2013 Asian Club Championship - Iran

The top men’s volleyball clubs in Asia will gather in the capital city of Iran next week to compete for the 2013 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship title and the chance to attend the World Club Championships in October.

The championship – which runs from April 21 to 29 – will begin with 14 teams divided into four pools. After the preliminary round, the top two teams from each pool will advance to the classification round to decide their rankings. The teams who have already played among each other in the previous round will not play again, but the result will be brought for the consideration of their rankings.

Pool divisions are as follows:

Defending champion Qatar, who defeated host China in a nail-biting final match last year and took home the gold medal for first ever time, will certainly meet strong challenge from the host team in this tournament. Iran is the team with the most wins in the Asian Club Championship, with eight titles in the past 13 editions between 2002 and 2011. Kaleh is also expected to take advantage of being on home ground to win the back the title and keep the cup at home.

Iran has a long history of hosting various Asian volleyball competitions. In addition to hosting the AVC Club Championship in 2002, 2004 and 2013, Iran has also hosted the men’s U-19 Asian Championship (2005), Asian Junior Men’s Championships (2006 and 2008], Asian Youth Boys Championship (2010), Asian Men’s Cup (2010) and Asian Senior Men’s Championship (2011).

Schedule of the preliminary round:

April 21

09:00 Lebanon vs. India

11:00 Uzbekistan vs. Iraq

13:00 Kuwait vs. United Arab Emirates

15:00 Oman vs. Kazakhstan

17:00 Chinese Taipei vs. Iran

19:00 Maldives vs. Japan

April 22

09:00 Qatar vs. Uzbikstan

11:00 Kuwait vs.Chinese Taipei

13:00 China vs. Lebanon

15:00 Kazakhstan vs. Japan

17:00 United Arab Emitates vs. Iran

19:00 Oman vs. Maldives

April 23

09:00 Chinese Taipei vs. United Arab Emirates

11:00 Iraq vs. Qatar

13:00 India vs. China

15:00 Maldives vs. Kazakhstan

17:00 Iran vs. Kuwait

19:00 Japan vs. Oman

Quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals will be held on April 27 through 29.

Tehran, Iran, 23 April, 2013 – Kaleh of Iran, Al-Rayyan of Qatar, Liaoning of China and Almaty of Kazakhstan topped their respective pools at the preliminary round of the 2013 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championships here on Tuesday.

Natural Gas Cooperation of India, power of Chinese Taipei, South Gas of Iraq, and Toyoda Gosei Trefuef of Japan will join the pool leaders in the top eight in the classification round. The pools’ third and fourth finishers --Uzbekistan, Maldives, Al–AIN of United Arab Emirates, Jeunesse Baouchrieh of Lebanon and Saham of Oman -- will fight for ranks from 9th -13th.

The most exciting match of the day is the encounter between China and India in Pool C, and Liaoning of China finally edged Natural Gas Cooperation of India 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-20, 25-16) in almost two hours.

Though falling behind, Natural Gas Cooperation fought aggressively with powerful attack as well as effective serving, which helped India won the second set and were leading also in the third set before the score were tie 10 .Then Chinese players strengthened their defense with saves and came into lead at 15-14. After the second technical timeout, China tried hard to maintain the lead until the end of the third set. With 2-1 lead, China played even more relaxed and with more confidence. China led 8-4 in the first technical timeout and then increased the lead with big margins.

Chinese head coach Sui Shensheng in press conference after the match said “Both team did their best. We did not play as well as we did yesterday. However, Indian did not put much pressure on us. They were good at services and attacks but committed some errors in their attack.”

In Pool A, Power team from Chinese Taipei clinched a crucial match by beating Al-Ain of Emirates 3-1( 5-27,25-21,25-19,25-23), to place second of the pool and entered the top eight.

Though having three foreign players in its line-up, Al-Ain made many errors in their attacking and lack of team combination

Rys Grzegorz, head coach of Al-Ain of UAE said “We did better in comparison with yesterday. It was a good match, but there was less time for recovery of my players. In spike we had more mistakes, we committed 17 errors in spike.”

Chinese Taipei head coach Yu Ching-Fang said “UAE is a good team. We did not work well in attack at first set, so we lost. But we changed our attack system. We put more concentration on reception. Our attacker spiked from both sides of the net and blocked middle spikes of UAE.”

In Pool D, stronger Almaty of Kazakhstan beat the weaker opponents Maldives with ease in straight sets25-11,25-16,25-17. But Toyoda Gosei Trefuef of Japan had to rally from a 1-2 deficit to earn a ticket to the next round with a tiebreaker fifth set 25-22,21-25,22-25,29-27,15-10.

Japan played steadily in the first set and took it with solid and powerful spikes. Their opponents rallied back to take the next two sets, putting Japan in a very critical situation. Japanese players, however, did not lose their confidence and tried their utmost to take the fourth and fifth set.

Head Coach of Toyoda said “We were lucky to win and stay among the top eight. Today Oman played well and did good services.”

Saeed JUMA, head coach of SAHAM team from OMAN said “Today we played against strong team of Japan. Generally it was a good match. Japan’s blocks over the net were wonderful and this action caused disorder in our team and it was main reason of our loss.”

In Pool B, Al-Rayyan of Qatar also had to play five sets to beat their pool last rival Iraq to place first of the pool to enter the next round. They rallied from the first sets down to grab the next three sets to win the hard-fought match3-2(23-25,18-25,25-22,25-18,15-8]

Travica Ljubomir , Serbian head coach of Qatar, said “Our service and reception was not good at first, but we changed it. High spirit , support and coverage of each other in the court helped us to win a five set match.”

The complete pool results and rankings:

Pool A

Iran bt. Chinese Taipei 3-0 (32-30, 25-22, 25-17)

Iran bt United Arab Emirates3-0 (25-16,25-16,25-19)

Chinese Taipei bt. UAE 3-1( 25-27,25-21,25-19,25-23)

Rankings: 1.Iran, 2. Chinese Taipei, 3.United Arab Emirates

Pool B

Iraq bt. Uzbekistan 3-1 (21-25, 25-16, 25-16, 25-16)

Qatar bt. Uzbekistan 3-0 (25-12,26-24,25-18]

Qatar bt. Iraq 3-2 (23-25,18-25,25-22,25-18,15-8]

Rankings: 1.Qatar, 2. Iraq, 3. Uzbekistan

Pool C

India bt. Lebanon 3-1 (25-20, 22-25, 25-21, 33-31).

China bt. Lebanon 3-0 (25-15, 25-15,25-18]

China bt. India 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-20, 25-16)

Rankings: 1. China, 2. India, 3. Lebanon.

Pool D

Kazakhstan bt. Oman 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 25-19)

Japan bt. Maldives 3-0 (25-10,25-9,25-18]

Kazakhstan bt. Japan 3-0 (25-20,25-23,25-20)

Oman bt. Maldives 3-1(25-17,27-29,25-16,25-17)

Kazakhstan bt. Maldives 3-0(25-11,25-16,25-17)

Japan bt. Oman 3-2 (25-22,21-25,22-25,29-27,15-10)

Rankings: 1. Kazakhstan, 2. Japan, 3. Oman, 4. Maldives

What is going on in Iran? Tournament began on 21 May as in rules, Today should end but today are quarterfinals.

First Semifinalist is Team from Iraq which eliminated India. Iraq was close to beat Champion of Qatar so good progress there.

Finałowe rozstrzygnięcia:

Mecz o pierwsze miejsce: Kaleh (Iran) - Al-Rayyan (Katar) 3:0
(25:22, 25:17, 25:21)

Mecz o trzecie miejsce: Power (Taipei) - Liaoning (Chiny) 3:0
(25:22, 25:23, 25:13)

Mecz o piąte miejsce: Ałamaty (Kazachstan) - Toyoda Gosei Trefuef (Japonia) 3:1 (25:20, 17:25, 25:17, 25:23)

Mecz o siódme miejsce: South Gas (Irak) - Natural Gas Cooperation (Indie) 3:2 (25:23, 25:27, 25:20, 22:25, 15:8]

Końcowa klasyfikacja:

1. Kaleh (Iran)
2. Al-Rayyan (Katar)
3. Power (Chiny Taipei))
4. Liaoning (Chiny)
5. Almaty (Kazachstan)
6. Toyoda Gosei Trefuef (Japonia)
7. South Gas (Irak)
8. Natural Gas Cooperation (Indie)
9. Saham (Oman)
10. Al-Ain (Zjednoczone Emiraty Arabskie)
11. Uzbekistan
12. Jeunesse Baouchrieh (Liban)
13. Malediwy

Nagrody indywidualne :
MVP:Hamzeh Zarini (Kaleh)
Najlepszy libero : Fan Weikong (LIaoning)
Najlepiej rozgrywający: Vlado Petkovic (Kaleh)
Najlepiej serwujący: Farhad Ghaemi (Kaleh)
Najlepiej blokujący: Seyed Mohammad Mousavi Eraghi (Kaleh)
Najlepiej atakujący: Chien-Feng Huang(Power)
Najlepiej punktujący: Bozhulev Maikl Sanches(Ai-Rayyan)