Nagano, Japan, October 5, 2019 – Iran edged a close encounter with Australia 3-1 (25-22, 18-25, 25-18, 27-25) at the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup on Saturday, Amir Ghafour steering them to consecutive victories with 18 points at Nagano White Ring arena.
Iran coach Igor Kolakovic: “The last set shows us that this was a really tough game, even though the first set wasn’t so dramatic. For us this was important because we finished the tough last set with victory, and it was also important for us that some young players took their place on the court. They played very well and I think they will take good experience from this game. (During) one period we didn’t control their (Australia’s) really good service, but fortunately they started to make a lot of mistakes with their service and it was easier for us to take side out, and in the end with a good block we controlled their good attack.”
Iran captain Mir Saeid Marouflakrani: “Both teams knew each other very well because in the last month we played each other three or four times, and they have good quality. I think today we were perfect in side-out and our reception worked very well. That helped us to win the sets and led to this good result.”
On tomorrow’s game against Brazil:
“I think the last two days we have been in good condition. We started (the tournament) badly, but everybody has been getting better. On the other hand we have to play Brazil, the best team in the world, so we need to go just to enjoy the game and not care about the result.”
On why he hasn’t played for the last two days:
“We have good players in our team. In each position we have young players, so I think this is strategy. We don’t know who will play tomorrow or the next days, but I think now our second setter (Javad Karimisouchelmaei) is playing very well. He has enough focus in the game. He played two games and we won these two games. I don’t know but I think we will continue like this.”
Australia coach Mark Lebedew: “I’m disappointed with today’s game because we didn’t have the same performance that we had yesterday. At the start of the match especially we were very slow to pay attention to different situations. We had a good period in the second (set), and the third set, if we play this 10 times we have to win this set 25-20 eight times. When you give so many extra opportunities to a team with the quality of Iran you have no chance to win. They had one service series at the end but we should already have won this set. The fourth set, ok, it’s close at the end, we have one chance, this one is fifty-fifty so we can’t talk too much about that. But really we should be 2-1 up and then everything is different. For this I’m disappointed. Tomorrow we have the chance to play again and we will have to play with more attention and more aggression also.”
Australia captain Max Staples: “Congratulations to Iran. We were up and down – we had periods in the match where we were controlling our side out really well, and normally in volleyball the team that is siding out the best is going to win the match eventually. I haven’t looked at the stats yet but I’m guessing Iran was probably better, and we just weren’t able to maintain our side out in the majority of the match. I think that’s what let us down a bit today. In the end it was down to two points, so it’s a close match. A lot of the time we have close matches with Iran. We played each other so many times in the last month, we know each other really well. They know what we’re doing, we know what they’re doing most of the time. It just comes down to who executes better on the day, and today it was Iran.
“Tomorrow we play Canada and we will try and win. That’s what we’re going to do tomorrow. We’re going to do our best, try to win every point, and then see what happens at the end.”