“It was a very good game. Cuba was a very strong team physically. Having a good analysis of their performance, we managed to win three straight sets,” said Sadaat after the match, according to Iranian volleyball federation. He said that the team will try its best in the quarterfinals.

Iran, the reigning champion, will lock horns with Russia on Wednesday in the quarterfinals.

“It was a hard game; Cuba was one of the strongest physical teams of the event. They managed to even defeat Brazil in the group stage. The team arrived at this level by playing hard matches. It was important where we would recover and we today succeeded in the first playoff. Tomorrow we will meet Russia and I’m happy that we played great today,” said the team’s coach Mohammad Vakili after the match.

The 2019 edition of FIVB Boy’s World Championship kicked off on August 21 in Tunis, Tunisia.

With two gold, two silver, and two bronze medals, Iran is the third most decorated team in the event after Brazil and Russia. Iranians won their first title in 2007 where they defeated China in the final. Iran has taken part in 11 out of 15 editions of the games so far managing to advance to the semifinal in eight ones.

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The team started the competition on a high note and defeated Bulgaria 3-1 (25-21, 21-25, 25-22, 25-20) on Thursday. Vakili’s men then conceded a surprise loss to Czech Republic 3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-22) one day later. Playing with more focus, Iranian volleyballers managed to gain a 3-1 (25-27, 25-21, 25-17, 25 – 13) win over Colombia on Saturday to revive the team’s confidence. In their last match of Pool B on Sunday, however, Italy proved to be too strong as they won Iran 3-1 (25-16, 25-18, 24-26, 25-11).

Another bad news for Iran was that one of the team’s key players Amir Hossein Toukhteh was injured during the match against Italy and has been sidelined for the rest of the event.

Iran will face off Cuba in a Round of 16 match on Tuesday. Cuba finished second in Pool A of the competition with three wins and one loss.

The 2019 edition of FIVB Boy’s World Championship kicked off on August 21 in Tunis, Tunisia.

With two gold, two silver, and two bronze medals, Iran is the third most decorated team in the event after Brazil and Russia. Iranians won their first title in 2007 where they defeated China in the final. Iran has taken part in 11 out of 15 editions of the games so far managing to advance to the semifinal in eight ones.

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Iran is drawn in Pool E of the Intercontinental Qualification Tournaments alongside Russia, Cuba and Mexico. Top 24 teams in the FIVB ranking table will compete in this stage in 6 groups and only one team from each group will earn the direct quota to Tokyo.

Iran will face off Mexico on Saturday before locking horns with Russia on Sunday.

The qualifiers kicked off today and go through August 11.

Japan has already won its place in the event as the host and the five remaining teams will be determined in Continental Olympic Qualification tournaments from January 6 to 12, 2020.

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“The final was such a difficult match. Italy really tried their best in this championship. Nobody could beat them in the earlier rounds. We knew it was going to very difficult, so we also tried to do all we could for the win. My players really worked hard in this match. They are the best and I have the honour that I can be their coach. I dedicate this win to all the people in my country,” Iran coach Ataei Nouri Behrouz told FIVB after the game.

“This medal means all our hard work during training; all our blood, sweat, and tears; all our hardships and pain. We have had extremely difficult preparation to win this championship … Bahrain has been a very good and very memorable place for my volleyball career. For the last three years I have come here, I have won the gold medal with this team. We have won the FIVB U19, Asian U20, and now another world championship for U21. This is a complete set for us,” said Iran captain Amirhossein Esfandiar.

The bronze medal of 2007 edition was the best result of Iran in the competition before this year’s gold.

The 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship was held in Riffa, Bahrain from July 18 to 27.

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Porya Yali and Amirhossein Esfandiar led Iran with 18 and 14 points respectively. “Iran gave no chance for Brazil to set up their plays with their powerful serves. The Iranians tallied nine aces and were also more prolific in attacks (38-30) and blocks (5-3) than the Brazilians,” FIVB reported.

The title match will be held today 19:00 local time.

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“Not much time left for recovery and training and we should prepare for Olympics qualifiers,” he said Sunday.

Khoshkhabar went on to say that the team will depart for Bulgaria on August 2 to play two friendly matches against its national team upon their invitation. After a 4-day training camp, Iran will fly for St. Petersburg, Russia, on August 6 to participate in the qualifying competitions, he added.

The team has no injuries except for Aliasghar Mojarrad whose injury case needs more careful study, he added.

Iran is drawn in Pool E of the Intercontinental Qualification Tournaments alongside Russia, Cuba and Mexico. Top 24 teams in the FIVB ranking table will compete in this stage in 6 groups and only one team from each group will earn the direct quota to Tokyo.

Iran does not have an easy path in this event as it has to defeat the 2012 Olympics gold medalist and back-to-back VNL winner, Russia, in its home. A point to be considered is that Russia didn’t dispatch its main squad to 2019 VNL men’s Final Six in Chicago in the past weeks but it managed to win the title. Although Iran won Russia 3-0 on June 16 in the third week of 2019 VNL at Urmia’s Ghadir Stadium, the fact that Russia will use its main squad in the home adds to Igor Kolakovic men’s difficult path in this qualifying round.

This event will take place from August 9 to 11.

Japan has already won its place in the event as the host and the five remaining teams will be determined in Continental Olympic Qualification tournaments from January 6 to 12, 2020.

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Iran kept the momentum in almost all 14 remaining games and earned 12 victories while also suffering three losses. With the 12-3 win-loss record and 36 points, Iran finished this as runner-up behind Brazil with 14-1.

Iran relies on both experienced and young players

Many volleyball experts in the country believed that Igor Kolakovic should give the opportunity to youth players in the event; both for training the next generation and also for preserving the stamina of the experienced ones for other important events of this year, such as the 2020 Olympics qualifiers. However, Kolakovic didn’t share the same view. He held a different opinion. The Montenegrin coach fielded its top guns in almost all games, except for the last two ones against Bulgaria and USA; showing that attaining medal in this event is of priority for him. And till now he has been successful as he managed to lead the team to the final round for the second time in Iran’s history; the first one occurred in 2014.

Although there is still much difference between Iran’s main and second squad, the youth players, such as Mohammadreza Hazratpour, Ali Asghar Mojarad, Porya Yali, and Javad Karimi promise yet another golden generation for Iranian volleyball. They only need more time and more games to achieve the required harmony.

Critics say that now that the team has taken the risk of injuries and advanced to the final stage, it is now the best time to earn a medal in the event since the main squad is at its best readiness and if they miss the chance now, it will take many years to gain another such opportunity.

Iran is mainly powered by its top guns who also rank among best players of this year’s VNL. The team’s captain, Saeid Marouf, is now the best setter of the event with an average per set of 8.42. He had also attained the 2014 World League’s best setter prize.

Amir Ghafour is Iran’s and the event’s best attacker so far with a total of 183 spikes and an average success rate of 57.73 percent. He also ranks second in the best scores’ table with 208 points, behind Japan’s Yuji Nishida with 220. It seems pretty likely that Ghafour would catch Nishida since Japan is not present in the Final Six.

Naming Iran’s top players, one cannot ignore Seyed Mohammad Mousavi who is among the best blockers of the competition with 29 stuff blocks and 38 rebounds.

Final Six

Top five teams of the table, i.e. Brazil, Iran, Russia, France, Poland plus the host, USA, will hold the Final Six round in Chicago on July 10 to 14.

Iran has been drawn along Brazil and Poland in Pool B of the final round. Iran’s matches against these two powerhouses in the preliminary round both finished in five sets, one win and one loss.

Iran vs Poland

According to FIVB, Iran and Poland have held 19 matches at major world level tournaments; the results were seven wins for Iran and 12 for the European side.

This year’s match between the two teams at 2019 VNL preliminary round was held in Iran’s Urmia on June 15 and ended with a hard-fought 3-2 victory for the host.

The game in Chicago on July 11, 22:00 GMT, will surely be an exciting encounter; why, you ask? For the history of the two teams’ head-to-head matches and all the controversies that follow. Poland captain, Michal Kubiak has a long history of engaging in verbal and even physical conflict with Iranian players.

Kubiak was suspended in early June for six games following offensive remarks where he called Iranians “fatal, malicious and damned people”. Days later and after Iran’s official complaint, FIVB Disciplinary Panel Sub-Committee noted in a statement that Kubiak has ‘committed violations’ of the regulations and urged the Polish player to issue a written apology.

The official apology was issued but not by Kubiak himself, rather by the Polish volleyball federation and it was read before the start of Iran-Poland game in Urmia.

Kubiak has just played for Poland in the Week 1 of 2019 VNL and it very likely that he will be fielded in the final round.

Iran vs Brazil

According to FIVB, Brazil and Iran have met 15 times at major world-level competitions. Brazil won 12 of these games, including each of the last six. Iran won three, with the most recent victory dating back to their 2014 World League pool stage encounter. Their last encounter goes back to June 7 in the Week Two of the event which finished with a 3-2 victory for the South American team.

The two teams will lock horns on July 12 at 22:00 GMT.

France, USA and Russia hold matches of the Pool A. Two best teams of each pool will advance to the semifinal.

One more thing about Iran is that the team will by no means be alone in Chicago as more than one million Iranians are living in the US and Canada and surely, some will make a trip to Credit Union 1 Arena to cheer for their team.

Who can earn the $1 million prize of the first rank? No one can guess for sure as all six teams have proved their top-class volleyball and the fact that volleyball cannot be predicted at this world top level. I and many other Iranians are just impatiently waiting to see a high-quality performance by our team.

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The competition is being held between May and July 2019 and the final round will take place in the Credit Union 1 Arena, Chicago, United States, on July 10 to 14.

The 16 teams compete in a round-robin format with every core team hosting a pool at least once. The teams are divided into four pools of four teams at each week and compete five weeks long, for 120 matches. The top five teams after the preliminary round will join the hosts of the final round to compete for VNL title.

Iran has recorded 10 wins out of 11 matches in 2019 VNL so far, sitting at top of the table with 30 points.

The Asian powerhouse will take on the 2018 VNL silver medalist, France, on Sunday that is the final match of Pool 15, being held in northwest city of Ardabil, Iran. The Persians have already gained two victories against Portugal and Australia this week.

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However, Argentina proved themselves in the second set as they won it 25-20. Alarmed by the rival’s power, Iran ramped up efforts, defeating the South American team 25-22 in the third set.

One could not even blink during the breath-taking fourth set as it was full of rallies and spectacular performances from both teams. Finally, it was Iran who won the game-deciding set 34-32.

Amir Ghafour was the best scorer of the game with 26 points and Bruno Lima stood next with 18.

Iran is temporarily standing at the top of men’s VNL table with 13 points from five games while France, Brazil and Canada rank next.

Igor Kolakovic’s men will take on their traditional Asian rival, Japan, on Sunday which will be the final match of Iran in the second week of the event.

Pool 7 of the men’s category, comprising Iran, Brazil, Argentina and Japan, are holding their matches in the Week 2 of the VNL in Tokyo, Japan.

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“They always insult us into the field and don’t respect us but play innocent. The Iranians think they are great and the best and we are the worst. But I believe that they are fatal, malicious and damned people. For me, this nation doesn’t exist, even though they proudly call themselves Persians, not Arabs. Sometimes we have to play with them, but for me, they don’t exist,” the Poland captain had said in an interview in late May 2019.

Iran Volleyball Federation acting president Afshin Davari said that they are filing a complaint to FIVB against Kubiak for making abusive comments against the Iranian people, Tehran Times reported on May 28.

“FIVB’s Ethics Committee should demand Kubiak explanation for his remarks.  He has offended the Iranian people and must accept responsibility for what he has said,” Davari said.

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