Iran volleyball team falls to Brazil in straight sets at FIVB Volleyball World Grand Champions Cup

The national Iranian men’s volleyball team has suffered its first loss at the 2017 Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Volleyball World Grand Champions Cup, going down to top-ranked side in the world, Brazil, in straight sets.

On Friday, the Iranian squad faced the Brazilians in a fixture at Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium in the south-central Japanese city of Osaka, and conceded a 0-3 defeat.

Iranian volleyball players put in convincing performances throughout the first two sets, but did not manage to overcome the South American powerhouse, and ceded the periods 25-22 and 25-19.

Even though Persians tried very hard in the third set to change the course of the game, their efforts to prevail over Brazilians did not pay off as they took the set by 25 points to 15.

Wallace De Souza and Lucas Saatkamp led Brazil in its win over Iran. Wallace finished with 15 points, while Lucas got 14.

Milad Ebadipour scored only nine points for the Iranian outfit and Amir Ghafour garnered seven.

“Congratulations to Brazil for a great game. Today, I think we lost energy from the middle of the second and third sets. Each game was interesting but I think at those moments in the second and third sets Brazil started to play unbelievable defense and great counter-attack. We just didn’t have the energy we had against the USA. Maybe we lost a lot of energy in our first two games, but I think Brazil put us under pressure with their high quality,” Iran’s coach Igor Kolakovic said after the match.

Iranian captain Mir Saeid Marouflakrani said, “Congratulations to Brazil. Today was not our day. If you can’t get a side-out, it’s not possible to play Brazil. They were so strong. In such a situation, it’s hard to play them. Now, we must forget this and focus on tomorrow. We always have tough games against Japan. They play very good volleyball, so we must stay focused for the whole game.”

“Today was a very important win. Prior to the match, I had doubts because Iran played great volleyball and gave their opponents a tough time in their previous two games. They play speedy volleyball and serve well. Today, their blocking was good and they have a good defensive system. They also have one of the best setters in the world. I thought it would be difficult to fully mark their attacks and we had to watch out for their counter-attacks, so that’s why I am pleased we could win. Our service, blocking and defense were all good today, so we were able to contain Iran’s speedy attacks,” Brazil’s coach Renan Dal Zotto commented.

Brazilian captain Bruno Rezende said, “Today was our best performance in the tournament so far. The way we played against Italy was really frustrating. Today, we were able to concentrate I think we showed greater maturity. There were big points out there and we were able to win those. Also, we felt good out there and could play more in our Brazilian style. Tomorrow, we play a strong United States team, so hopefully we’ll play even better and win again.”

The national Iranian men’s volleyball team is scheduled to play against the Japanese squad in its next match on Saturday.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk