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Asia’s third place at stake
UOHOR BAHRU. [Malaysia. Nov 15: The cards are heavily stacked [against Iran as they J go into tomorrow's Asian World Cup qualifying playoff here against Japan, reports AFP.
Coach Valdir "Badu" Vierra has been in the job for barely a week. Iran only knew they had to play the match on Wednesday and had to make a dash for Johor Bahru, the 30.000 capacity stadium will be packed with Japanese fans, and worst of all Iran have hit a slump with one of their top players suspended.
"The preparations could have been easier," Vierra admitted after a closed training session here.
"But you know it will be a great shame if Iran do not make it to the World Cup finals. There is such talent to show I am not completely downhearted."'
The match is between the second placed teams from the regoins two final qualifying groups. The winner will Join South Korea and Saudi Arabia in France next year.
The loser will have to take on Terry Venables Australian soc-ceroos’ In another two match playoff staring next weekend. It is a prospect that neither side
relishes and Venables will be watching from the stands.
"The team has already played a lot of games and travelled a lot over the past two months." said Vierra.
"But we have no problem with the hot. Humid conditions. We have studied the Japanese team. Kazuyoshi Miura and Hidetoshi Nakata are the only players that we have to be careful about.
Iran saw their fortunes slip alarmingly as Group A progressed. They were top of the table for much of the five nation contest but saw the Saudis overtake them after losing 2-0 to Qatar.
Coach Mohammed Mayell Kohan was sacked and 53-year-old Vierra, brought in seven days earlier to guide the Olympic side for the 2000 Sydney Games, was quickly promoted.
Iran looked a team in disarray against Qatar. Star midfielder Karim Bagheri was suspended after being sent off. He plays in the German First Division and his absence will put Increased pressure on goalscorer Ali Daet and Asian-player-of-the-year Khodadad Azizi, the two other Iranians now based in Germany.
Around two thirds of the spectators in the Larkin Sta-
dium are expected to be Japanese and their national team have seldom been so upbeat since their Group B campaign started.
They ended a bad patch, when Takeshi Okada was brought in as an emergency coach and they beat South Korea 3-0 in Seoul and Kazakhstan 5-1 at home to secure second spot.
Okoda has none of Vierra's injury and suspension worries. Japan have been acclimatising to the Johor Bahru heat and humidity since Monday and Okada says he devised a plan to beat the Iranians after finding out they would be the opponents on Wednesday.
Iran have won five of their previous encounters, including one at the 1994 World Cup qualifying tournament in Doha, against three victories for Japan.
But Japan's star striker Kazuyoshi Miura, who is back from suspension, insists "It is our turn to win this time.”
Miura went to a temple to pray for victory with fellow veteran Amsashi Nakayama. He came out and declared: "All I can do now is fight to the death."
Goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, now the most popular player with fanatical Japanese supporters, said he had felt nervous during the first World Cup matches.
"But I feel comfortable now. although It's really an important game that could take us to France with one more win. The Iranians play at a very high level and I cannot wait till Sunday."
Japanese players have been dangerously lifting the hopes of their fans, according to some commentators however. The team are notoriously poor travellers and previous disappointments have nearly all come when they play away.