Paykan Tehran v-ballers lose to Brazil team in FIVB tournament

Iran’s Paykan Tehran volleyball club has conceded a bitter defeat in the semi-final round of the 2015 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship in Brazil, losing the match to the host country’s Sada Cruzeiro.

On Friday evening, the Contagem-based squad picked up a homeland victory and won the match at the Ginásio Poliesportivo Divino Braga sport complex in the southeastern Brazilian city of Betim in consecutive sets (25-19, 25-17 and 25-17).

Brazilians opened the game in a very convincing fashion, remaining consistent and taking an early lead.

They availed themselves of the Iranians’ individual mistakes to notch up points, and despite some fight back from Paykan Tehran players to overcome their deficit and level the points, Sada Cruzeiro managed to grab the first set 25-19.

The Brazilian team, spurred by the cheering crowd at the sports hall, continued to exert its spell of pressure on the visitors. Paykan Tehran’s coach Payman Akbari fielded a number of new players to change the course of the action, but the hosts kept momentum to win the second set 25-17.

Sada Cruzeiro outfit continued to chip away in the third set, and rolled to a 25-17 win.

“They played very well today and showed their strength. We couldn’t play as we used to and I think our mindset was the reason. If you go for the win, you must offer full potential for that... We were not completely ready for the match, and in the end they were better than us,” Akbari, the Paykan Tehran coach, said after the match.

Paykan Tehran player Nikolay Nikolov said, “I want to congratulate Sada Cruzeiro for their victory and wish them good luck. We couldn’t show our skills as we did in the previous games. Our main weakness today was that we couldn’t serve well, allowing Sada Cruzeiro to have a really good reception and many offensive options. It was really difficult for us to stop them.”

 “I always say that when a team defends well, they are showing their desire to win. Today, we defended a lot. We also worked very well on service and blocking-defense. We could neutralize a very good team; we were consistent enough to do it,” commented Marcelo Méndez, the Sada Cruzeiro coach.

Paykan Tehran volleyball players will return to action on Saturday as they will take on Argentine UPCN Vóley Club in the third place contest. Sada Cruzeiro will face Russian volleyball club Zenit Kazan in the final showdown.

The 2015 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship stared in Betim, Brazil, on October 27, and will finish on October 31.

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