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Iran hopes for a World Cup blast
04/06/2006 14:09 - (SA)
Tehran - Iran left Tehran on Sunday for its World Cup training camp in Friedrichshafen with high hopes to reach, for the first time in its football history, the second round of the games.
"Inshallah (so God will), we will reach the second round and make our country and people happy and proud," the head of the Iranian Football Federation (FFI), Mohammad Dadkan, said.
Following a 2:2 draw with Croatia and a 5:2 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina, enthusiasm is very high, accordingly also expectations without, however, considering that Iran's Group D opponents Mexico and Portugal play at the highest world level and even Angola eliminated Nigeria from getting to the World Cup.
"We should not forget that on our way to the World Cup, we even had problems with countries like Jordan and Qatar, let alone Mexico and Portugal," said national team striker Vahid Hashemian, who plays for German team Hanover 96.
Defender Rahman Rezaei, who plays for FC Messina in Italy, also tried to damp down the high expectations by saying that the games in Germany would be totally different from the warm-ups "and we would have to fight for every inch."
Iran could not play with its ideal formation since the World Cup qualification game against Bahrain in June last year due to injuries to various players and coach Branco Ivankovic was forced to experiment on several positions.
Even now key players like Mehdi Mahdavikia, Ali Karimi, Fereydoun Zandi and Hashemian are still injured.
Hamburg SV midfielder Mahdavikia has to wait for his final medical tests to see whether he will be able to join the team in the opening game against Mexico on June 11 in Nuremberg.
"It is true that injuries have forced us not to present our first team in the warm-up phase, but I am confident that all my players will be fit by June 11 and that the team harmonised by then," Ivankovic said.
The presence of the Iranian team in Germany also has political dimensions. The European Parliament and the Jewish lobby in Germany had several times called for the disqualification of the Iranian team due to anti-Semitic remarks by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his insistence on pursuing atomic technology.
Scheduled protests by Iranian opposition groups in Germany, even during the games, and solidarity demonstrations by German neo-Nazis with the Iranian team due to Ahmadinejad's anti-Semitic rhetoric have forced the German government to adopt special security measures for the team in Friedrichshafen and the three cities of Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Leipzig where the team will hold its games.
"I am sure that you will be successful in the World Cup just as our young scientists have been successful in achieving nuclear technology," Ahmadinejad told the team members before their departure to Germany.
The biggest controversy remains the possible presence of Ahmadinejad in Germany.
Although observers do not believe that he would seriously consider going to Germany, the president told the players that he would do so if Iran reached the second round.
FFI President Dadkan said that Iran wanted to transfer the message of "peace and friendship" to the world during the games and hoped that the German authorities would prevent any political acts which would harm the team.
"We are not political at all and just want to play ball, but if others want to politicise our presence during the Wold Cup, then this would just make the team more united," said skipper and former Bayern Munich striker Ali Daei.
- SAPA
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