2019 Asian Senior Men's Volleyball Championship (20th edition, in Iran)

    Quote from mosi

    Yes. there is a limit of 16. even though those teams do not participate all the time. you always have some of them in the tournament. I think we had 20 teams at the Asian Games. it could be more here without that limit.


    PAK and TPE aren't "that" bad. they can surprise top Asian teams in a good day, they never win (at least not yet) though but they can take 1-2 sets. if all teams send their A squad. we usually end up with top 5 (IRN, JPN AUS KOR CHN) in top 5 places.

    I don't follow Asian volleyball that much for the pure reason that it is not widely broadcast and/or some of the teams not always play with A squads. The one time I watched Pakistan more closely, though, was when they arrived in Sofia for the last Olympic qualifier in 2012. And believe me, regardless of their results, they showed they can play some volleyball. There were situations in the match against Bulgaria when they did whatever they wanted on the court, especially attacks in the middle. They fought with Egypt till the very end of the three sets and then, despite France being mentally down and still overcoming the disappointing defeat against Stocyhev's Bulgaria back then (different times, right?), Pakistan stole a set against the French. They don't have so much quality as to win, and as mosi emphasized, they will hardly make it all the way even in Asia, but they can be dangerous.


    My experience with Chinese Taipei comes pretty much down to Taichung Bank. They can also play some volleyball :)


    There is another aspect that you will probably have difficulties finding videos and scouting such teams and it must've played a role, but both aren't that bad indeed.

    Quote from YavorD

    I don't follow Asian volleyball that much for the pure reason that it is not widely broadcast and/or some of the teams not always play with A squads. The one time I watched Pakistan more closely, though, was when they arrived in Sofia for the last Olympic qualifier in 2012. And believe me, regardless of their results, they showed they can play some volleyball. There were situations in the match against Bulgaria when they did whatever they wanted on the court, especially attacks in the middle. They fought with Egypt till the very end of the three sets and then, despite France being mentally down and still overcoming the disappointing defeat against Stocyhev's Bulgaria back then (different times, right?), Pakistan stole a set against the French. They don't have so much quality as to win, and as mosi emphasized, they will hardly make it all the way even in Asia, but they can be dangerous.


    My experience with Chinese Taipei comes pretty much down to Taichung Bank. They can also play some volleyball :)


    There is another aspect that you will probably have difficulties finding videos and scouting such teams and it must've played a role, but both aren't that bad indeed.

    Iran and Pakistan used to be in the same level, I remember those days, that wasn't 40 years ago, we used to have some Pakistani players in our league but they just can't improve more than this without investing money and without having a pro league. simply impossible. they know volleyball, they can play good sometimes but this is their ceiling right now.


    It was a terrible idea for Iran to host the event, there is absolutely no interest about it here, even for important matches the stadium is half empty, even players don't care, that pissed of Kolakovic few times. I think the problem is Iran federation did nothing to promote the event, there is no proper volleyball federation in Iran right now, there is no president, only a temp guy who doesn't care and doesn't answer to anything.


    the TV coverage is also pretty bad for this tournament, no TV coverage even inside Iran, except for the Iran NT matches, I could watch some matches because the stadium is not that far from me (both stadiums actually, they are right next to each other in the same complex) I really liked Sri Lanka here, nobody takes Sri Lanka serious because they are simply Sri Lanka but they almost took a set from Iran, almost took a set from Australia, they beat Kazakhstan. and I think they could beat some of top 8 teams. (they had beaten Chinese Taipei before though)


    except for Europe where the continental Championship is already important, it seems they have to make to some changes to make other continental Champs interesting. this is a terrible idea to have another tournament between exactly the same teams (well top 8 actually) as the Olympic qualifier.


    and for the tournament itself, that fight in the last set between Iran and Korea was shameful , Kolakovic even apologized for the behavior of his players. (even though it was from the both sides) they even stopped the match for something like 10-15 minutes because after multiple red cards they didn't know which team should serve ! :!:

    based on what I saw in the tournament, Australia will be the favorite for the gold tomorrow but it's just hard to believe Iran will lose twice to Australia at home. I think they will find a way to beat Edgar and co.

    mosi, i think the interruption was for about 5 minutes, or less, i know it felt like an eternity, the official at the table even walked over to check the video replay. as i said, i thought both teams should have been penalized, but i think only KOR lost a point.


    sorry to go on the same rant, but this is one of the reasons some of us prefer the women's game. less of this stupidity.


    i noticed SRL beat KAZ but then KAZ is always a mess... and they are the defending silver medalists!


    you made me go back and check the teams that were in the asian games... you were right, there were 20 teams. i had forgotten about that total nonsensical system of how they determined which teams advanced to the next round. none of that ever made sense, it managed to be worse than the 2010 WCh.


    as for the stands, i noticed that it was (of course) very segregated, with a small women's section all the way at the top. but it also seemed that there were sections for foreigners, and in those sections, it was mixed.


    as for the empty halls, it's a total shame. why bother to host it if you're not even going to give out free tickets? the women's WCup going on right now at least has some good attendance. i hear many matches of the euro men's Ch right now are also somewhat empty.

    as for yavor's observations about the quality of the lesser-known teams, it reiterates the ridiculous distribution of teams in the last few editions of the men's WCh. asia had only 4 spots, so JPN was out of 2014, KOR out of 2018. whereas norceca had too many spots in 2018 (6?). africa had 3 and i think they could do with 2 to be honest...

    Add the other message:

    Marouf said, "Chinese male volleyballers are lack of the opportunity that they participates in some important matches." Raul Lozano hope that Team China could get the opportunity. Chinese League doesn't give it completely.


    I just saw Liu Li-bin's success in Japan.

    Therefore, I am waiting for Li Run-ming (Ajaccio) in France, Ji Dao-shuai (Suntory Sunbirds) in Japan and Rao Shu-han (JTEKT Stings) in Japan.

    My favourite roster of Chinese (in 2022)
    male NT:
    S - Yu Yao-chen, Chen Lei-yang
    OP - Jiang Chuan, Dai Qing-yao
    OH - Zhang Jing-yin, Yu Yuan-tai, Liu Li-bin, Fu Hou-wen
    MB - Zhang Zhe-jia, Peng Shi-kun, Li Yong-zhen, Jiang Zhen-yang
    L - Yang Yi-ming, Yang Tian-yuan


    female NT:
    S - Yao Di, Diao Lin-yu
    OP - Gong Xiang-yu, Sun Xiao-xuan
    OH - Li Ying-ying, Wang Yi-fan, Wu Meng-jie, Zhuang Yu-shan
    MB - Yuan Xin-yue, Wang Yuan-yuan, Zheng Yi-xin, Liu Yu
    L - Ni Fei-fan, Xu Jia-nan

    no the ref penalized both teams. Ebadipour also received a red card. it went from 19-17 to 20-18. the problem was they didn't know to serve.


    Asian Games was actually somehow understandable. it was supposed to give the host team a free pass into the semifinal. they just blew it. AVC used some weird formats for almost a year (for junior/youth championships and also AVC Cup) and nobody could understand it. I remember Iran had to play Australia 3 times in Women's AVC Cup !!! check this and tell me if anybody can understand the format ! that's really rocket science

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…_Women%27s_Volleyball_Cup


    Quote

    as for the stands, i noticed that it was (of course) very segregated, with a small women's section all the way at the top. but it also seemed that there were sections for foreigners, and in those sections, it was mixed.


    as for the empty halls, it's a total shame. why bother to host it if you're not even going to give out free tickets? the women's WCup going on right now at least has some good attendance. i hear many matches of the euro men's Ch right now are also somewhat empty.


    yes that's how it works in Iran. no problem for foreigners but there are separate sections for locals. don't ask me why. women's section is indeed smaller but not that small.


    in Iran this is normal to give out free tickets for national matches but not this time. (and I had to pay to watch some matches where I was almost the only spectator :lol:) as I said the volleyball federation has no president right now. (there will be election soon) and there was nobody to promote the event. I remember 4 years ago Iran B team brought much more people to the stadium for the same competition.


    also the general thinking here is that all Asian teams suck and we are 10 times better than all of them. I know this is stupid. but that makes people less interested in the Asian Championship. still if we bring exactly the same teams and name it the "Olympic Qualifier" what will be a huge deal.

    no drama in the final. Iran stepped up for the final and beat Australia quite easily. (still they gave the MVP award to Edgar !)


    I think that Australia match in the first round was a very good thing for Iran. at least they are not going to China thinking they already have the Olympic quota in their pockets.


    I remember the days when taking a set from top 3 (JPN/KOR/CHN) was mission impossible for Iran. and everybody got crazy in the stadium in Tehran when Iran finally took a set from Japan in 1999 after something like 50 years despite losing the match 3-1.

    so winning the 3rd Asian title is special for me. (even if nobody else cares about it) it could be 5th if our federation wasn't cocky to not send A team in 2015 and 2017.

    it's funny that ebadipour got the other red card. i think ghafour is the one that shoved the KOR libero (jeong?), i thought he should have gotten it. (ebadipour is however the one that started it all by shouting towards the koreans...)


    btw, in the mixed foreigners' stands, i think i saw several iranian women, but i don't know how these things work...


    in any event, the final standings:


    1. IRN

    2. AUS

    3. JPN

    4. KOR

    5. TPE

    6. CHN

    7. PAK

    8. IND

    9. QAT

    10. KAZ

    11, THA

    12. INA

    13. OMN

    14. SRI

    15. KUW

    16. HKG



    the usual top 5 teams did not hold up this time, as TPE upset CHN for 5th. also PAK defeated IND for 7th (is that an upset?).



    teams 1-10 qualified for next asian championships, whereas 1-9 qualified for the asian OQT (not counting JPN, already qualified).



    awards, as per wikipedia:


    • Most Valuable Player
    Australia Thomas Edgar
    • Best Setter
    Iran Saeid Marouf
    • Best Outside Spikers
    Japan Yūki Ishikawa
    Australia Samuel Walker


    • Best Middle Blockers
    South Korea Shin Yung-suk
    Iran Mohammad Mousavi
    • Best Opposite Spiker
    Iran Amir Ghafour
    • Best Libero
    Japan Tomohiro Yamamoto