FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship:
Iran stunned by Egypt in Pool A opener
Iran and Italian head coach Roberto Piazza were given a reality check in their opening game at the FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship, suffering a 3-1 loss (17-25, 25-16, 23-25, 20-25) to Egypt in Pool A in Pasay City, Philippines, on Sunday.
Egyptian outside hitter Ahmed Shafik chipped in a game-high 18 points, with Abdelrahman Elhossiny (17 points) and Seif Abed (12) also finishing in double figures, as the African champion celebrated only its fifth win in 15 competitive meetings with the Asian powerhouse.
Prolific opposite-spiker Ali Hajipour topped the scoring chart for Iran with 17 points, followed by outside-hitter Pouria Hosseinkhanzadeh, who scored 12, while star outside-hitter and captain Morteza Sharifi had a quiet day at the SM Mall of Asia Arena with eight points.
“I really don’t know what to say. We lost today and we are very upset. We didn’t expect the result to turn out this way. We need to realize where we are; this tournament is the second-most important volleyball event in the world after the Olympics,” Sharifi said after the game.
We all need to wake up and understand what must be done from now on. I can only apologize to the dear people of Iran; I have nothing more to say except to ask for their forgiveness. We are all ashamed of today’s performance.
“Egypt started very well and without mistakes, while we were poor with our serves. We only realized where we were in the final set, which was too little too late. I hope we can make up for it in the upcoming games and not let the Iranian people down,” added the Iranian captain.
Asked if Iran still fancies its chances of advancing to the knockout phase, Sharifi said, “Nothing is certain yet, and we can still turn things around. Many top teams have also lost their opening game. God willing, we will be able to recover, though we won’t stand a chance if we keep playing the way we did today.”
Iran, which produced a decent run of performances under Piazza at the Volleyball Nations League preliminaries earlier in the summer – despite failing to progress to the quarterfinals – was widely regarded as the favorite to win the group, also featuring the Philippines and Tunisia, ahead of the World Championships. However, Piazza’s men will now have to bounce back from the first-day setback in their next two outings if they are to advance to the round of 16 as one of the top two in the group table.
Iran will be back in action on Tuesday against Tunisa, before taking on the host on Thursday.
Tunisa came out on top in straight sets (25-13, 25-17, 25-23) in the tournament’s curtain riser on Saturday.