{"id":11187,"date":"2010-04-25T18:24:40","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T01:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/04\/25\/iraq-hope-to-retain-crown\/"},"modified":"2010-04-25T18:24:40","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T01:24:40","slug":"iraq-hope-to-retain-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/04\/25\/iraq-hope-to-retain-crown\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq hope to retain crown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: right;\" alt=\"iraq_champ_01\" src=\"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/iraq_champ_01.jpg\" height=\"276\" width=\"409\" \/>AFC &#8211; DOHA, <strong>Iraq coach Nadhim Shakir is determined to defend their title in the AFC  Asian Cup Qatar 2011\u2122 next year. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Iraq, who made headlines by winning the 2007 edition of Asia\u2019s  coveted championship, were pooled alongside FIFA World Cup-bound DPR  Korea, formidable Iran and the United Arab Emirates in the Friday\u2019s draw  held at the Aspire Dome.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are the defending champions and  everyone will be keen to dethrone us. But we hope to retain the title. I  think Group D is the toughest of all four,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDPR Korea  proved their mettle by qualifying for the World Cup in South Africa.  Iran are former champions and have always been strong in the  championship. The UAE are former Persian Gulf<span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">*<\/span> champions and will be a strong  force to reckon with as well. But don\u2019t forget that we turned in a  series of spirited performances in the 2007 edition. We\u2019ll hope for a  repeat act in Qatar next year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve talented players and many  new young players too have emerged in the recent years. But as everyone  knows, our country is going through a tough phase and we need everyone\u2019s  support to help the team\u2019s cause. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was signed as the national  Olympic team coach, but the Iraqi Football Association has shown faith  in me to take over the senior team\u2019s coaching job. I hope to stay as  coach of the team at the Asian Cup,\u201d he added.<br \/><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>* Geographical term corrected by PFDC<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFC &#8211; DOHA, Iraq coach Nadhim Shakir is determined to defend their title in the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":11186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions"],"views":2663,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22614"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}