Defeat against North Korea is unacceptable to me: Abdi

TEHRAN – Hossein Abdi, head coach of Iran’s U23 football team, described his side’s heavy and unexpected defeat to North Korea as unacceptable.

Iran had taken the lead against North Korea at the Asian Games, but eventually suffered a 4–1 defeat and were eliminated in the group stage after finishing below North Korea on goal difference, missing out on a place in the quarterfinals.

 “First and foremost, I apologize to my dear people. This result is unacceptable to me. This is the first time we have faced such a result in an official match at this level. I believed we could achieve a different result,” Abdi said.

“We could have produced any other result—except this one! I apologize to everyone who expected and believed that we could advance to the next stage,” he added.

The Iran U23 coach criticized his players’ mentality, saying: “My feeling is that the players entered the game with the mindset that we had already secured qualification for the next round. But, to be fair, North Korea were one of the teams we expected to face a difficult game against from the outset. The Koreans played very good football, and they deserve congratulations.”

“It is disappointing because we could have maintained our advantage in what appeared to be one of the toughest groups of the tournament—a group in which it was unclear until the final day which teams would advance. Unfortunately, we were unable to produce the performance we expected today or earn the points we needed. In any case, this is my apology to my dear people.”

 “I hope we can do better in the future and that this experience will help us take a better path. The players need to understand that nothing is decided before a match is over, and no result is certain until the final whistle,” Abdi concluded.