Kuwait City.
Team Melli football team arrived in Kuwait City on Sunday evening. The team has left Dubai camp earlier that day and as soon as they arrived in Kuwait’s Crown Plaza hotel, the team started its preparation for Tuesday’s match against host Kuwait by hitting the Gymnasium and the swimming pool.
In statements to the press, Javad Nekounam said that being involved with Team Melli in a camp during the Nowrooz holidays is not a new thing to him. “As a professional we should be ready for duty anytime to represent our country. Unfortunately sometime this coincides with our national holidays and I have been through such engagement several times in my career. It is not a serious issue to us.” The Captain of Team Melli said.
Mehrdad Ouladi , who is once again selected for Team Melli after long absence said that Team Melli should not take Kuwait lightly. “We had a very good camp and there was a fine spirit between the players. The practice sessions were serious and all the players are determined to succeed.” The Malavan player said. “We will not have a comfortable match in Kuwait, however , we are determined to play an attractive football and gain the required result.”
Kuwait Team has suffered a major blow as their Left winger Hamad Aman has limped off the training session after an injury. The skilful winger remains doubtful for the match. Iran will also miss Khalatbary due to strained muscle he suffered during the training in Dubai. Last minute tests might change the fortunes of those players on both sides.
In a post match news briefing, Kuwaiti FA official stated that the match entry will not be free as it is customary with the rest of the Persian Gulf Arab countries. Mr Al Sahoo said “The Kuwait Football federation cannot afford to run free matches while there are many expenses and bills to pay. Only a few number of the 12,000 tickets are available. We knew beforehand that this match will be popular and we expect a capacity stadium for the match against a strong rival.”
Al Sahoo has denied that the postponement of the match was a barter deal with Iranian Football Federation. It was alleged in the local press that Kuwait FA agreed on Iranian request to postpone the match for one week because of Nowrooz , in exchange of Iran voting for the Kuwaiti supported candidate of AFC presidency, Salman Bin Ibrahim AlKhalifa of Bahrain. Al Sahoo said that agreeing with Iran’s request was a friendly and courteous gesture to our neighbors and nothing more than that.
Team Melli will be playing against Kuwait in Al Kuwait team football stadium on Tuesday as part of the qualification rounds matches for the AFC Asian Cup 2015 In Australia. Iran leads group B after one match by goal difference.
Group B
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | D | P | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iran | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | +5 | 3 | |||
| 2 | Kuwait | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 3 | |||
| 3 |  |
Lebanon | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 3 | ||
| 4 |  |
Thailand | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 8 | -5 | 0 |