Well, unless something happens, USA and Poland are going through but I am proud of how well Iran performed. We are in the toughest group with the World Cup of Volleyball champs, USA and the previous World FIVB champs Poland. Sometimes that happens but Kovac(or is it Kovacs Iran's coach who played for old Yugoslavia and won gold for them) is changing the culture of losing in Iran. We are no longer just happy to be here, we want to advance and on the world stage not just in Asia or in our home. We managed to get a point @ Poland and win one in our home plus beat USA and Russia away. We should beat Russia home and get some more points. Hopefully, more youth in Iran will now pick up volleyball it is another means other than football. If you make it in Poland, Italy or elsewhere in Europe, you can have quite a lucrative career. Same thing with basketball and I see great improvements in the last decade on our basketball program. The only one where we stayed stagnant is football.
Funny story about Kovac. We were supposed to get an American but he had a stop in Qatar on his flight and Qatar made him an offer he couldn't refuse so we ended up with Kovac. I'm glad because I don't think Qatar did well even in Asia. They are not in this tourney and I don' think they are close so we got the right guy. Plus, a Serbian is more likely to STAY in Iran vs an American, who is used to the western lifestyle. Now granted Qatar is also a Muslim country but you have a lot more freedoms there, especially as a foreigner than Iran. I could see why he wanted to stay in Qatar and why Kovac didn't mind taking the Iran job. We should forget about Western European or American coaches, CQ came because we gave him good money. We are more likely to have someone stay if they are from Eastern Europe and that person can develop our guys. What good does it do if we get an American or a guy from Poland, Germany, Italy etc and they bail two years later for a European team or USA?