Iran's coach to focus on psychology before vital World Cup games

Tehran - Iran's new coach Afshin Qotbi said Thursday he would focus on the psychological rather than technical and tactical status of the national football team before the team's three remaining World Cup qualification games. 'Considering the short time until the next game (June 6), there is no use on trying to improve the technical and tactical aspects but the focus should rather be on the psychological status of team and players,' Qotbi said in an interview with the news network Khabar. Iran lost 2-1 at home to Saudi Arabia in a qualifier last month to leave the team little chance of reaching even the third rank in Asia Group B, which would at least put it into the play-offs. 'What we need right now is to transfer positive energy to both players and fans. It is more a matter of heart and willingness, and the next matches must therefore be won first outside and then inside the field,' Qotbi said. With only six points from their five games, Iran must still play against the two Koreas in Pyongyang and Seoul as well as against the United Arab Emirates in Tehran. 'There is also no time for experiences with new players as we have to take the most experienced ones for the remaining games,' Qotbi said. The Iranian-American, who was last week appointed as new head coach for Iran's national football team, will visit the Iranians playing in the English, German and Spanish leagues, and it is expected that all of them would be invited to the national team. Qotbi's problem might however be that players such as Frankfurt's Mehdi Mahdavikia, Bochum's Vahid Hashemian and Barnsley's Andranik Teymourian are no longer in the first team and have not played for a quite long time. Another problem for Qotbi is that, although the season has already finished, some of the local players still play with their clubs in the Asian Champions League games and cannot join the national team training sessions for the time being. The new coach however is expected to return former Bayern Munich midfielder Ali Karimi, who currently plays for Persepolis Tehran and still considered the country's best player, to the national team. Karimi was dismissed from the team after he harshly criticized the Iranian Football Federation (FFI) last year, describing its current formation as the weakest in his 10-year spell in the national team. The absence of Karimi was however badly felt in the World Cup qualification games with most of Iranian fans and also many football experts believing that the team would have gained better results with him playing.