Iran defeats Puerto Rico by 3-1 on fourth day of FIVB Men's World Olympic Qualifying Tournament
The fourth day of the FIVB Men’s World Olympic Qualifying Tournament started on June 6, Wednesday.
The capital of Japan played host to the teams that competed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gym. One of the matches took place between Iran and Puerto Rico that took four sets to determine the Iranians as the victors.
The match was highly competitive as both the teams out in their best. Only the second set of the game was one sided whereas the rest saw the score remain close throughout. The score board showed the following final set scores, 26-24, 25-16, 22-25 and 25-20.
The coach of the Iranian squad, Julio Velasco, expressed his satisfaction over the performance of his team in the following words, “It was tough for our players today after the loss to Australia yesterday. We won the first set in difficult circumstances
and then played better after that.”
On the other hand, the Puerto Rican coach Carlos Cardona shared his views in the following manner, “We have tried our best in the tournament. We had chances to win the first set. We did win the fourth set. After that our errors increased and our attacks
decreased.”
Ezequiel Cruz of Puerto Rico gave his team something to be proud of by earning the title of top scorer of the match as he tallied 14 points. Cruz was helped by his team mate Juan Figueroa who put up 12 points. The most active players from the winning side
were Alireza Nadi and Amir Ghafour as they both scored 13 points for Iran.
The lead in the first set was secured by Puerto Rico at 5-4 but Iran managed to pull ahead at 10-9. The Puerto Ricans were leading again at 20-17 and the match got competitive as the Iranians stepped up their game and brought the score close. Finally, Iran
was able to land its hands on the opening set at 26-24.
Iran was able to smoother their rivals in the second set but Puerto Ricans managed to avoid a sweep by winning the third one. However, the fourth set became the final one as the Iranians took it at 25-20.
The match has enabled the Iranians to secure three wins at the cost of one loss so far in the tournament while the Puerto Ricans have not been able to muster even a single victory yet.
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