December 21, 2018
Irtan’s national soccer team returns to the field next month to try to win the Asian Cup soccer championship for the first time since the revolution.
Coach Carlos Queiroz has a contract to lead the team until the completion of the cup, when Iran will seek another coach and Queiroz another job.
Iran won the Cup three times in a row, in 1968, 1972 and 1976. But it’s never been back on top since then. It won third place in 1984 and second place in 1980, 1988, 1996 and 2004. But it’s been out of medal territory for the last 15 years.
Australia won the Cup four years ago. But for the much of the time since then, Iran has been rated the best team in Asia by the FIFA computer—and Iran feels this is the year to prove that by winning the Asian Cup.
Twenty-four teams will be competing, representing half the countries in Asia that survived the initial rounds of elimination play. Those 24 have been divided into six groups of four teams each. Iran has drawn Yemen, Vietnam and Iraq as its opponents in the group round.
The top two teams in each group will advance as well as the four best third place teams. Iran is not expected to have much of a challenge advancing to the Group of 16 round. Here is how Iran and its first round opponents are rated globally and in Asia by FIFA as of November:
Country Asia Global
Iran 1 29
Iraq 11 88
Vietnam 17 100
Yemen 26 135
Here is Iran’s playing schedule:
Yemen: Mon, Jan. 7, 11 am ET
Vietnam: Sat, Jan. 12, 6 am ET
Iraq: Weds, Jan 16, 11 am ET
Play in the second round begins January 20. The final will be played at 9 am ET Friday, February 1.
Much to Coach Queiroz’s irritation, Iran has only been able to line up six friendly matches since last summer’s World Cup. Queiroz likes lots of such matches in the run-up to a tournament so he can assess his players. Iran defeated Bolivia (59th in the world) 2-1 in Tehran October 16, defeated Trinidad & Tobago (92nd in the world) 1-0 November 15 in Tehran and played to a 1-1 draw against Venezuela (31st in the world) in Doha November 20. It is set to play Qatar, Palestine and Lebanon just before the Asian Cup begins.
Queiroz was vocal in expressing his unhappiness after the Venezuela match. “We enjoyed the possession and had so many opportunities. When you are playing Portugal and Spain [as Iran did in the World Cup], you are forced to defend. But in the match against Venezuela, we created so many goal-scoring chances. We should have scored six goals. And we must take advantage of our chances in the 2019 Asian Cup. I am not happy since we have missed so many goal-scoring chances in the recent friendly matches,” he said.
Iran had risked being booted out of the Asian Cup. Several weeks ago, Iranian officials said the elected chief of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, would have to leave his post because of a new law that bars state agencies from employing retirees. FIFA pointed out that FIFA rules bar governments from interfering with national federations. Within days, Iranian officials decided the new law didn’t apply to the federation, and the threat to Iran disappeared.
