The Iranian national soccer team last week won its second match of the year over the Maldive Islands and thus advances to the next round of the Asian eliminations leading to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
But you didn’t find much in the media about the successful start of Iran’s pursuit of the Cup. The two games against the Maldives the past two weeks were covered in the media—but they were small stories buried in the inside pages of most general newspapers.
It appears the regime remembers what happened four years ago and does not want a repeat. The government then gave great attention to the Asian elimination rounds, assuming Iran would easily win a place among the 32 teams that go the World Cup finals every four years. The government wrapped itself around the team and sought to bask in its popularity. President Ahmadi-nejad put on a team uniform and kicked a ball around with the team during a practice.
But Iran did not make it to the finals. Asia sent four teams to the finals but Iran finished sixth in Asia, failing to make the cut. The government then found itself under severe criticism for mismanaging sports and could not easily extricate itself since it had expended so much effort to tie itself to the team and its fortunes.
The government appears to have taken an entirely different tack this World Cup cycle. It is simply ignoring the team and the World Cup elimination rounds. The most remarkable aspect is that the government’s censors appear to have told the press to play down the games. News stories are still carried in the general press, but they are shorter, have smaller headlines and are buried somewhere inside the newspapers.
The Fars news agency, one of the major sources of photographs for Iranian newspapers, did not bother to carry any photos of either game against the Maldives.
The two games against the Maldive Islands got about as much media attention as the “friendly” or warmup matches that Iran played in preparation for the World Cup.
This is despite the fact that the team has gotten off to a good start, dispatching its first opponent, the Maldive Islands, by a 4-0 score in Tehran two weeks ago and a 1-0 score in the Maldives last week. That eliminated the Maldives from the competition and sent Iran to the next level, with 20 of Asia’s 43 teams remaining.
Iran was not in top form for its away match against the Maldives last Thursday. It won, but only by a solitary goal against a certifiable minnow. The lone goal was scored in extra time at the end of the first half by Mohammad-Reza Khalatbari. Still, the victory preserved Coach Carlos Queiroz’ loss-free record since taking over the troubled national team. The team had a scoreless tie in its first match under Queiroz and has now won five straight, scoring 11 goals and giving up only two.
Iran got a pass in the first round, which was a competition among minnows to see who got to play with the big fish.
In the just completed second round, 30 teams were paired off in home-and-away games that winnowed out another 15 teams.
In the upcoming third round, the surviving 15 will be joined by the top five teams from four years ago—Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia and Bahrain—which enjoyed a pass until now. Those 20 teams have been divided into five groups of four teams each.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the fourth Asian elimination round. Iran has been drawn in Group E with Qatar, Bahrain and Indonesia. It would be remarkable if Iran did not finish in the top two, and the odds are that it will finish atop the group.
Indonesia is the minnow in the group and is not expected to go far. Bahrain is not ranked highly, but four years ago it finished fifth in the Asian competition, one slot ahead of Iran, so it cannot be ignored. Qatar is not rated highly either, but it was recently chosen to host the 2022 World Cup, is expending big money on soccer and has a lot of emotion to go with the cash. Still, most expect Bahrain and Qatar to battle it out for second place and not to pose a serious threat to Iran.
In the fourth round, the remaining 10 teams will compete. The top four teams will go to the World Cup finals, being played in Brazil in 2014. The fifth ranked team in Asia will play the fifth ranked team in Latin America. The winner of that home-and-away pair will go to the World Cup finals.
Iran won in this second round over the Maldives based on a 5-0 aggregate score. Aggregate score was the determinant. On that basis, Iran ranked fifth out of the 15 second round winners.
Here are the second round results with aggregate scores listed in the order of the margin of victory.
China over Laos 13-3
Jordan over Nepal 10-1
S. Arabia over Hong Kong 8-0
Uzbek. over Kyrgyzstan 7-0
Iran over Maldives 5-0
Syria over Tajikistan 6-1
Kuwait over Philippines 5-1
Oman over Myanmar 4-0
Iraq over Yemen 3-0
Singapore over Malaysia 6-4
UAE over Indian 5-3
Qatar over Vietnam 4-2
Lebanon over Bangladesh 4-2
Indonesia over Turkmen. 5-4
Thailand over Palestine 3-2
