Koch tells Esteghlal to forget Asian Cup

PLDC - In the first practice session of Esteghlal Tehran on Thursday, 28/11/2002, after their return from Uzbekistan, Ronald Koch (German head coach) spoke to his team, “As we have no other Asian Clubs Super Cup matches until March, please forget the tournament for now.”

“I would like you to seriously concentrate on the Professional League games. If we get good results in the league and top the table, we will play international games with stronger motivation and this will help to add to our successes. Don’t worry about the loss against Naftchi at all as I am accepting the responsibility for it. You did your best to carry out my tactics in the match and we achieved our main aim which was qualification into the next round.”