Best Generation of Iran to Compete at 2022 World Cup: Ghotbi

In almost seven months, Iran and the US will meet at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar in both teams’ final — and potentially most important — match of the group stage.

England and one of Ukraine, Scotland or Wales are in Group B as well.

Ghotbi is probably the second-most decorated American coach overseas, after Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch.

“This generation of Iranian players is probably the best generation they’ve had,” Ghotbi told FOX Sports.

Before helming Team Melli from 2009 to 2011, the Tehran-born, Southern California-raised 58-year-old was a member of Steve Sampson’s USA coaching staff at the 1998 World Cup in France, where the Americans famously lost to Iran 2-1. (Ghotbi was also an assistant on Guus Hiddink’s South Korean side that reached the World Cup semis in 2002, and he has led clubs in the top divisions in China, Japan and Iran.)

“The game in 1998 was very special for me,” he said. “Obviously, it had a political tone. Coming into the game, there was an enormous buildup of anxiety and pressure and stress, not so much on the American team but, I think, more on the Iranian players.

"It was a very difficult loss for the US, not only on the sporting side.”

He knows Team Melli’s current squad every bit as well.

“The thing that makes this Iranian team special are the three attacking players,” he said.

“What makes Alireza Jahanbakhsh interesting is he has the quality to come inside (or) outside,” Ghotbi said. “He has fantastic final passes, and he can score goals.”

“He is by far the best goalkeeper in Asia,” Ghotbi said of Beiranvand, who memorably stopped a penalty kick from Cristiano Ronaldo at the previous World Cup.

The US-Iran figures to be a spectacle for that reason alone.

“We have two generations of fantastic football players meeting together,” Ghotbi said. “It’s going to be a great game, and I hope everybody in America and everyone all over the world will watch it.”