Iran’s Paykan Tehran v-ballers finish 4th in FIVB club tournament

Iran’s Paykan Tehran volleyball club has landed in the fourth place at the end of the 2015 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship in Brazil after losing to Argentina’s UPCN San Juan in its last showdown.

On Saturday evening, the Tehran-based squad suffered a 2-3 (25-21, 25-22, 20-25, 23-25 and 14-16) loss at the Ginásio Poliesportivo Divino Braga sport complex in the southeastern Brazilian city of Betim.

The Iranian volleyball players got off to a fine start, and took an early lead over the Argentines. Paykan Tehran’s Saman Faezi, Amir Ghafour, Valerio Vermiglio and Mojtaba Mirzajanpour featured convincing performances and took advantage of the opposite side’s weak points as the game progressed and eventually took the first set 25-21.

The Iranian sportsmen kept their composure as they returned to action. They maintained the lead with emphatic spikes and good defense, and claimed the second set 25-22.

The Iranians battled to win the third set and call it a day, but faced resistance by the Argentines, who availed of Paykan Tehran players’ individual mistakes to notch up points, and ultimately closed the set at 25-20.

Paykan Tehran initially bounced back as the match extended into the fourth set and was ahead by four or five points half way through the period, when UPCN San Juan athletes widened the gap, and recorded a close 25-23 win for Argentina.

The Argentinean side did not relinquish and continued its commendable performance in the fifth set, securing a last 16-14 win.

Peyman Akbari, Paykan Tehran’s coach, said after the match, “We sustained a very bad loss in the semifinals, and I think we were not psychologically ready today. Nevertheless, we were 2-0 ahead and my players thought they had it. We had beaten them 3-0 in a Pool B showdown, and maybe they thought it was going to be easy. But you need three sets to win, not two. We made mistakes from the third set onwards and that cost us the game.”

Fabián Armoa, UPCN San Juan’s coach, said, “They dominated us at the beginning, but then we ruled the game. It doesn’t matter how a match starts, it’s about how it ends. We tried to improve on attack with substitutions.

“We needed to be strong there to reduce the distance with Paykan. Luckily, it worked. I must say I always thought we might lose, but we kept struggling and managed to improve even when we were down,” he added.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s Sada Cruzeiro faced Russian volleyball club Zenit Kazan in the final match, and clinched the gold medal with a well-earned 3-1 (25-20, 21-25, 27-25 and 25-21) win.

The 2015 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship stared in Betim, Brazil, on October 27, and finished on October 31.

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