Iran eyeing decent start to VNL campaign
A long journey for Iran at the upcoming Volleyball Nations League will begin with a visit to Japan, where Behrouz Ataei’s men will take on the host in Nagoya on Tuesday.
Fixtures will come thick and fast in Week 1 of the event as Iran will also play Poland and China, before facing Slovenia at the Nippon Gaishi Hall on June 11.
Ataei named 15 players ahead of the flight to Japan though outside hitter Meysam Salehi remains a doubt for first week games as he is yet to fully recover from a shoulder injury he sustained while on club duty with Shahdab Yazd.
Seyyed Mohammad Mousavi, Mehdi Jelveh, Mohammad Valizadeh, Mohammad-Taher Vadi, Javad Karimi, Amin Esmaeilnejad, Ali Hajipour, Mohammadreza Hazratpour, Arman Salehi, Amirhossein Esfandiar, Morteza Sharifi, Pouria Hossein Khanzadeh, Shahrouz Homayounfarmanesh, and Mohammad-Javad Ma’navinejad are the other players in the squad.
Veteran Mousavi is back in the team for the first time since the disappointing run at the Tokyo Olympics and will take the captaincy role in the absence of Milad Ebadipour, who will miss the event for family reasons and an exhausting season with Italian club Allianz Milano.
Mousavi will also fill in for Amirhossein Toukhteh in the middle-blocker position, after the young Iranian was handed a one-year ban in March due to a positive doping test result.
“The team is in a proper shape after 45 days of training. I just wish we had more friendly games before the tournament,” said Ataei, whose team played Turkey twice in May and will face volleyball powerhouse France in Japan before the tournament gets underway.
The Iranian head coach said it will be important for his team to kick off its campaign on the front foot.
“Iran has often had a slow start in the previous editions of the tournament and we’ll be looking to have a decent opening [to the VNL run] this time. The first game against Japan, though, will be a tough one. They’ve had the best of preparation for the event, playing in nine friendly fixtures,” added Ataei.
Iran will be facing Japan for the fourth time in less than two years.
The Japanese came out on top in five sets in the Olympics to end Iran’s bid for a place in the knockout phase, but fell to a straight-set defeat at the final showpiece of the Asian Championships on their home soil months later as Ataei led his side to a fourth continental crown on his debut on Iran bench.
Japan then walked away with a victory in straight sets in week one of last year’s Volleyball Nations League.
Ataei’s side lost three of the first five games before a victory over USA in three sets sparked a run of five wins in seven outings to help Iran book a place in the VNL Finals.
Next Thursday’s encounter against European giant Poland will be a repeat of the two five-set thrillers last year, where Iran came out victorious in the preliminary round but suffered a heart-breaking defeat in the quarterfinals.
Iran also faced China and Slovenia last year, winning on both occasions.
Week 2 fixtures, starting June 20, will see Iran square off against Germany, Italy, USA, and the Netherlands in Rotterdam.
Iran will then fly to Anaheim, California, in the United States to face France, Bulgaria, and Argentina before the final game against Cuba on July 9.
The top seven of the 16-team table will join host Poland in the VNL Finals in Gdansk on July 19.