FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League:
Iran eases past Argentina, opens account in preliminaries
Iran defeated Argentina in straight sets (25-23, 25-19, 25-23) on Friday to get off the mark in Week 1 of the FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League in Brasília, Brazil.
Opposite spiker Ali Hajipour topped the scoring for Iran with 22 points, including three aces, while outside hitter Pouria Hosseinkhanzadeh added 19. Middle blocker Mohammad Valizadeh also made a valuable contribution with eight points.
Outside hitter Fausto Díaz was Argentina’s top scorer with 12 points, while opposite Germán Alfredo Gómez (11 points) and Luciano Vicentin (10) also finished in double figures.
The victory, Iran’s first in three matches, lifted Roberto Piazza’s side to 13th in the 18-team preliminary standings. Argentina, meanwhile, sits second from bottom after suffering its second defeat in as many matches.
“The players showed they could perform better than they had in the previous two matches,” Iran head coach Roberto Piazza said after the game, while acknowledging there was still room for improvement.
Iran began its preliminary-round campaign with a 3-1 defeat (25-21, 23-25, 25-15, 25-23) to South American powerhouse Brazil on Wednesday before a below-par performance saw Piazza’s side fall in straight sets (25-23, 25-19, 25-21) to Bulgaria the following day at the Nilson Nelson Gymnasium.
Asked what contributed to his team’s improvement from the previous two games, the Italian said: “Nothing special happened. We simply talked a little because the players need to believe that they are truly strong. But you can only be strong when you play together and perform as a team.”
“It was not a perfect performance, but we accepted certain mistakes. Yesterday and the day before, there were moments when we were genuinely ridiculous because we made errors that should never have happened, and that is not acceptable. Volleyball is part of life, and making mistakes is also part of life.”
Commenting on the performance of Iranian setter Arshia Behnejad, Piazza said: “Arshia was excellent today. He was excellent yesterday, and he was excellent two days ago as well. There is no problem — he just needs to keep going.
“Tomorrow we will rest, and on Sunday we have a tough opponent and a difficult match against Belgium. It will be a challenging game.”
Belgium also heads into the final day of Week 1 action with a 1-2 record, having beaten Bulgaria 3-1 in its opener before suffering back-to-back defeats to Brazil and Serbia, both in four sets.
Iran will travel to Orléans, France, for the second week of competition, beginning with a daunting test against the host nation and reigning Olympic champion France at the CO’Met Arena on June 24. That will be followed by matches against the United States (June 25), Japan (June 26) and Cuba (June 28).
The third and final week of the preliminary phase will see Iran — chasing its first VNL Finals appearance in four years — face Ukraine in Belgrade on July 15, followed by matches against Germany (July 16), Slovenia (July 17) and Türkiye (July 19).
The top eight teams in the 18-team standings will advance to the VNL Finals, which begin in Ningbo Beilun, China, on July 29. China has already secured a place in the quarterfinals as the host nation.