Determined Iran to take on South Korea

PFDC – TEHRAN, When Iran will host Asian powerhouse South Korea in Tehran’s Azadi stadium, Carlos Queiroz and his player will be eager to show the recent 0-1 defeat to minors Lebanon was just a slip-up on the way to Brazil 2014.

There indeed are some reasons to be optimistic.

One will definitely be the home advantage in Tehran’s 100.000 seater, which certainly is an intimidating arena for any opposition.

While Korea have much quality in their ranks, their squad certainly lacks some experience though after coach Choi Kang-Hee left some veterans at home following what he saw as disappointing performance in the 2-2 draw in Uzbekistan.

Especially in defense major changes were made, with many very inexperienced youngsters with no or just a few caps to their tally receiving a call-up, although none of them is likely to start.

Keyplayers return

On the other side five important players who had been unable to play in the Lebanon game are now available for Carlos Queiroz.

Fulham winger Ashkan Dejagah as well as regular starting fullbacks Khosro Heydari and Mehrdad Pouladi returned from injury.

Midfield gem Andranik Teymourian is back from suspension and promising Belgium based striker Reza Ghoochannejhad finally received his FIFA player passport and is ready to go.

Most likely, all five of them will find themselves in the starting lineup.

Meanwhile only centerback Hadi Aghily had to be added to the injury list whereas playmaker Mojtaba Jabbari remains injured.

Karimi or Nouri?

The biggest question mark in the lineup will be Jabbari’s replacement in the third midfield position beside Javad Nekounam and Teymourian.

Queiroz could either opt for Ali Karimi, who has been suspended by his club Persepolis Tehran and is without match praxis while training separately from his teammates for some weeks, or his successor at Persepolis, Mohammad Nouri.

Alternatively, the Portugese could give the more defensive minded Pejman Nouri the nod, a variant that has not only been tried in training, but had also been used against the Koreans in the past two matches by former Team Melli coach Afshin Ghotbi – once successfully in a 1-0 friendly match victory in Seoul in 2010 and then in the 0-1 extra time loss in the 2011 Asian Cup.

Very strong visitors

Indeed Iran’s midfield will play a key role against South Korea’s very strong Britain based midfield consisting of Cardiff City’s Kim Bo-Kyung, Swansea City’s Ki Sung-Yueng and Bolton Wanderer’s Lee Chung-Yong.

Despite the absence of the influential Augsburg winger Koo Ja-Cheol, scorer of the winner against Iran in Asian Cup Yoon Bit-Garam and Sunderland striker Ji Dong-Won, the visitors have also plenty of talent to offer upfront.

Park Chu-Young from Celta Vigo will probably be flanked by Hamburger SV shooting star Son Heung-Min and Ulsan Hyundai man Lee Keun-Ho, while giant Kim Shin Wook will remain on the bench as emergency substitute should Korea need a real target man upfront.

Already in the last World Cup qualifying campaign the two sides had been group together and had struggled to 1-1 draws both in Tehran and Seoul.

While Iran’s goalscorers Nekounam and Masoud Shojaei are still in the squad, Park Ji-Sung, who had scored in both matches, meanwhile retired.

Probable lineups:

Iran: Mehdi Rahmati (73 caps / 0 goals) – Khosro Heydari (38/0), Pejman Montazeri (8/1), Jalal Hosseini (72/5), Mehrdad Pouladi (9/0) – Andranik Teymourian (67/8), Javad Nekounam (131/30), Ali Karimi (126/38)/Pejman Nouri (46/3) – Ashkan Dejagah (3/2), Reza Ghoochannejhad (0), Masoud Shojaei (39/4)

Korea Republic: Jung Sung-Ryong (44/0) – Oh Beom-Sok (41/2), Kim Young-Kwon (7/1), Kwak Tae-Hwi (27/5), Park Joo-Ho (11/0) – Lee Chung-Yong (41/5), Ki Sung-Yueng (48/5), Kim Bo-Kyung (15/2) – Son Heung-Min (10/1), Park Chu-Young (59/23), Lee Keun-Ho (45/15)