Iran sweeps India to play 5th place match: FIVB Men's Junior World Championship
Iran and India clashed against each other on the 9th of August in the final round of the FIVB Men's Junior World Championship. The match of the two Asian sides took place at the Maracanazinho Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro. The contest was held to
determine the team that will be playing the 5th place match. The Iranians were able to make a clean sweep over their opponents and the next in line for the Iranians will either be the Brazilians or the Spanish depending on the outcome of the Brazil/Spain
clash.
The first set of the match was completely dominated by the Iranians and the Indians could not make much head way with their game. However, India picked up speed in the second set but it was not enough to overtake the Iranian side. The third set of the game
was also contested but the Indians with determination but they failed to give themselves a winning chance and lost to the Iranians at the following final set scores: 11-25, 22-25 and 21-25.
The coach of the Iranian, Jovica Cvetkovic, team expressed himself in the following words at the press conference conducted after the match: “Iran and India know each other very well. It has being very tough for us not playing the semi finals, but this is
where we are now, so we will try our best next match to finish 5th.”
Whereas the Indian coach, M.H. Kumara, had the following statements to give: “Iran is a power in Youth and Junior categories as they have dominated Asia for the last ten years. We played against them many times and lost most of them. Perhaps that stayed
in the players’ minds. We started the match very bad and their setter played very well.”
The Iranians were able to get the lead early on in the first set of the game. Once they had the lead, they speeded and the Indians could not do much to stop their progress. As a result, it was only a matter of time before the Iranians won the opening set
at 25-11.
India managed to step up their game with the onset of the second set and got a lead at 7-3. However, the Iranians did not let the Indians stretch their advantage too far and got a tie at 16-16. After a couple of lead changes, Iran was again heading towards
a set win at 25-22.
The third set of the game went tight and the match was ties at 14-14 but the Iranians got the lead at 16-14 and did not relinquish it till the end at 25-21.
The player that was able to top all scorers was the Iranian Amir Ghafour, tallying 26 points while the Indian T.D. Ravikumar registered 12 points, the highest in his team.
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