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.
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