DOHA — Having fought to win the respect of Iran's
football public,
Dragan Skocic now has a World Cup showdown with England and a
politically charged clash with the US to cement his international standing.
اضافة اعلان
England manager
Gareth Southgate admitted he knew little
about the Iranian team his side will face on the opening day of the World Cup
after they were put together in Group B at Friday's draw in Doha.
England have been too busy with their own matches, he said.
"We know that they finished ahead of South Korea and if
they have done that we know they have some pretty good players."
FIFA has been urged to punish Iran for refusing to let women
into a stadium for their last World Cup qualifier against Lebanon this week.
But it is unlikely to impact a sixth appearance at the finals.
"We will try to advance. I always said we have a very
good team and maybe we can advance for the first time," Skocic, a former
Croatian international player, told Iranian state news agency IRNA on Saturday.
"I think our draw could have been worse, for example,
being in the Spain-Germany group. But our work will still be difficult and one
cannot expect a simple group in the World Cup," he added.
"England is the toughest team in my opinion,"
adding "but our team is good enough to be able to compete with
others."
England's research will show that Skocic lifted a demoralized
side after taking over from
Belgian Marc Wilmots in February 2020 when
successive defeats left them in danger of failing to reach Qatar.
"We were in a difficult situation," Skocic, who
moved from the Iranian league to take charge of the national side,
acknowledged.
But the 52-year-old has since led Iran to 15 wins, against
one loss, and made them the top-ranked Asian side in the FIFA rankings.
Following Wilmots and the Portuguese Carlos Queiroz, who
took Iran to two World Cup finals in eight years, was not easy.
Skocic complained to Iranian media after Iran sealed its
place in January that "many underestimated me and didn’t respect me but
I’m very happy because I’ve proved myself."
And now he is talking about the potential for upsets and
Iran going past the opening groups for the first time.
"Football is interesting for people because it is
unpredictable," he said.
"We know that England are better than other teams at the
moment but they have to show that in the game."
Forget politics
Skocic also does not want to stir up the politics swirling
around Iran's clash with the
US on November 29.
Iran and the US have been at daggers drawn since the
Islamic revolution in 1979. And Iran scored a famous 2–1 win over the US team at the
1998 World Cup.
"I don’t care about this," said Skocic. "Of
course there is some story between the two but we will think only about
football."
In 1998, the Iranian and US players exchanged roses before
the game. Neither Skocic nor his American counterpart
Gregg Berhalter expect
the same gesture this time.
"I want to see a good game and I don’t want to think
about flowers and that story. I think the ball must speak," he said.
Skocic said his side must forget the "emotion" of
the politics.
He will be relying on players who went through previous
World Cup campaigns, and the likes of
Mehdi Taremi at Porto in Portugal, Sardar
Azmoun at Germany's Bayer Leverkusen and Alireza Jahanbakhsh at Feyenoord in
the Netherlands who have played European football.
But they do not always make life easy for him. Taremi was
dropped for two games last year after criticising Skocic.
Yet after more than eight years in Iran, which has faced
years of international sanctions, Skocic insists he is happy.
The team trains in "good conditions" and he says
he has made valuable friends.
"Iran is something different than people think.
Everyone talks about the politics but I have never seen the hospitality that I
have experienced in Iran."
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