Volleyball Nations League:
Iran out in preliminaries but fuels optimism for future
Iran’s bid for a coveted spot in the Volleyball Nations League Finals ended in vain, but the future remains bright for Italian head coach Roberto Piazza and his team.
On Sunday, star opposite Amin Esmaeilnejad chipped in a game-high 19 points as Iran swept Bulgaria in straight sets (25-17, 25-17, 25-16) in Gdansk to finish the preliminary round in the eighth place of the 18-team table with six wins in 12 outings.
Outside-hitter Amirhossein Esfandiar also had an excellent all-around performance in the Iranian outfit, delivering 14 points, with eight kills, four blocks and two aces.
The emphatic victory – coupled with defeats for the United States and Ukraine against Japan and Canada, respectively – briefly gave Iran a last-gasp hope for a place in the Finals, lifting Team Melli by seven spots in the table. However, Slovenia rallied from behind to edge out Serbia in a five-set thriller in Ljubljana later in the day and leapfrog Iran in the standings.
In fact, an eighth-place finish would have been enough for Iran to progress, had China – second from bottom in the preliminary table – not automatically qualified as the host of the VNL Finals, which start on July 30 in Ningbo.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re in or not, we always have to play our best volleyball,” Piazza said after Sunday’s victory. “We wanted to show that we can play at our level regardless of the pressure. I think we served very well and showed great discipline with our blocking.”
“It was amazing today because we played, I think, our best game in the tournament.
“Bulgaria won against Poland yesterday, so maybe they thought it would be easy against Iran, but that is a wrong mentality. I am really happy because our guys played in a way that we need to for a place in the top level of volleyball,” added the Italian, who was appointed to Iranian job in February.
Despite failing to secure a first VNL last-eight spot since 2022, Piazza’s team has definitely done enough to win over Iranian fans again – following a dire run of results over the past couple of years that saw Team Melli finish in the bottom three of the VNL table on two occasions and miss out on a berth for Paris Olympics last summer.
Next for Iran and Piazza, who set his sights on a strong Olympic campaign three years from now upon taking the Iranian role, is September’s FIVB World Championship in the Philippines, where the Asian powerhouse has been drawn into the same group as the host nation, Egypt, and Tunisia.