{"id":11838,"date":"2011-01-14T15:22:29","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T23:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2011\/01\/14\/tactical-discipline-key-for-team-melli\/"},"modified":"2011-01-14T15:22:29","modified_gmt":"2011-01-14T23:22:29","slug":"tactical-discipline-key-for-team-melli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2011\/01\/14\/tactical-discipline-key-for-team-melli\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical discipline key for Team Melli"},"content":{"rendered":"
AFC – DOHA, Coach Afshin Ghotbi believes tactical discipline will be the key for Iran if they are to realise their dream of claiming a fourth continental title at the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011\u2122. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Iran, Saudi Arabia and Japan have all won Asia’s most prestigious tournament three times but Team Melli have not tasted success since 1976, although an opening 2-1 victory over Iraq in Group D has ignited hopes that the 2011 edition may see them end their barren run.<\/p>\n

That triumph was built on a sound defensive performance as they came from a goal down to edge out their neighbours and Ghotbi underlined it is that approach that can see Iran succeed in Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally prefer to play very attacking football and I always believe that if you control the match and keep the ball, you can make chances and score goals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also believe that to win championships you have to defend well from the top and every player has the responsibility defensively. We build a team that can defend from all positions and attack from all positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is always to stay organised in front of the ball, behind the ball and the speed that we organise is key to success in modern football.<\/p>\n

\u201cTop coaches, coaches that are successful and are winners, look at the pool of players that they have and try to create a team that uses the strengths of their players. What you see is, I believe, a team that uses the strength of Iranian players while also understanding what it takes to succeed in international football.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn almost every position there is strong competition but that’s a good problem to have. We will try to start with the 11 that are in the best form. I think to be champions of a tournament it takes a certain level of mental toughness, discipline, being able to recover and have the necessary depth in your team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our players are up for the challenge and that by gaining three points, they can reach their target which is getting out of the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran face DPR Korea at Qatar Sports Club Stadium on Saturday, a foe Ghotbi is well acquainted with.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Iranian national team, I’ve faced North Korea twice in the last 20 months, I saw all three of their games at the World Cup live, we’ve followed all the matches on television and DVD so we have a very good understanding of their mentality, about their tactical tendencies,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cI’m confident that if we can execute our tactical plan, we can earn our three points.”<\/p>\n

Of slight concern for Ghotbi, however, is that some of his players have been suffering from a minor bout of flu, though it is not expected to affect his team selection for the game against DPR Korea.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – DOHA, Coach Afshin Ghotbi believes tactical discipline will be the key for Iran…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c13-team-melli-news"],"views":2417,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11838","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}