With a five-set victory over the Italian giants, the Iranians got a promising start in the tournament
Foolad players celebrate their opening-match victory over Lube in Brazil
Reigning Asian champions Foolad Sirjan Iranian caused the biggest upset of the opening day of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship 2024, downing Italian giants Cucine Lube Civitanova on Tuesday in Uberlândia.
Besides the Iranians, Italy’s Itas Trentino, Brazil’s Sada Cruzeiro and Egypt’s Al Ahly SC also triumphed at the Sabiazinho stadium in the first of four days of pool play action in Brazil.
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Making just their second appearance in the tournament, Foolad secured their first-ever victory at the world stage, beating the 2019 world champions Lube in a five-set battle that saw they come out on top 3-2 (25-21, 14-25, 24-26, 25-23, 16-14) in Pool A.
The MVP in their campaign at the Asian Championship, opposite Ali Hajipour led the team’s offense with 18 points (16 kills, two blocks). Outside hitter Alireza Abdolhamidi, with 15 points (13 kills, one block, one ace), and middle blocker Mohammad Valizadeh, with 12 (eight kills, two blocks, two aces), also had solid performances.
Hajipour spikes past three Lube blockers
Lube’s French two-time Olympic champion middle blocker Barthélémy Chinenyeze topped all scorers with 21 points (16 kills, three aces, two blocks). Bulgarian outside hitter Aleksandar Nikolov and Turkish opposite Adis Lagumdzija contributed 18 and 17 points, respectively.
“Breaking the ice in an important tournament is always complicated, especially considering the long trip we had,” Chinenyeze reflected. “Our biggest problem today was missing too many serves and swings. Their serves created a lot of problems for us, but we made too many errors and in a match like this, you can’t win like that. But now we know what to do. We have another match on Wednesday, but before looking into our opponents, we need to focus on recalibrating our game.”
Trentino sweep Shahdab
In the opening match of the tournament, which featured another duel between Italians and Iranians, five-time world champions Trentino had no issues securing their first victory in Pool B. Helped by a strong start, the Europeans downed Shahdab Yazd 3-0 (25-12, 25-22, 25-21) to start their campaign in Uberlândia.
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