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AFP - Brazil, Argentina or Holland and not
Germany are the teams best placed to scoop the World Cup in Germany next
year, Iran's Croatian coach Branko Ivankovic told AFP.
But he also sees the Iranian team, among the first to qualify for a slot in
Germany, as a major "spoiling" force who could give the big sides a run for
their money.
"I think the favourites will be Brazil, Argentina, and Holland," Ivankovic
told AFP in Tehran. "I do not believe in Germany. Although they have a good
team, it is not a team to win the cup - they have a young team."
"If you want to win the cup you need stars, and the Germans do not have any
stars except Ballack and Kahn," he said referring to Bayern Munich
goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and playmaker Michael Ballack.
"We were better than them," Ivankovic insisted of Iran's friendly game
against Germany in October 2004, even though the Germans won 2-0.
Since then, key Iranian players have been gaining crucial experience in the
Bundesliga - Ali Karimi in Bayern Munich, Mehdi Mahdavikia in Hamburg, and
Vahid Hashemian in Hanover.
Iran erupted into mass festivities in July after earning a place in Germany.
Iran has only ever played in the World Cup finals in 1978 and 1998.
"I believe we have a very good team which can upset the plans of the others,
and it will progress even more as we get near to the World Cup," said
51-year-old Ivankovich, Iran's coach since 2002.
He acknowledged the football-crazy Islamic republic's side still needed more
organisation - something he hopes to address with a hectic string of
fixtures in the run-up to Germany 2006.
"I have opened up the team to the young. About fifteen players are between
21 and 25, and only two players are more than 30 years-old," he said, adding
that veteran 36-year-old captain Ali Daei was still considered "the best for
his job".
"Iranian players are not only quality players, but they are also full of
enthusiasm," he says of his side.
"We will face South Korea and Thailand in October and we will try to play
Brazil and Portugal, we are in discussions with Serbia and Croatia," he said
of plans for friendlies before Iran takes up residence in Friedrichshafen.
"We would like very much to play against France, and if it happens in
Tehran, it would be spectacular," he said.
For Ivankovich, the ideal result will be a World Cup final clash between
Iran and his native Croatia - "with a victory of Croatia, unmerited, but a
victory nevertheless".
After nearly five years working in Iran and often facing a hostile press,
Ivankovich acknowledged that his "bags are always packed and ready" at his
north Tehran apartment.
But he adds: "I never had any problems. When I'm in Europe, I try to explain
the things here, I tell people that everything is normal here."
Iranian football, he says, will be "at a true international level in five to
ten years time, if the country invests in the infrastructure."
"You know how many clubs there are in the whole of Iran? Just 150. That's
fewer than in Paris."
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