{"id":31869,"date":"2018-05-15T10:52:46","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T17:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=31869"},"modified":"2018-05-15T10:52:46","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T17:52:46","slug":"lafcs-steven-beitashour-ready-for-his-2018-world-cup-opportunity-with-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2018\/05\/15\/lafcs-steven-beitashour-ready-for-his-2018-world-cup-opportunity-with-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"LAFC’s Steven Beitashour ready for his 2018 World Cup opportunity with Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

MLSSoccer.com – LOS ANGELES, As the football world waited for federations to post the much-anticipated preliminary rosters for the 2018 World Cup before the May 15 deadline, LAFC defender Steven Beitashour knew he had more than a decent shot of being called up.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve talked to them before and it sounded like I will be on that list,\u201d the Iranian-American player smiled and told reporters in the locker room following the club\u2019s 2-2 draw with NYCFC Sunday night. \u201cBut obviously you have to wait until its officially announced [before you can say anything].\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as few pundits expected Beitashour would get the nod for this World Cup, the club confirmed his preliminary Iran call-up on Monday morning along with Egyptian Omar Gaber, Mexican Carlos Vela and Costa Rica\u2019s Marco Ure\u00f1a with a call for Belgium\u2019s Laurent Ciman expected to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working my tail off for four years to get called back in,\u201d said Beitashour, who last suited up for Iran during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.<\/p>\n

The California native is the son of immigrant parents who came to the United States in the 1960s from Iran and told reporters during preseason that he has remained in close contact with the Iranian FA throughout his moves from Vancouver to Toronto to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know they were watching the whole time because they\u2019ve been keeping in contact with me,\u201d the defender said of his communication with the FFIRI. \u201c[Iran\u2019s national team said] \u2018Keep doing what you\u2019re doing, we\u2019re watching every game, you\u2019re doing really well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Beitashour\u2019s well-known defensive acumen, first at Vancouver and then Toronto, was what originally caught the attention of Iran coach Carlos Queiroz but the player who began his career with his hometown San Jose feels what he provides going forward doesn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that people realize how much I attack if you just look at my assist record,\u201d he said. \u201cYou gotta be smart and then when you do go forward, you\u2019ve got to be productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The outside back earned a point for the Black-and-Gold against FC Dallas last week with a first-half strike and has 33 career assists in his nine seasons in MLS and has already notched three in just 10 games this year for LAFC, where he\u2019s started all of the expansion club\u2019s matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited and thrilled to be on that 35-man roster but I know there is still a lot of work to be done,\u201d said Beitashour, who is well aware that having his name on the preliminary roster does not guarantee a trip to Russia, to say nothing of game time in the tournament.<\/p>\n

Like their teammate in the Iran squad, LAFC other World Cup candidates will look to impress during camp for their chance at what their manager Bob Bradley considers to be peak experience for players.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that happens, for guys to get opportunities with their national team, it\u2019s important,\u201d said Bradley, who along with GM John Thorrington have repeatedly expressed their support for LAFC players called into international duty. \u201cIt shows that things are going in the right direction and there is no bigger deal for a player than getting a chance to play in a World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than anything, that\u2019s what Beitashour is hoping to experience for himself. The defender was an unused substitute during Iran\u2019s three 2014 World Cup matches in Brazil but remains optimistic his two MLS Cup appearances in 2016 and 2017, along with a strong start to 2018, can do a lot to resolve that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey haven\u2019t seen me up close and personal in four years, so I have to show them how I\u2019ve changed and evolved and gotten better,\u201d said Beitashour. \u201cHopefully you get onto that 23-man roster and then ideally you\u2019re playing and not just there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MLSSoccer.com – LOS ANGELES, As the football world waited for federations to post the much-anticipated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":31870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,89,91,93,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c16-iranian-legionairs","category-c20-other-news","category-c22-players-spotlight","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":1049,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31869","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=31869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31871,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31869\/revisions\/31871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}