TEHRAN - Iran basketball coach Veselin Matic said on Wednesday that his team needs time to get back on track. 

Defending champion Iran finished in fifth place in the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship in Wuhan, China in late September.

“In the last two years that I have been here as a coach, we’ve earned so many good results. In Wuhan, we won eight games out of nine and just lost to Jordan. However, some of our key players were not available for the match due to injury. Iran had defeated Jordan in the previous five games but we lost to them in the semifinal,” Matic said in a news conference held in Iran Basketball Federation in Tehran. 

“Iran took part in the Hungary and Portugal basketball tournaments to prepare for the Asian Championship. We also participated in the William Jones tournament but you need more games to be compatible. Hamed Haddadi plays in NBA and Arsalan Kazemi is also a member of Rice in the U.S. and they could not accompany us in all warm-up matches,” the Serb said. 

Asked why he invited some old players for taking part in the event, Matic said, “No, I don’t agree with you. All of our players did well and I am satisfied with their performance. At the same time, we have some young players in our current team, who will help our team in the future.”