{"id":15786,"date":"2013-09-07T04:28:59","date_gmt":"2013-09-07T11:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=15786"},"modified":"2013-09-07T04:28:59","modified_gmt":"2013-09-07T11:28:59","slug":"doustimehr-we-are-the-underdogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2013\/09\/07\/doustimehr-we-are-the-underdogs\/","title":{"rendered":"Doustimehr: We are the underdogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIFA.com – TEHRAN, Currently preparing his squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup United Arab Emirates 2013, which begins on 19 October, Iran coach Ali Doustimehr is hoping he can improve on the country\u2019s promising world-finals showing of four years ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Iranians kicked off their campaign at Nigeria 2009 in fine style with a 2-0 win over Gambia, following up with a goalless draw against Colombia and a 1-0 defeat of the Netherlands to seal first place in their group.<\/p>\n

Though Uruguay promptly halted their progress by downing them 2-1 in the Round of 16, Iran had nevertheless achieved their best ever performance in an 11-a-side world finals competition, with only the country\u2019s futsal team having gone further on the global stage.<\/p>\n

As he told FIFA.com in an exclusive interview, their 49-year-old coach is hoping they can go even further this time around, setting his team the target of a place in the last four.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys and the coaching staff are very motivated,\u201d he said, describing the sense of belief in the Iran camp. \u201cI\u2019ve got the same assistants I had in Nigeria and everyone wants to do their bit to help us reach the semi-finals. The players know that a good display at the U-17 World Cup could improve their chances of breaking into the full national side. That\u2019s what they all dream about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be taking the best possible team to the Emirates but it won\u2019t be easy,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re the underdogs and we need to be strong mentally. Our preparations have gone well and we\u2019ve played friendlies against Finland, Turkey, Italy, Slovenia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the progress Asian sides have been making in youth tournaments of late, Doustimehr cited Iraq\u2019s run to the semi-finals of the recent FIFA U-20 World Cup Turkey 2013 as a source of inspiration:<\/p>\n

\u201cAsia will be represented in the UAE by the host nation, Iran, Japan, Uzbekistan and Iraq. Every team on the continent is paying a lot of attention to training and we need to keep pace. Iraq\u2019s efforts at the U-20 World Cup showed how far Asian sides have come in these age groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning lessons<\/strong>
\nIran\u2019s first opponents in Group E are Argentina, followed by Canada and Austria, a schedule that prompted the seasoned coach to comment: \u201cThe teams are all there on merit and there won\u2019t be any pushovers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doustimehr has no shortage of experience at youth level, having taken charge of the U-17 national side in Nigeria four years ago and the Iran team at the FIFA U-20 World Cup Argentina 2001.<\/p>\n

Assessing the importance of competing at the highest level, he said: \u201cThe World Cup is like no other competition. It gives you the chance to make history and change your destiny.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always learning in football,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe missed out on the chance to reach the last eight in 2009, though we\u2019ve learned the lessons of that setback. The experience you pick up in a World Cup is worth that of many other competitions combined.\u201d<\/p>\n

That experience will be needed when Doustimehr and his charges set about bettering Iran\u2019s landmark run in 2009, as he acknowledged: \u201cLike I said before, we are determined to make it to the last four. I\u2019m going to draw on everything I learned in 2001 and 2009 to take the team forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FIFA.com – TEHRAN, Currently preparing his squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup United Arab…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c13-team-melli-news"],"views":2400,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15786","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=15786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}