Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship:
Foolad, Shahdab set all-Iranian date in the final
Foolad Sirjan and Shahdab Yazd will square off in an all-Iranian final showpiece at the Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship in Yazd’s Shahediyeh Indoor Hall today.
On Friday, Foolad, steered by former Iran head coach Behrouz Ataei, came from behind to beat a star-studded Jakarta Bhayangkara Presisi in a five-set thriller (25-22, 23-25, 22-25, 25-21, 16-14) to reach the final.
Opposite spiker Ali Hajipour was Foolad’s top scorer for the day with 25 points, followed by Iranian international outside-hitter Amirhossein Esfandiar, who contributed with 24.
World-class opposite Jean Patry, who won the Olympic gold on home soil in August, chipped in a game-high 31 points for the Indonesian side, with his fellow-French star Earvin N’Gapeth finishing on 16 points.
“I was glad to see my team somehow pull off the victory despite not having its best day. The final game against Shahdab will be a much different contest as there will be no more mental pressure on the players, though the match is still going to be a grueling one,” Ataei said after the game.
Earlier in the day, Shahdab came out on top against Pavlodar VC of Kazakhstan in straight sets (25-21, 25-20, 25-19) to improve on the semifinal defeat in last year’s edition in Manama.
Shahdab’s Iranian opposite Amir Ghafour and Pakistani outside-hitter were the joint-top scorers of the game with 14 points, with Mikhail Ustinov scoring 13 for Pavlodar.