JAKARTA, Indonesia, 22 July 2007 — Saudi Arabia’s coach has proved his critics wrong so far in the Asian Cup and could shut them up altogether by winning today’s quarterfinal clash against Uzbekistan.

Brazilian Helio Cesar dos Anjos has been forced by the Saudi media to defend his decision to leave several experienced players at home and bring a youthful team to the Asian Cup, which Saudi Arabia has won three times.

The ‘Sons of the Desert’ go in to the quarterfinals on a high after demolishing Bahrain 4-0 on Wednesday. In its first group match, it drew with South Korea and then scored in the last minute against a determined Indonesia to win 2-1.

“We are in transition to a new generation,” dos Anjos, who was largely unknown to Saudi soccer fans until he took control of the national team six weeks ago, told a media conference yesterday. “But up until now, we can say they are doing well.”

While most attention has been focused on striker and playmaker Yasser Al-Qahtani, dos Anjos drew attention to his defensive line up, which has conceded two goals and no yellow cards so far. “Uzbekistan is a very, very strong team. I have a lot of respect for them,” he said. “But we are not here just to take part. We have a dream (of winning the title) and we are working for that.”

Uzbekistan is hungry for international success after just missing out on qualification for the World Cup in Germany in 2006 — it lost a regional playoff against Bahrain in match that had to be replayed due to a technical error by the referee.

In the 2004 Asian Cup, the team lost to Bahrain in a quarterfinal penalty shootout. It has never reached the Asian Cup semifinals.

“We are a very young country, but we have high ambitions in football,” coach Rauf Inileyev said. “We want to get to the next stage.”

Inileyev clarified media reports that quoted him as saying he had planned a late “surprise” for his opponents — remarks that led Saudi Arabia coach dos Anjos to speculate that the Uzbek was playing physiological games ahead of the fixture.

“Each game is a surprise for every opponent,” Inileyev said. “I just want to impress you journalists and football fans!”

Inileyev, who has worked his way up through the ranks of Uzbek soccer, joked about the possibility of another penalty shootout, saying “thanks for reminding me” when asked about such an outcome.

“We have experienced them before and we are preparing for them,” he said. “But they are just a lottery.”

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, South Korea coach Pim Verbeek cannot argue with the statistics or the form, and agrees that three-time champions Iran should be considered the favorite going into their Asian Cup quarterfinal today.

He even goes so far as to say that Iran has better players, “but that does not guarantee a win” against his team.

“Since we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, most people have told me Iran is the strongest team and is the favorite — I think that is right,” Verbeek said. “Iran is a very experienced team, have all their foreign-based players and have played very well so far in the tournament.

“They may have better players than us, but it doesn’t mean they are the stronger team. I think we will win.”

The continental soccer powers are meeting in the quarterfinals for the fourth consecutive time since the eight-team knockout round was introduced at the Asian Cup: Iran won 6-2 in ‘96, the Koreans won 2-1 in golden goal extra time at Lebanon in 2000 and Iran won 4-3 at China in ‘04.

Iran and South Korea also were in the same qualifying group for this edition, and the Iranians finished atop the standings with four wins and two draws. That included a 2-0 win over the Koreans at Tehran in November and a 1-1 draw at Seoul in September, when Vahid Hasemian scored an injury-time equalizer for the visitors.

But both coaches say previous results were historic and no indication of what to expect today at Bukit Jalil.

“We know South Korea very well. We have already played them twice in qualifying rounds,” Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei said. “But each match is different and this time, the circumstances are different. It’s a knockout, so whoever loses is out.”

Ghalenoei said he had focused on combating South Korea’s quick transition from defense to attack, but otherwise had worked on honing Iran’s strengths.

And some mandatory practice in case of a penalty shootout, Ghalenoei said, “because you have to consider every possibility of points in the knockout match.”

Iran scored six goals in the three Group C matches to finish unbeaten with seven points, a comfortable winner of a group containing China, Uzbekistan and Malaysia.

South Korea, after a shock loss to Bahrain, had to overcome Indonesia in its last match and rely on Saudi Arabia beating Bahrain to advance. And it also had to move from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur, while Iran had the benefit of two weeks to acclimatize in Malaysia.

Verbeek said his youthful team had performed better than the scorelines suggested in the group stage and had improved with each outing.

“We have the future of Korean football here with us,” he said.

And that is where Iran, which won three consecutive titles until 1976 but has lost its aura as the most dominating force in the region, has been let down in the last couple of Asian Cups.

Ghalenoei agreed Iran was the best team “on paper” but had some bad luck in China in ‘04, when it went down on penalties to the hosts in the semifinals.

“We have learned. We have a good team now and this is a very important match,” he said. “Our team are dedicating themselves to perform well.”