Iran's group in 2nd stage World Cup qualifiers

Iran has been grouped with the following teams in its campaign to reach Brazil's 2014 World Cup, where the top 2 teams advance directly for the final stage:
- Qatar
- Bahrain
- Indonesia

Given the rules of advancement from this group the final stage of the Asian qualifiers, I dont see it a very difficult task. However, we must be aware of a couple of issues.

1- The away games to both Persian Gulf nations would not be without its usual characteristics and antics, even if we put aside the weather factors such as humidity and heat.

And even the away game to Indonesia is nothing to ignore as the Indonesians have proven to be quite formidable at home. Case in point their 4-3 qualification victory against Turkmenistan where more than 80,000 of its fans packed their stadium.

2- The second issue is the scheduling of the games, particularly the two games scheduled for November 2011, where we have to travel to Bahrain and play our away game on 11th of November an then traverse the whole continent to Indonesia to play them on 15th of November. Meaning 2 away games in a span of 4 days with a cross-continental journey involved.

Going by the IFF's dismal record in travel arrangements, I'd venture even if they prepare a chartered plane for the team to travel, the team would still be under tremendous strain and tough conditions for the 15th game. Factors such as humidity and travel fatigue will be compounded by shortage of recovery period between the two games.

So I would caution any fan over thinking this as an easy group where we walk over the opponents.

The complete schedule of our group games is as follows:
2 September 2011
Iran v Indonesia
Bahrain v Qatar

6 September 2011
Qatar v Iran
Indonesia v Bahrain

11 October 2011
Iran v Bahrain
Indonesia v Qatar

11 November 2011
Qatar v Indonesia
Bahrain v Iran

15 November 2011
Qatar v Bahrain
Indonesia v Iran

29 February 2012
Iran v Qatar
Bahrain v Indonesia


The overall Asian groupings:

(click to see larger view)