Iran in for a tough time to retain Asian Games gold medal

Kuala Lumpur, July 11, IRNA -- Iran will have a tough time in their quest to retain the gold medal at the 14th Asian Games in Busan due to the excellent performance of the home team, Korea Republic, who reached the last four of the recently concluded FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan 2002, The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said on Thursday.
This is coupled with Japan's ground breaking performance of reaching the round of 16 at the FIFA World Cup.
In a statement, AFC said Iran has been drawn in Group E which includes Qatar, Lebanon and Mongolia. Among the three teams, Qatar looks the most likely team to trouble them.
"If all goes to plan, Iran would possibly have to contend with Kuwait in the quarterfinals, which will be a repeat of the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games final where Iran defeated them 2-0.
"If the Iranians get past the Kuwaitis, they have the daunting prospect of a semi-final clash with the Koreans," AFC said.
"We will try our very best to win the gold medal this time. The present Korean team is very strong and different compared to the one four years ago," an Iran Football Association spokesperson said, as
quoted by AFC.
Korea were defeated by Thailand 1-2 in the quarterfinal stage of the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games. This time, together with home ground advantage and confidence gained from beating the big boys of football-- Portugal, Italy and Spain - Korea will be a hard nut to crack.
Currently, the Iran team which is an U-23 squad, are in training camp in Tehran and is expected to move camp to Slovenia from July 23 - August 4 where they have lined up four friendly matches against clubs from Slovenia and Croatia.
Iran's head coach Branko Ivankovic has called up 28 players for the Busan Asian Games squad. The final 24 will only be named after August 4.
Included in the squad of 28 are Ali Karimi, Mehrdad Minavand and Rahman Rezaei of Italian side Perugia.
The 47-year old Ivankovic was the Croatian assistant coach for seven years which included an appearance at the 1998 World Cup in France.
He took up the head coach position in Iran in February this year.
Iran have expressed satisfaction with the draw for the Asian Games football tournament.
Conspicuously absent from the 2002 Asian Games this time are Saudi Arabia who had a poor outing at the FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan 2002 campaign where they lost all three matches which included a 1-8 defeat by eventual runners-up Germany.
The World Cup result has however no bearing on the Saudi's absence from Busan. The Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) decided to skip the Asian Games football tournament well before the start of the World Cup.
Saudi Arabia also missed the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.
AFC added North Korea, silver medallist in the women's event four years ago and champions in the 13th Asian Women's Football Championships in Chinese Taipei last year, will also be giving the 2002 Asian Games women event a miss.