Iran Dazes China for gold
20 Teams had enrolled for participation in the Men’s U20 Asian Volleyball Championship of Bahrain; prior the tournament’s start Australia and Pakistan withdraw. So the 18 remained teams were divided into 4 pools as draw.
Pool A) Bahrain- -Thailand-Maldives-Saudi Arabia
Pool B) Japan- Chinese Taipei-Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan-Kuwait
Pool C) China- Korea- Sri Lanka- New Zealand
Pool D) Iran – India –Turkmenistan – Hong Kong-Qatar
Iran Dazes China for Asian Men’s U20 Gold
China showed a stormy start, exceptionally bagged the first five points of the match and it seemed that Iran was in total control. The seeds were sown in the sixth point of the opening set, when Rahman Taghizadeh rose to block a Runtao Xia’s spike.
Then Iran were the aggressors; at the net, block after block thwarted the previously untouchable Chinese attack.
It was supposed after hard pressure of previous day’s match versus Bahrain; players of Iran would have tiredness and will be out of breath. But from mental and physical point of view they were well prepared by their technical staff. After performing any good action over the ball the home spectators were also cheering them. Only around 200 Iranian fans were clapping their team. At last Iran pulled off a stunning straight-set victory 3-0(25-19, 25-18, 25-19) over China to take gold at the 17th Asian U20 Men’s Volleyball Championships in Bahrain.
The match billed as a clash of the Asian junior titans became a volleyball clinic. Achieving the success in this match Iran “wolked” to its 5th Asian U20 title, while all the previous ones were achieved in the past nine periods of the Asian championships.
In last period of this Championship in 2012 the host team of Iran achieved a third rank, while Japan and China were champion and vice champion respectively.
Iran had played almost all its pool matches with just ten players, after visa problems left two of its players cooling their heels in Tehran. In late days 2 players joined the team after late issuance of entry visa.
Iran mixed up Bahrain’s title dream
On October 24, 2014 in Manama of Bahrain, first-ever dream of Bahrain to win the U20 Asian Volleyball Championship vanished.
After a noteworthy performance in the previous stages of the tournament and reaching the semi-finals, which saw them qualify for the 2015 Under-21 World Championship in Mexico, host team of Bahrain headed into their next challenge against a much-experienced team Iran.
The organizers of the 17th edition of this Championship suffered a hard heart-breaking exit in the semi-finals, going down 1-3 (14-25, 25-21, 24-26, 15-25) to title favorites Iran in a nearly two-hour game. Iran then faced China in the final, after the latter sent South Korea out, crashing with come-from-behind 3-0 (23-25, 25-22, 25-17, 26 -24) win. South Korea, the six-time under-20 Asian champions, after smashing defending champions Japan in straight sets in the quarter-finals, headed into this game with great confidence.
In the match Iran vs Bahrain as a thriller, the former started the game well and took the first set as they made the most of their noticeable physical advantage in the game. Thousands of home team fans by cheering were supporters of Bahrain team.
Being the tournament’s third seeds, solid defense of Iran was completed with quick attack from its skippers which were unstoppable. Hadi Seyedniazi libero also played a major part in Iran regaining their dominance on the game.
As for Bahrain, being coached by former national team captain Reda Ali, they were not performing incompetent and kept fighting until the last point of the game.
Reda Ali was again pinning hopes on his rising volleyball star Mohammed Saleh Anan, who was also his team’s most influential player and had a major part in Bahrain’s previous victories.
Other spearheading of the team in red jerseys were skipper Mahmood Abdulwahed, Yousef Ebrahim, Sayed Kadhim, playmaker Abdulrahman Al Mutawa and libero Mohammed Hasan. By the fourth set, the race was on. Iran cruised to a win with one eye on the gold medal match-up with China.
After defeating Bahrain 3-1 (25-14, 21-25, 26-24 and 25-15).On Friday, Iran advanced to the finals
Iran’s coach, Farhad Nafarzadeh, in press conference after the match said: “In this phase game was hard and important for both teams. Since none of us had tasted the bitter defeat and they did not want to stop their running forward process by loss. Home team had especial motivation and did not want his fans to leave the hall with defeat. We started well and did not let them to do good performance. In the second set opponent showed double motivation and their risky services caused hardship for us and they got that set. This trend also continued in the 3rd set, but they committed some mistakes and it was good fortune for us and we controlled the play. Then Bahrain players from mentally point had less and couldn’t come back to the game. In the 4th set our players had come out from heavy atmosphere of the hall and performed their smooth play and lastly got the game. Bahrain lost today, but they showed they are a very good team, a very strong team,”
Bahrain’s coach Ali Ridha” admitted that his team was defeated by a very good team of Iran and continued;from point technique, tactic, physical and mental preparation they over than us.We played two very good sets. Iran has more experience than us. They are taller than us and they are strong. They know when they get to 20 points how to win a set. Victory in such game is difficult for us since the opponent had done good body building, in decision making points the y had better performance. I hope to take Bronze medal. ”
Final Ranking:
1 – Iran
2 – China
3 – South Korea
4 – Bahrain
5 – Japan
6 – Chinese Taipei
7 – Qatar
8 – Thailand
9 – India
10- Kazakhstan
11- Sri Lankaا
12- Saudi Arabia
Click Here: cheap all stars rugby jersey 13- Turkmenistan
14- New Zealand
15- Maldives
16- Uzbekistan
17- Hong Kong
18- Kuwait
Individual Awards
1st Best Outside Spiker – VALAEI Akbar from Iran
2nd Best Outside Spiker – KIA Runtao from China
Best Setter YU Yaochen frim China
Best Libero LEE Sanguk from Korea
1st Best Middle Blocker ALLAH VERDIAN Sahand from Iran
2nd Best Middle Player ZHANG Zhejia from China
Best Opposite Spiker MOHAMED SALEH ANAN from Bahrain
Most Valuable Player MANAVINEJHAD Mohammad Javad from Iran.