{"id":20318,"date":"2015-01-21T18:04:13","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T02:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=20318"},"modified":"2015-01-21T21:17:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T05:17:32","slug":"asian-cup-2015-iain-fyfe-tips-iran-to-win-tournament-if-they-overcome-iraq-hurdle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2015\/01\/21\/asian-cup-2015-iain-fyfe-tips-iran-to-win-tournament-if-they-overcome-iraq-hurdle\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian Cup 2015: Iain Fyfe tips Iran to win tournament if they overcome Iraq hurdle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fox Sports – CANBERRA, Former Adelaide United defender Iain Fyfe says Iran will win the Asian Cup if they can overcome emotion and beat fierce rival Iraq in the quarter-final at Canberra Stadium on Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fyfe played in Iran\u2019s Pro League for Mes Kerman during the 2013\/2014 season.<\/p>\n

He said seeing a black flag draped across the tunnel of his former club Mes Kerman\u2019s stadium was a significant sign that soccer is serious business.<\/p>\n

\"089264-17037b50-a1ce-11e4-9b58-9db4d149c9f7\"<\/a>
\nSoroush Rafiei and Morteza Pouraliganji celebrate Iran\u2019s win over the UAE.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople really underestimate how good Iran football is,\u201d Fyfe said after spending a season with the club, which was relegated, before returning to Adelaide last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game doesn\u2019t get the recognition it deserves outside of Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I can tell you from personal experience, the league is massive. They have superb players that have a great technique, they are disciplined and the game means everything to the people of Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember at one point our team wasn\u2019t travelling that well, we were defending well, but we couldn\u2019t score goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a black flag on the tunnel, I asked other players what it was all about.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told me \u201cits our fans, they want us to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fans seemed to like me but had words with one of our Brazilian attackers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are passionate and do not take losing as a way out. They surrounded the player and demanded that he performed better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess that type of pressure is relayed to the national team, that\u2019s why they\u2019re the best in Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Fyfe is a rare breed.<\/p>\n

He was one of just three Australians from the A-League to play in Iran.<\/p>\n

Fyfe joined current Central Coast Mariners gloveman Liam Reddy (Esteghlal) and former Reds defender Milan Susak (Sepahan).<\/p>\n

\"article-deafa023-101b-4597-911e-7d014bc858d5-6VhPvSIzC-HSK1-841_634x467\"<\/a>Star players Ashkan Dejagah and Reza Ghoochannejhad could hold the key for Iran.<\/em><\/p>\n

Reddy left Iran in 2012 while Susak played 18 times for his club in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt right to take a challenge at that stage of my career when I felt Adelaide United didn\u2019t want me. They talked about having five stoppers at the time,\u2019\u2019 Fyfe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I took the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome say it was courageous, a new culture, new country, but I enjoyed my time there.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family never came with me but it was a good life, in camps a lot of the time, playing games and the people were great.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel their national team stems a culture, they don\u2019t fear anyone and they can beat anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fyfe, 32, is now playing for Adelaide City legend Joe Mullen\u2019s Campbelltown City in South Australia\u2019s NPL.<\/p>\n

After starting his NSL career with Adelaide City, Fyfe played for Sydney Olympic, Hamilton Academical of Scotland, Sydney FC, Adelaide United and South Korea\u2019s Busan I\u2019Park, along with Mes Kerman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came back my intention was to play in the A-League,\u2019\u2019 Fyfe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m enjoying it now with Campbelltown but in football you never know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fox Sports – CANBERRA, Former Adelaide United defender Iain Fyfe says Iran will win the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":20320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,84,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-c47-featured-news","category-c31-pfdc-interviews"],"views":3909,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20318","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\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}