AVC Men’s Champions League:
Foolad undone by Osaka Bluteon in semis
Foolad Sirjan’s bid for a third Asian crown in four years finished in vain as the Iranian champion suffered a a 3-1 (25-19, 19-25, 25-18, 25-19) last-four defeat against Osaka Bluteon at the revamped AVC Men’s Champions League in Kyoto, Japan, on Saturday.
Cuban outside-hitter Miguel Angel Lopez stole the show for the home-favorites with a game-high 24 points, while Japanese sensation Yuji Nishida chipped in 18, including three aces.
French superstar Earvin Ngapeth delivered his best performance yet for Foolad in Japan with 20 points, followed by middle-blocker Javier Octavio Concepcion and Iranian outside-hitter Amirhossein Esfandiar, who finished on 11 points apiece.
Awaiting the Japanese side in today’s final showpiece is Qatari side Al Rayyan.
Dutch opposite-spiker Nimir Abdel-Aziz contributed with a remarkable 40 points, including five serve points, to help Al Rayyan come from behind twice to beat Suntory Sunbirds Osaka 3-2 (22-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-23, 17-15) in the other semifinal on Saturday.
Slovenian Tine Urnaut played his part in the thrilling victory with 12 points.
Russian opposite Dmitriy Muserskiy was Suntory’s top scorer with 30 points, with Japanese duo Ran Takahashi and Taishi Onodera adding 20 and 13 points, respectively.
A bronze medalist in last December’s Club World Championship in Brazil, Foolad will be looking to finish its campaign with some consolation when taking on Suntory in the third-place contest earlier.
Foolad got off to a shaky start in the competition, laboring to a 3-2 win against Thailand’s Nakhon Ratchasima QminC in their Pool C opener, and then went on to beat Taichung Bank of the Chinese Taipei to progress to the quarterfinals as the group winner.
Behrouz Ataei’s side rallied past Shanghai Bright of China 3-1 (24-26, 25-21, 28-26, 25-23) in the quarterfinals.