Iran beats Egypt in straight-sets win in FIVB World Cup

The Iranian men's national volleyball team has trounced Egypt in straight sets in the third round of the 2015 Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) World Cup in Japan.

On Wednesday, the Iranian outfit ended its campaign at the prestigious sporting event by seeing off the North African side 3-0 (25-18, 25-11, 25-23) at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in the Japanese capital.

Iranian volleyball players started the match vigorously, and notched up points before both teams went into the second technical timeout 16-12.

The Iranians took advantage of the opposite side’s mistakes, and dug and spiked effectively to surge ahead. They won the first set 25-18.

The Iranian team maintained its dominant performance in the second set and kept the Egyptian side from scoring with a good defense. Iranian middle blocker Saman Faezi helped his side earn points. The Iranian athletes led by ten points (16-6) at the second technical timeout. The Persians eventually grabbed the second set 25-11.

The Egyptian volleyball players put on a better display at the beginning of the third set to record an 8-5 lead at the first technical timeout.

The Iranian sportsmen, however, managed to regain the lead and it was the Persians that powered through at the end. The Iranian team ultimately won 25-23 and ended the game.

“The only positive thing is that we finished with a victory. We have to try and understand our problems because our first competition next year is the Olympic qualification in Japan. I know my team is better so, we’ll try to prepare as well as possible and be ready for qualification,” Iran coach Slobodan Kovac said in the post match news conference.

“Actually, we would have liked to have finished the competition with a win, but most of the players, especially the younger players, lost their concentration today,” Egypt coach Nehad Shehata said.

The 2015 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup started in Japan on September 8, and finished on September 23.

The tournament was a qualification process for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The top two teams qualified for the Olympics and joined Brazil, which has already secured a berth as the host country.

The US volleyball team collected 30 points and was named the top-ranked squad. Kazakhs occupied the second place with one point less, and third-place Poles also bagged 29 points. Iran finished in the eighth place with 12 points from four victories and seven defeats.

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