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FIFA - Iran's Asian Games
bronze medal winning celebrations were overshadowed when coach Rene
Simoes revealed his daughter had been taken ill and rushed to hospital
in his native Brazil.
Simoes said that he would be heading home as soon as he could.
"It's tough for me at the moment because my daughter was in hospital,"
said Simoes after Iran's 1-0 win over South Korea.
"My wife did not tell me until after the game and it was awful, there
were a lot of tears.
"I want to go straight back to Brazil. I will not go from Doha to Brazil
because people will say the coach does not care about his team. So I
will go to Tehran and then to Brazil."
Simoes, who famously took Jamaica to a debut FIFA World Cup finals
appearance in in 1998, hinted that he was considering whether or not to
renew his contract with the national side even with the Olympic Games
just under two years away.
"Iran want to renew my contract so I am pleased," he added.
"But I can't renew it straight away because my family are always
following me around wherever I go, but I can't do this to them anymore.
"I must go to Brazil, sit down and talk about it with them."
Iran went into the Games as defending champions but were knocked out in
the semi-finals 2-0 by Qatar.
Korea Republic's Dutch coach Per Verbeek said his team's chances had
been badly affected by not being able to call upon his best players.
"The strikers are not starters so they don't play," said Verbeek who had
been at odds with the Korean Football Association over the availability
of players.
"They have to play to improve. Then we have to train, train, train but
we can't train because we have to conserve the players' energy."
The only goal of a disappointing bronze medal match came with just six
minutes left of extra time when Adel Kolahkaj played a sweet one-two
with Shic Khonakdar and then fired in a fierce drive past goalkeeper Kim
Young Kwang.
It was tough on Korea Republic, who had made most of the running in the
match.
The Koreans were unfortunate to be denied a penalty when Baek Ji Hoon
was crudely hauled back by Iran goalkeeper Hassan Roudbarian only for
Qatari referee Abdulrahman Abdou to wave away his appeals.
Kim Jin Kyu then had one shot diverted around the post by Roudbarian
before the same player missed the target from a similar angle.
As Iran wilted, Baek should have finished the tie when he was put clean
through on goal by Lee Chun-Soo only to fire wastefully over the bar
with only the Iranian keeper to beat.
By the end of normal time, Iran had managed just three shots on goal.
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