Iran and Qatar will meet on the eve of the New Year behind the closed doors for both teams final preparation for the AFC Asian Cup which begins in the UAE on Saturday. The match is one of the most important and strongest experiences for both teams since the training camps followed by series of friendly matches began last September. It is the perfect finale for both.
The match will start at 8:00 pm at Khalifa International Stadium and will be closed to the media and the public.
Most certainly the Qatari team will field its strongest line up. Qatar has already played Ecuador, Switzerland, Iceland and Algeria, with mixture of players. Iran has played Uzbekistan, Bolivia, Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela and Palestine.
For Qatar, the experience of tonight’s game with Iran will be very different from these previous experiences. The Annabi’s (Qatar Team) objective is to benefit from tough opponents, perhaps physically superior and play with strong and well-known team. Switzerland is the eighth in FIFA Ranking, however the match against Team Melli is completely different experience, because Iran is a strong contender for the title of Asian Cup.
Qatar coach Felix Sanchez, needs to have some final touches on his team tactics and that is one reason that he vehemently objected to the presence of media and spectators in this match. It is expected that the main line up will start the match for Qatar
Team Melli will approach this final preparation much with caution. Queiroz will use the same basic starters but with tactical changes and allowing as many substitute players to perform, despite the fact that few minutes of playing time has hardly benefited any player or its team.
Qatar Team which has the skeleton of Al Sadd team is counting on a result to lift the spirit and the confidence of a relatively young team players.
For Iran, despite the game being a friendly, the team will be looking for a positive result simply as a morale booster. The final shape of the team has already been decided by Queiroz and there should not be any major surprises.
Team Melli has been training in the Aspire camp in Doha for over a week now and will have no issues with the weather, which quite pleasant in this time of the year.
An absurd trend on the rise!
This peculiar trend of playing international friendly matches behind closed doors is becoming epidemic in Asian Football. Whatever reasons the coaches dream of including any employment of some top secrets that they want to keep under wrap is no more than just figments of their imaginations. All players in any national team are well-known to fans and the media, from their personalities, skills, physique and pace to whatever else that matters. In this day and age of information revolution and social media penetration, there no such nonsense as secret weapon of a team or a player. After all, this is the most popular sport in the world and the fans have the right to watch their National Team play either by attending the match or through TV or other media outlets. Anything else is way down the priorities. International friendly matches should not be held behind closed-door. It should be strongly discouraged and even penalized by the world governing body.
The right of watching National football Teams matches by the masses should be protected by the law that only FIFA can mandate.