Teymourian sets sights on Asian Cup

AFC – SALVADOR, Andranik Teymourian has set his sights on helping Iran claim a record-equaling fourth AFC Asian Cup title in Australia next year after Team Melli was eliminated from the FIFA World Cup in Wednesday.

Teymourian was part of the Iran side that slipped to a 3-1 loss against Bosnia-Herzegovina that saw Carlos Queiroz’s side exit the competition despite having impressed against Nigeria and Argentina earlier in the competition.

With their involvement in the FIFA World Cup now at an end, Teymourian and the rest of his team mates will be turning their attention to the AFC Asian Cup as Iran seek to claim the title for the first time since 1976.

“It’s hard to take the trophy but we believe we can win the trophy in Australia,” said the former Bolton Wanderers and Fulham midfielder. “I don’t think we are under pressure at the Asian Cup and we have to go game by game.

“All the national teams are going to change their players and we have to face each other and then see what we have when we meet.”
Iran may be looking for a new head coach after Queiroz announced he had yet to agree to an extension of his contract with the Iranian football federation, but Teymourian is hopeful the vastly experienced Portuguese coach will remain in Tehran.

“I think everybody is sad if Carlos Queiroz leaves our national team because he deserves to stay with the national team of Iran,” he said. “He worked hard during his three years and he has given everything from his 32-year career to us.

“For the players, I don’t know the situation if we are going to stay or not. Of course, we’re going to have a big target at the Asian Cup and maybe we can win the trophy in 2015 in Australia.”
Iran departed from Brazil claiming their first goal of the tournament when Reza Ghoochennejad netted eight minutes from time in a game Team Melli needed to win to have any hope of advancing in the competition.

Despite the results, though, Teymourian believes the Iranians deserved better than to finish bottom of their group with just the solitary point earned against Nigeria in their opening game.
“To be honest, I think whoever has seen the Iran national team’s three matches at this World Cup, will say we deserve to be in the second round,” he said.

“We missed the chance against Nigeria in the first half and the referee couldn’t see the penalty for us in the first half (against Argentina) and then Messi scored in the 92nd minute.
“We did well in the games but we couldn’t take the few chances we had and we didn’t get the results.

“In this game against Bosnia, they are one of the best teams in the world, they have very good players in the team. We were very tired from the first two games but we gave everything we had that was in our hearts and in our legs but although we created a few chances, unfortunately, we couldn’t score enough.”