Piazza hails Iran’s winning mentality after Cuba sweep
Iran head coach Roberto Piazza praised his players for their winning mentality after they produced a dominant 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-22) victory over Cuba in their second match at the Ufa Cup in Russia on Saturday.
Piazza said Iran’s approach from the opening point played a key role in securing the victory, with his side establishing comfortable leads early in the second and third sets.
“The Iranian team really started well today. We entered the court with a mentality that showed we had come to win, and this was one of the keys to our success,” said the Italian, whose team suffered a 3-1 loss to European powerhouse Russia in its first game in the four-team tournament, which also features Belarus.
Piazza noted that Cuba had entered the match looking to avenge its previous defeat to Iran, when the teams met in the Volleyball Nations League preliminaries in June, and collect valuable world ranking points.
“The difference in this match was also related to the world ranking,” he said. “We had previously beaten Cuba in France and earned good ranking points from that victory. Cuba came into today’s match looking to make up for that result and earn points.”
According to Piazza, Cuba started with almost its strongest lineup, including star middle blocker Robertlandy Simón.
“Cuba started the match with almost its full-strength lineup, and Simón is a player of great importance to the team,” Piazza said. “However, they later decided to make changes to the lineup, which, in my opinion, was the result of an inappropriate mindset.”
The Italian coach emphasized that maintaining the right mentality was particularly important for Iran.
“This is not necessarily the same for every team, but having the right mentality is very important for us,” he said. “When we enter a match with this mentality, we can start the game very well.”
Iran raced to an 8-2 lead in the second set and opened the third with a 7-2 advantage, putting itself firmly in control on both occasions.
“These starts show that Iran has the ability to score several points in a row and build an advantage from the beginning of a set,” Piazza said. “In our current situation, this is the most important thing for us,” added the Italian, whose side endured a dire VNL campaign, suffering nine defeats in 12 outings to finish 14th in the 18-team preliminary-round standings.
Piazza’s men are preparing for the upcoming Asian Championships, which will kick off Sept. 4 in Kitakyushu, Japan.
As if Iran needed extra motivation to chase a fifth continental title in eight editions and avenge its 2023 final heartbreak against Japan on home soil, an Olympic qualification berth will also be on the line, with the champion securing direct qualification for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Iran will get its Pool B campaign underway against New Zealand on the opening day of the competition, before taking on India on Sept. 6 and China on Sept. 9.
The tournament will be followed by the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, which begin on Sept. 19, with Iran looking to secure a fourth successive men’s volleyball gold at the multi-sport event.