iran wins the final and it was not easy.they started brightly and won the first
set but had a mental lapse in the middle of the 2nd set and lost it.the 3rd set
was the easiest for iran and they won it with authority.but again they failed to
respond in the 4th set and lost it badly.the 5th set started by iran going up 3
points but they gave up the lead and had to concentrate and work hard to win
decisive set.i thought the coach did very good subs.his standard sub of the regular
setter and spiker with reserves after point 20 is spot on.#13 has been error less in
serving and is a good setter same with #16 in serving and both add more height
to blocking.he makes no errors.they go by stats and percentages when it comes down
to the final points so he is doing the right thing.
iran has virtually qualified since the number of wins is the first criteria.iran has 4 wins
and australia and china have 2 each with 2 matches remaining.they play the first game
tonight and one will be eliminated.all iran needs to do is to beat the win less venezuela in
the last match and they can book their tickets to rio.or beat the already qualified poland
tonight.i think the former is more likely.and even if they lose both matches they still have
better ratio than both china and australia at the moment and they need a miracle to catch
up with iran.
iran came playing poland with one mission and that is to beat them and qualify for the olympics.
poland helped them by inserting a few reserve players in their starting line up since they had
already qualified.france did the same earlier when they played with their reserves against
venezuela and only won 3-2.
poland was obviously not interested and they lost the first set easily to iran by making many service
errors and being sloppy on the attack.iran in contrast was laser focused on the match and the coach had
instructed his jump serving players to take a little off of it and go for accuracy.the second set had the same
outcome.poland did sub in their stars at some points in the set but they could not stop the iranians either.
the 3rd set saw a better service game by the polish team and the players had adjusted to the iranian tactics
and won it.the 4th set was pure class by iran.at that point poland was playing with intensity and for their pride.
they did not want to lose the match in that set.neither team managed to make more than a 3 point margin and
with some crucial challenges by iran they managed to win the marathon set 34-32 and secure their olympic berth.
again the coaching and the focus of the iranian players was superb in this match.it should be mentioned again that
they changed their service game and made the big hitting #2 and #6 go for service accuracy rather than power.
also iran coach started the reserve libero in this match and it paid off.at some points iran even played without a
libero on the court.
fivb has been very secretive about how the 4th berth will be awarded.it always maintained that the best asian team
will qualify no matter what but it has not been clear if another asian team places in the top 4 they qualify.
it seems that australia, canada and china are still in the hunt.so we may see 2 asian teams in the olympics after all.
iran reserves get a chance to duke it out against the venezulean reserves tonight which should provide them with good
experience for the real tournament in less that 80 days.