I have a good record in Iran football team, Ghotbi says (http://www.iranproleague.net/index.php/the-news/1-latest-news/5686-i-have-a-good-record-in-iran-football-team-ghotbi-says)


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MNA - Iran football coach Afshin Ghotbi is very pleased with what has done in his post.

“I have coached Iran 21 times, 15 of them have been away games. We have recently played seven warm-up games, four of them have been away games in which we were victorious in three games,” Ghotbi said in a news conference ahead of two friendlies against China and South Korea slated for September 3 and 7, respectively.

“We are going to put an end to the 35 year title drought in the Asian Cup in Doha. Playing with China and South Korea will help us to get ready for the event. China is a good football team and South Korea needs no comment. The Koreans had an outstanding performance in the 2010 World Cup,” Ghotbi added.

“We have so many problems in Iran, such as visa problems for players. I am like a soldier who fights with difficulties (ie. mental retardation)” he concluded.

Iran has been drawn along with Iraq, North Korea and the UAE in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.
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(javascript:void(0);)Football coach Cho to test new faces in friendly with Iran (http://www.iranproleague.net/index.php/the-news/1-latest-news/5687-football-coach-cho-to-test-new-faces-in-friendly-with-iran)


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Yonhap - Cho Kwang-rae, South Korea's national football team coach, on Monday released his 23-man squad for a friendly match against Iran slated for Saturday in Seoul, recruiting several new faces in the warm-up for January's Asian Cup tournament.

The national squad included half a dozen overseas-based players, including Park Ji-sung of Manchester United, Lee Chung-yong of the Bolton Wanderers, Park Chu-young of AS Monaco, and Celtic FC teammates Ki Sung-yueng and Cha Du-ri.

Suk Hyun-jun, a 19-year-old who plays for AFC Ajax in the Dutch league's top division, has been called for the first time to join the star-studded squad, along with other home-grown strikers.

"I'm looking for Park Chu-young's substitute. I'll test Suk and other young strikers for the Asian Cup, and especially for the 2014 World Cup," said Cho at a press conference.

"I'll check whether Suk can be a good player if he plays in the national squad until 2014."

Park, 25, a striker for AS Monaco, has scored 15 goals in 46 international matches, the most on the squad.

Suk, who previously represented South Korea on the under-20 squad, tallied five goals in four matches this summer, including one against the English Premier League club Chelsea last month.

New face Kim Joo-young of Gyeongnam FC also got Cho's call, and Kim Doo-hyun of Suwon Samsung Bluewings returned to the squad after failing to make it on the World Cup roster a few months ago.

"I know we don't have much time until the Asian Cup in January. I'll test some new strategies and formations at next week's game," said Cho.

"But as we did in the (friendly) game against Nigeria, we will control the game with passing in the midfield."

South Korea defeated Nigeria 2-1 earlier this month in Cho's first international match since he took the helm of the national team in July.

MNA - Iran football coach Afshin Ghotbi is very pleased with what has done in his post.

Goh khordi ke please-ee martikeh jakesh-e bi shor. :piss:

lol@ mental retardation. Ghotbi would make a good clown.

Looking forward to see I.R get poopd on in the easiest group.

Well we are stuck with his guys. So better start supporting the team instead. I didn't watch teh China and SK friendlies but only saw highlights. The results were good but I also heard that we were bombarded by SK and were fortunate to win in the end.

But we have a few good players. So let's hope for the best in Doha. What else can we do. Experience has shown that no coach can win anything with TM and there is always a section of fans unhappy. Even if we bring Mourinho some people will question his decisions and call him an idiot. In the end it's down to the players and in that department we are behind the likes of Japan, SK and a couple of other countries.

Iran remind me of England so much.

Friendlies dont mean anything. We always lose when it matters..

Yeah I agree that we arent the level of Japan and S.Korea even with a better coach bc this is somewhat an inbetween generation, the next generation looks promosing but only if used well and thats nt really our thing.

But I dont think this is the max of Irans capability. Fix the defence up a bit and you already get a much better team, first easy thing would be too replace one of Aghili/Hosseini who are exactly the same in strength and more importantly weaknesses. He already has a better option in Nosrati in his group, who isnt that great either but would certainly improve the defencive balance. CB isnt really our thing anyway and normally it isnt wise to change the CB duo but atleast spot the weakness and try to fix it before it actually matters. I'd like to see the 19 year old Herta Lb, radjabali-shervin to be callled up and get a chance as lb has been a great problem and this kid is still very young and if they get to him fast enough, he might solve the lb problem for years to come. Not that defence is our only problem, but Ghotbi seems to want to build a counter attacking team and you really need a better defense than we have now, despite the midfields strength in that aspect and the mighty Rahmati.