried Schäfer, is more than confident that his team will turn things around after defeats to Kuwait and Lebanon.

The former playmaker’s confidence stems from the fact that he has never lost to Iran in his active playing carreer – a not too impressive achievement considering Jaturapattarapong only faced Iran once, playing 58 minutes in the 1-1 draw between the two sides in the AFC Asian Cup 2000 group stage.

Overall Iran an Thailand have played 12 matches since 1972 of which Iran won nine and three ended in draws. Should Iran show the same concentration and motivation as they did in Ulsan in June, a tenth win will be celebrated in the most likely not even half-filled Azadi stadium tomorrow.

Iran – Thailand
Asian Cup 2015 qualifier

Azadi Stadium, Tehran – 19.00h local time

Iran’s possible lineup: Ahmadi (Davari) – Mahini, Montazeri, Hosseini, Beikzadeh – Teymourian, Nekounam, Jabbari – Dejagah, Ghoochannejhad, Shojaei