came alive Tuesday for a hard-fought match against Qatar. But despite enjoying overwhelming possession of the ball, Iran got few attacks on goal as the Qataris played defense all the time and guarded their goal like a brick wall.
The result was a scoreless tie.
Coach Carlos Queiroz has now led the Iranian team against Qatar three times—and the result has been three draws: 0-0, 1-1 and 2-2. The Qataris seem to have gotten Queiroz’ number.
With not quite one-third of the games in this fourth and last round of Asian elimination play completed, Iran is in second place in its Group A. The top two teams in each group will go the World Cup finals in Brazil.
Over in Group B, Japan has thus far dominated. It is the only team to have won a game—and it has won two. All the other games have been draws.
The one surprise of the round so far is that Australia is struggling. It has played two draws and finds itself in third place. The betting money last month had Australia pegged for first place.
Iran beat Uzbekistan 1-0 last week in the first match of the round, scoring the sole goal in the final 10 seconds of the game. But Team Melli looked sluggish and uninspired much of the time.
That was not true Tuesday. Queiroz got his team fired up. The Associated Press said Iran “was by far the better side, but its attack couldn’t turn the bulk of possession and good chances into goals.”
Part of that was due to Qatari goalkeeper Qasem Burhan. But when he slipped up and went the wrong direction, as he did in the 30th minute, Iran captain Javad Nekounam hit the ball into the crossbar.
The game was played at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium with 90,000 fans screaming for 90 minutes.
The next games in this round are not until September.
Coach Queiroz has now led Iran through 17 matches. In the first 10, he won eight and drew two. In the last seven, however, the outcome has been just two wins, four draws and one loss. The sole loss was by one goal to the Albanian national team in a friendly match.
The Standings
Here are the current standings for the fourth and final round of the Asian elimination play for the 2014 World Cup. In the standings below, 30 percent of the scheduled games have been played. A total of 43 Asian teams began the competition. All but the 10 below have been eliminated.
Group A P W D L GF GA GD Pts
S. Korea 2 2 0 0 7 1 +6 6
Iran 2 1 1 0 1 0 +1 4
Qatar 3 1 1 1 2 4 – 2 4
Uzbekistan 2 0 1 1 1 2 – 1 1
Lebanon 3 0 1 2 1 5 – 4 1
Uzbekistan 0, IRAN 1
Lebanon 0, Qatar 1
Qatar 1, S. Korea 4
Lebanon 1, Uzbekistan 1 tie
S. Korea 3, Lebanon 0
IRAN 0, Qatar 0 tie
Group B P W D L GF GA GD Pts
Japan 3 2 1 0 10 1 +9 7
Iraq 2 0 2 0 2 2 0 2
Australia 2 0 2 0 1 1 0 2
Oman 3 0 2 1 1 4 – 3 2
Jordan 2 0 1 1 1 7 – 6 1
Japan 3. Oman 0
Jordan 1, Iraq 1 tie
Oman 0, Australia 0 tie
Japan 6, Jordan 0
Australia 1, Japan 1 tie
Iraq 1, Oman 1 tie
In scores above, home team is listed first.
The next series of matches will be played in the fall.
Round ends next June after each team has played eight games—home-and-away matches against each of the other four teams in its group.
Top two teams in each group go to the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.
Third teams in each group play a home-and-away pair against each other. The winner plays a home-and-away pair against the fifth-placed team from Latin America. The winner of that matchup goes to the finals in Brazil. In other words, either four or five of the above Asian teams will go to the finals, in which 32 teams will appear.
In the table, P = games Played; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against; GD = Goal Differential; Pts = Points (3 for a win, 1 for a draw).