Dubai: Iran coach Akbar Mohammadi Argi has said that Japan are the formidable opponents in Group A but other teams are also capable to give them a good fight in the AFC U-19 Championship to be held later this year.
Speaking to www.the-afc.com after the draw held on Sunday, Argi highlighted the qualities of all 16 participating nations.
“If you look at the profiles, Japan appear to be a tough nut to crack but so are the other opponents in Group A as well as all the other participating nations. You cannot say or predict anything since they qualified to the tournament proper and specially in an age-group competition any one can be the favourites,” said Argi.
“Our main goal is to qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup finals in Turkey and since we will play countries like Japan, UAE in the group stages and may face Korea Republic or Thailand in the quarters, we will play countries from East to West and they will give us invaluable exposures and experiences.”
Iran are pitted in a difficult Group A against Japan, Kuwait and 2008 champions and hosts UAE. “As usual we will prepare our best and we are already working on it. We had a good visit to Russia with this squad and also played a friendly match with the UAE which we won 8-2. But friendlies are a different ball game than the real competitions,” he said.
Iran will open their campaign with the heavyweight encounter against Japan on November 3 followed by another big game against the hosts two days later. They wrap up their group campaign on November 7 against Kuwait.
The top-four team of the AFC U-19 Championship will qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup to be held in 2013 in Turkey.