Team Melli to enter Asian Cup action against old foes Bahrain

Persianfootball.com – MELBOURNE, Iran will open their Asian Cup campaign versus Bahrain on Sunday and while Iran boss Carlos Queiroz hadn’t been tired to explain to everyone how ill-prepared Team Melli is,  he had been even less tired of making the most of indeed suboptimal preparations.

Almost surprising were his words in the official pre-match press conference then.

“The preparation since we have arrived has been fantastic,” Queiroz said according to the Asian Cup’s official website.

“We are ready to compete and fight. We have a big soul, big mind, big heart and we are ready for tomorrow.”

Games against Bahrain always are a special occassion since a controversial and traumatizing 1-3 loss in Manama in the final game of World Cup qualifying 2001. Although Iran hasn’t lost to Bahrain since then, the matches are usually emotional highlights for the fans.

Bahrain, with 20 domestic players and only three players from other Persian Gulf leagues, is seemingly the smallest challenge in a strong group C, but recently found form, defeating Saudi Arabia 4-1 and Jordan 1-0 in pre Asian Cup friendlies after Adnan Hamd had been replaced as coach by young and inexperienced domestic Marjan Eid.

Moroccoan-born attacker Faouzi Aaish scored in both recent encounters and will definitely be the player to stop, besides veteran strikers Ismael Abdullatif and Nigerian-born Jayce John in a Bahraini team that has long surpassed it’s golden generation but still is good for a surprise at any day.

Despite experienced players like the mentioned attacking trio and defensive boss Mohamed Husain, Bahrain have one of the younger squads in the competition with an average age of 26 – exactly one year less than Iran, the fourth oldest team behind Palestine, Japan and Kuwait.

With 10 of 23 players changed in comparison to the World Cup squad there a quite many new faces in Iran’s national team, but barely any of those will be seen in the usual starting lineup, which remains almost unchanged to what was seen in Brazil.

While Team Melli’s lineup is barely a mystery, it still includes two question marks, both on the right side.

Whereas young Alireza Jahanbakhsh might replace the experienced Masoud Shojaei on the right flank of Queiroz’s 4-1-4-1, the race for the right fullback position seems wide open.

With World Cup right-back Pejman Montazeri missing due to injury and back-ups Hossein Mahini and Steven Beitashour not called up, Queiroz might use the more offensive minded Khosro Heydari or Vouria Gafouri on the right defensive sid. But also Ramin Rezaeian, who did well against Iraq there, could be an option.

Upfront, shooting-star Sardar Azmoun, despite excellent form, will still not get past Reza Ghoochannejhad.

More questions surround the tactical route of Iran, who will play in their classic all white jersies vs. an all-red Bahrain tomorrow.

Following Iran’s very cautious approach in World Cup finals and the late qualifying campaign, fans and journalists will be eager to see how Iran will approach an alledged must-win game against an underdog. But Team Melli had showed it can still also dominate games, when they won seven out of eight matches in Asian Cup qualifying in 2013.

Iran’s possible lineup: Haghighi – Heydari/Ghafouri, Hosseini, Sadeghi, Pouladi – Nekounam – Shojaei/Jahanbakhsh, Teymourian, Dejagah, Hajsafi – Ghoochannejhad