Iran's national volleyball team has defeated the Japanese side in the FIVB Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, failing to qualify for London Olympics.
Iran's national volleyball team has defeated the Japanese side in the FIVB Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, failing to qualify for London Olympics.
Iranian volleyball players put in a remarkable performance on the final day of the tournament at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Sunday and came in third, however the victory was not enough to book their flight to London 2012 Games.
Australia joined Serbia who booked their place in the Olympics as champions with an impressive seven wins out of seven.
Iran had earlier defeated South Korea, China, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, but fallen against Serbia and Australia.
"I want to congratulate my players because it was not easy to play this match. We were sad because we didn’t qualify for the Olympics and Japan were sad for the same reason, so we had to play for pride, for our federation, for our work. I asked the players not to be upset. I told them that playing in this atmosphere in Japan with its history of volleyball, we have to enjoy it and that’s what they did," FIVB website quoted Iran's coach Julio Velasco as saying.
"We did very well with our tactics, especially with our serve and block. We used our serve in a tactical way – not only with power – and we changed the block for the important attackers of Japan. And our defence played better in counterattack than Japan. I told my players they shouldn’t complain. This is a group that can grow up and I hope next time we can qualify for the Olympic Games," he added.