Iran’s rejuvenated volleyball roster ended up tenth in the Volleyball Nations League after beating Germany in a five-set thriller on Monday at the Azadi Sports Complex in Tehran.
The victory marked the third home win for the team as it beat the Germans 3-2 (25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-11) having earlier defeated South Korea and Bulgaria.
Although Germany lost the match, it finished ninth on the ranking table, one above Iran.
Igor Kolakovic, Iran’s national team coach, used Saeid Marouf, Milad Ebadipour, Ali Shafiei, Saman Faezi, Morteza Sharifi and Saber Kazemi in the starting line-up of the fixture.
Winning two sets each, the Iranians fought tooth and nail in the fifth set and overpowered the visitors to celebrate their third domestic win and their last game in the tournament.
Germany’s coach Andrea Giani praised the Iran team and the fans after his first experience at the sprawling Azadi Stadium in northwest Tehran.
Captain Marouf who believes the team played well said, “In my opinion, we had one of the most beautiful matches of the tournament.” Talking to the press after the final game he said, “Both the game and the stadium atmosphere were unexpectedly good.”
Iran’s volleyball legionnaire of the Poland league Ebadipour with 23 points was the top scorer in the clash followed by teammate Sharifi (22 points); both supported by the talented teenager Kazemi (15 points).
National team wrapped up its career in the tournament with seven wins and eight losses in 15 fixtures. Defeating powerhouse Poland 3-0 was among its best performances.
Although finishing tenth and not qualifying for the final round of the games (the top six teams went through), Iranian giants moved one-step forward compared to the last year Volleyball World League in Brazil where they finished 11th. The title of the games has been changed to Volleyball Nations League this year.
Last year, Marouf was the third best setter and Ebadipour was fourth on the table of best diggers. Data for the current tournament was not available.
France, Russia, the US, Serbia, Brazil and Poland are qualified for the next round of competitions for winning the title. France is the title holder.
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