The quality of Iran’s performances will improve: Javad Zarincheh

Tehran Times – TEHRAN, Former Iran national team defender Javad Zarincheh has weighed in with his opinion about Iran’s performance in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

Iran’s Dragan Skocic era continues with consecutive victories as the ‘Persian Leopards’ began their campaign in the 2022 World Cup qualification Round 3 with two wins against Syria and Iraq and cemented their position as the top team of Group A.

“Iran entered the tournament without preparatory games, and this could be a big weakness for us. But the team did a great job and ended with full marks,” Zarincheh said in an interview with Tehran Times.

“The foreign-based players had good coordination, which made up for the lack of training camps and friendly matches.

“I think that game by game, the quality of Iran’s performance will improve because the players, especially the new ones, will get to know each other better over time.

“Besides, in these competitions, the ultimate goal is to qualify for the World Cup, so what matters most is the result, not the quality of the game,” Zarincheh added. 

The man, who was a member of Iran at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, also talked about Iraq national team who suffered a 3-0 defeat against Iran.

“Iraq are a good team with a great coach. Usually, the teams, who play defensive and closed football against Iran, create many problems for us, but Iraq played open football and didn’t just focus on defensive tactics. It made a good opportunity for Skocic’s side to get the result,” he said.

Zarincheh disagrees with those who believe that Iran have been drawn in the easier group of the World Cup Asian qualifiers.

“Syria, Iraq, South Korea, Iraq, Lebanon, and the UAE are not weak at all; they are all strong and competitive teams. There is no easy group or easy match in modern football.

“Everyone can be satisfied with Dragan Skocic in charge because he has done such a great job so far at the national team. I think that Iran football federation and its president, Mr. Azizi Khadem, made a smart decision by appointing Skocic as the head coach in the difficult situation and he did a good job in Round 2 of the qualifiers,” Zarincheh concluded.