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 Tehran, March 24, IRNA -- Esteqlal Soccer team representing Iran at the Asian Cup championship having paved its way into the semifinal games is currently engaged in warm-up games.
Esteqlal will host the semifinal and final games of the Asian Cup slated for April 3-5 to be played at the Tehran Azadi
Sports Stadium.
Head coach of Esteqlal team Mansour Pourheidari in an interview with IRNA here Sunday said, "Esteqlal team started its warm-up games on Saturday and the players will stay at Olympic Hotel until Monday afternoon. Except Mojahed Khazaravi, who has been seriously injured, the rest of players who are in sound condition are making their best to attain ideal physical fitness.
Regarding Khazaravi, Pourheidari said that considering his serious injuries he is not expected to be in position to play in the upcoming Asian Cup games. He added that besides Khazaravi, Alireza Nikbakht Vahedi will also be absent at the first game because he has received two yellow cards.
Referring to the shortage of reserve players as one of the problems confronting Esteqlal, Pourheidari said, "since the soccer
teams have been inactive recently, we have not yet managed to find reserve players."
This is a serious problem, since it is not merely possible to prepare a team by playing warm-up games, rather they should find
themselves confronting rivals in order to test their fitness. Concerning Esteqlal's acquaintance with the South Korean Anyang LG football team at the semifinals of the Asian Cup, he said, "I have watched the film of games played by Anyang and the related video tapes of its latest games are due to be analyzed soon." He added, "Anyang is a strong team comprised of Brazilian and Russian players and similar to all South Korean football teams, is characterized by high speed of its players."
He concluded, "we are doing our best to score first at the upcoming games considering that we will have the privilege of being
supported by domestic spectators."

 

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