Mayelikohan pledges to attack

AFC - Iran's Olympic team coach Mohamed Mayelikohan has admitted he knows nothing about his team's Japanese opponents ahead of Sunday night's friendly clash at Saitama Stadium.

Mayelikohan - who led the full Iranian national side to third place at the Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates in 1996 - said, despite his lack of knowledge of his team's opponent, that his team would continue to play their own style of football.

"When I was national team coach we beat South Korea 6-2," he said, referring to the quarter-final win at the Asian Cup eight years ago, when future Asian Player of the Year Ali Daei scored four times.

"We managed that win because I like to play offensive football. That's my favourite style and I like to see a lot of goals. I want the fans to enjoy the game because of that."

Mayelikohan's team goes into the game off the back of a 3-2 win against Singapore last week and the former Saipa coach is hoping to learn more about his own team's ability ahead of the qualifying tournament for Athens, in which Iran have been drawn to face China, South Korea and Malaysia.

"The match will be a very good learning experience," he said. "I want to get a good result but at the end of the day it's a friendly game. I'm here to learn because we have to play China and South Korea and I'm sure Japan plays a similar style of football."

Meanwhile, Mayelikohan's counterpart, Japan coach Masakuni Yamamoto, will give debuts to striker Sota Hirayama and defender Marcus Tulio Tanaka.

Hirayama is the latest striking sensation in Japan, leading his high school Kunimi to the national championship last month, while Brazil-born Tulio will make his first appearance in the blue shirt since gaining citizenship at the end of last year.

"This is the first game of the Olympic year so I hope the players will make a good start," said Yamamoto. "Their condition is at 80 percent but by playing in games like this I hope that their can reach their peak by the time we play in the Olympic qualifying tournament."