Doha, November 28 (QNA) – On Tuesday, the US and Iranian teams will play a decisive confrontation to qualify for the second round in the third and final round matches in Group B of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
The upcoming confrontation between the United States and Iran brings to mind the famous match between the two teams during the 1998 World Cup in France, which witnessed a strong clash between the US team, led by famous goalkeeper “K. C.” Keeler and the Iranian team, led by its historical star, Ali Daei.
The match between the two teams ended with a 2-1 victory for the Iranians, on the grounds of the Gerland stadium in Lyon, western France, where Hamid Estili and Mehdi Mahdavikia scored in the two minutes (40 and 84) for Iran and Brian McBride in the 87th minute for the US.
Tomorrow’s confrontation will attract the attention of the whole world due to its importance at all levels, especially politically, in addition to being decisive in qualifying one of the teams to the second round, and completing the journey in Qatar World Cup 2022.
Iran is going into tomorrow’s confrontation with three points, which it collected after a severe loss in the opening match (2-6) against England, and a victory over Wales (2-0) in the final minutes, while the US has two points from a draw with Wales in the opening round (1 -1), and England without goals in the second round.
Iran is second in Group B, one point behind England with four points, while the US comes in third place with two points, and finally Wales in fourth place with one point.
The Iranian national team, led by its Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, is looking for victory in order to settle its qualification to the second round without regard to the outcome of the England-Wales match, or at least to score a draw point and wait for England to win or draw to ensure qualification.
Queiroz, who assumed the task of training the Iranian national team less than three months before the World Cup, will seek to give his players more confidence to achieve victory, especially his two stars, Sardar Azmoun, a forward of German club Leverkusen and Mehdi Taremi, player of Porto, Portugal.
On the other hand, the US national team, led by its coach Gregg Berhalter, will seek for victory in order to avenge its loss against its Iranian counterpart in the 1998 World Cup in France, and to snatch one of the two qualifying cards from the group and continue the journey in the World Cup.
Berhalter, who took over the task of training the US national team in 2018 after failing to qualify for the World Cup in Russia, will rely on activating his offensive line after scoring one goal during the past two matches. The attacking trio of Christian Pulisic of Chelsea, Yunus Musah of Valencia of Spain, and Tim Weah of Lille of France, will be required to be effective in order to score goals and achieve victory, which is indispensable to continue the journey in the World Cup.
The strength of the US team is represented in the midfield, which includes Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson, professionals of the English team Leeds United, as this duo helps to control the course of the match and good possession of the ball, but it is defective for them to tend to the defensive side more and not to complement the attack.
According to the latest classification of the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) for October, the United States national team ranks 16th in the world and the second in Continent after Mexico, the first, while the Iranian national team ranks 20th in the world, and the first in Asia.
(QNA)