Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

On Sunday Iran will face Jordan for the return leg of their Asian Cup qualifier in Amman. Iran won the first leg and is sitting pretty on top of the Qualifying Group E, while Jordan is on the opposite end, all the way at the bottom. But, do not let that fool you; Iran did not have a convincing victory over the Jordanians in Tehran. It took them 70 minutes to score the single winning goal. Playing in the Jordanian capital of Amman should not prove to be any easier.

Iran has won two of its last three games and tied the third one, which looks good on paper, but the fact is that Team Melli has not had a convincing performance in any of the three matches.

There are little signs of improvement, but not enough to suggest that the team has gelled together. To the contrary the last match, a friendly against Macedonia, proved that they have a long way to go in the way of becoming a team.

To make things worse, because the match is not on a FIFA designated international day, Iran will not have the services of a few of its foreign-based players most notable of which are Javad Nekounam and Masoud Shojaei. Oddly enough in the friendly match against Macedonia a few days ago, Ghotbi decided to play both of them for most of the game.

It will be very interesting to see who will be included in Coach Afshin Ghotbi’s starting eleven on Sunday.