{"id":12467,"date":"2011-10-08T01:31:02","date_gmt":"2011-10-08T08:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2011\/10\/08\/bahrain-takes-on-iran-in-2014-wcup-qualifier\/"},"modified":"2011-10-08T01:31:02","modified_gmt":"2011-10-08T08:31:02","slug":"bahrain-takes-on-iran-in-2014-wcup-qualifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2011\/10\/08\/bahrain-takes-on-iran-in-2014-wcup-qualifier\/","title":{"rendered":"Bahrain takes on Iran in 2014 WCup qualifier"},"content":{"rendered":"
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AP – TEHRAN, Iran, Bahrain will take on longtime rival Iran next week in a World Cup qualifier that is both a key game in the fight to reach the 2014 tournament and one that will be played amid rising tensions between the two neighbors.<\/strong><\/p>\n

FIFA has appointed a security expert to help prepare for a \u201chigh risk\u201d match. Iranian protesters chanting \u201cDeath To Saudi\u201d clashed with police earlier this year when Iran\u2019s Piroozi hosted Saudi club Al-Ittihad. Saudi Arabia is a key ally of Bahrain.<\/p>\n

Tensions between the two nations has been heightened by political protests in Bahrain by the largely Shiite population against the Sunni monarchy.<\/p>\n

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Bahrain has accused Iran of encouraging the unrest, while Iran has denounced the Bahrain government\u2019s crackdown on protesters.<\/p>\n

Next Tuesday\u2019s game is the first of two in the next month between the two teams who both expect to advance from Group E to the next stage of qualifiers.<\/p>\n

Neither side has talked about the political implications of the match, with Bahrain coach Peter Taylor saying he would only answer football questions in a recent interview with The Associated Press. He also said the safety of his players wasn\u2019t something he had dwelled upon. Gaining a good result was his primary focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re playing against the favorites. There is no doubt about that,\u201d said Taylor, an Englishman who took over the team in July. \u201cThey are favorites for the group. It will be the toughest game \u2026 If we could get a draw in Iran, that would be a fantastic result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bahrain, a country of just 525,000, just barely missed out on qualification for the past two World Cups. But since then, it has endured a series of injuries and is now on its third coach since the loss to New Zealand for the final spot in the 201 World Cup.<\/p>\n

It failed to make it out of the group stage in this year\u2019s Asian Cup, has fallen to 102nd in the FIFA world rankings and has endured the loss of several players including stars Alaa and Mohammed Hubail who were punished for taking part in the anti-government protests.<\/p>\n

Taylor said the team\u2019s fitness was a question mark when he took over but had since \"Queiroz1\"improved, and the team has opened its World Cup campaign impressively with a 2-0 away win over Indonesia and then drawing with neighbor Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fitter now but we still need to improve, to get better,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cBut we are OK. I\u2019m not saying we are the best team in the world but we have improved. We do realize Iran will be a massive test.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran, in contrast, has seen its fortunes on the rise. After failing to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, the three-time World Cup qualifiers reached the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup in January and has risen in the rankings in the past year to 50th. It too opened its World Cup campaign with a draw against Qatar and then a victory over Indonesia.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s coach Carlos Queiroz\u2014formerly manager of Portugal, Real Madrid and assistant at Manchester United\u2014said earlier this week that Bahrain will be its stiffest challenge to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cBahrain\u2019s coach has said he comes here to beat us. It\u2019s normal, each coach wants to win but we are not scared of them,\u201d Queiroz said. \u201cWe will answer them with our performance on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AP – TEHRAN, Iran, Bahrain will take on longtime rival Iran next week in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c13-team-melli-news"],"views":5258,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12467","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=12467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}