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| June 3, 2005 | Friday | Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1426 |
South Korea, Iran in driving seat for World Cup
TEHRAN, June 2: Iran and South Korea will be seeking to wrap up automatic qualification to next year’s World Cup in Germany when qualifying resumes on Friday. The Koreans, semfinalists in the 2002 World Cup, will be eyeing all three points against bottom of the table Uzbekistan in Group A ahead of next week’s away tie against Kuwait.
Group B leaders Iran host North Korea, without a point from their first three matches, before welcoming Bahrain five days later.
Despite their position of strength, Iran are taking nothing for granted.
“We should only think that we have qualified for the World Cup when we have beaten North Korea and Bahrain,” said Ali Karimi, Asian player of the year in 2004.
The 26-year-old, nicknamed “Asia’s Maradona”, plays for Dubai club Al-Ahli but is set to join German champions Bayern Munich next season.
“We must not underestimate North Korea and Bahrain, especially North Korea since they are coming to Tehran to avenge their past three losses,” Karimi warned. “They are going to fight for a win.”
With seven points from three games, Iran, who won 2-0 in Pyongyang where riots broke out, are one point ahead of Japan and three ahead of Bahrain.
Friday’s match has special significance as it falls on the anniversary of the death of Iran’s revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.
“Undoubtedly your winning in the next games will send joy into the hearts of millions of Iranians, which in turn will make the Imam’s (Khomeini) soul,” Khomeini’s grandson, Hassan, has told the national squad.
“Our players know that until the final whistle, our struggle for the World Cup is not over,” Iran’s Croatian coach Branko Ivankovich cautioned after a successful warm-up on Sunday against Azerbaijan.
However, Iran will not be able to count on the usual advantage of playing in front of 100,000 fans as FIFA have halved capacity at the Azadi stadium to 50,000 after seven people died in a crush following their match with Japan.
The other Group B tie sees Japan take on Bahrain in Manama with their preparations hit by injury to midfielder Shinji Onjo.
The Feyenoord player faces a lengthy period on the sidelines after breaking his right metatarsal bone in training on Wednesday.
Japan coach Zico observed: “The Bahrain match is critical for us to keep our World Cup hopes alive.”
Japan will be boosted by the inclusion of Italian league players Hidetoshi Nakata, Shunsuke Nakamura and Atsushi Yanagisawa and French side Marseille’s Koji Nakata.
Bahrain have recalled 2004 Asian Cup captain and key defender Faisal Abdulaziz into the squad as two other defenders Hussain Baba and Mohammed Hussain will be serving out a one-match suspension.
Despite the enormity of the task Uzbekistan are refusing to go down fighting against Group A leaders South Korea.
“Though we have only one point we have not completely lost our chance of qualifying,” coach Ravshan Haidarov said.
“And we aim to do our best to win a place in the World Cup finals.”
The other Group A tie pits Saudi Arabia, lying second one point off the leaders, against third-placed Kuwait. The hosts’ prepared for the fixture with friendlies last month against Morocco and Bahrain, and victory in Riyadh would leave them four points clear of the Kuwaitis with two games to play.
Kuwait take to the pitch following a two-week training camp in Greece but their morale took a dent when they were beaten 1-0 by Egypt in a warm-up last Friday.
Kuwait’s Serbia and Montenegro coach Slobodan Pavkovic will be looking for a draw at the least to keep his team’s hopes of qualifying alive.
The first two in each group gain automatic qualification, with the third-placed side going through to a play-off.—AFP
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