Asian Girls’ U18 Volleyball Championship:
Iran coach Qahremani rues ‘individual errors’ in Philippines defeat
Iran head coach Akram Qahremani attributed her side’s opening defeat at the Asian Girls’ U18 Volleyball Championship to “individual errors,” saying the Iranian team lacks experience in official international competition.
Iran opened its Pool C campaign in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, with a 3-1 defeat (25-19, 19-25, 25-23, 25-18) to the Philippines on Wednesday.
“Our biggest problem was the players’ individual mistakes, and we also had difficulties with our serving. The team committed too many service errors,” Qahremani said after the match.
The Iranian coach noted that the Philippines entered the tournament with a competitive advantage after taking part in the Princess Cup in Thailand, which was held ahead of the Asian Championship.
“The Philippines had already played several matches at the competition venue, whereas our team had only one hour of training in the hall. That made them more cohesive and better organized than us during the match,” she said.
Qahremani added that her team had not had enough warm-up matches ahead of the tournament and said the coaching staff would focus on reducing individual errors before today’s fixture against Indonesia.
“Unfortunately, we did not have many preparation matches. We will work on minimizing the players’ individual mistakes and, based on our analysis of Indonesia, prepare the team for tomorrow’s match.”
Iran will conclude the preliminary round against record nine-time champion Japan on Friday.
The top two teams from each of the four pools will advance to the quarterfinals, while the remaining sides will compete in the 9th-16th place classification matches.
Iran recorded its best finish in eight appearances at the previous edition, placing sixth in 2024.