The alarm sounded for Iranian volleyball/ the distance with the world has increased! – Mehr news agency Iran and world’s news
In an interview with Mehr reporter, Jahangir Seyed Abbasi said about Iran’s performance in the third week of the Volleyball Nations League (defeat against France and Bulgaria): Iran had a difficult task ahead of it in the first match against France, even though this team played against Iran with reserve players. France is one of the first-class teams in the world, and considering that several of our main players were not in the team, this loss is somewhat justified.
The loss against Bulgaria sounded the alarm
He added: But Bulgaria is the second and third tier team in Europe, and especially the main receiver of the team was not in the team and this team was not at the level of the League of Nations, so the loss against the Bulgarian team sounded a serious alarm for Iranian volleyball. In the past years, even with the presence of young people, we beat the world’s biggest teams. Therefore, even without the main players, our team should have been able to cope with a team like Bulgaria. Unfortunately, the national team’s game against Bulgaria was very volatile, and as a volleyball fan, I was worried about this loss.
With the “B” team, we should have defeated Bulgaria
Iran’s volleyball coach emphasized: I think the loss against Bulgaria has no justification, and I can’t justify the reasons for this defeat either. Bulgaria’s volleyball is not at the same level as Iran’s volleyball, the composition that the Bulgarian team played against Iran was not at the level of Iran’s players, so I think that even if we did not have a few main players, we should not have given up the result. If Iran claims to be one of the best volleyball players in the world, they should have defeated Bulgaria even with the “B” team.
We distanced ourselves from the modern world volleyball
In response to the question that the main weakness of the team in the game against Bulgaria was mental and psychological factors or the capacity of Iranian volleyball is the same, Seyed Abbasi said: The performance of the national team against Bulgaria was indefensible and sounded the alarm. I hope the players will defend the position and reputation of Iranian volleyball at least in the next two games, regardless of the result. Iran’s volleyball has a high level with these players, Bulgaria played with a receiver in the match against Iran, who is considered among the third or fourth level players; But if Iran doesn’t have one player, instead, it has several first-level players, so Iran’s volleyball capacity is very high, and even in terms of players, we are higher than European countries. But in general, I think Iran’s weakness is that the players make a lot of mistakes and play without a system. They don’t play modern volleyball. Unfortunately, we have to say that Iran has distanced itself from modern volleyball.
Changing the losing mentality of players is a difficult task
Seyyed Abbasi emphasized: The World League is always difficult for us due to the distance. In the past years, both our team and other teams faced these issues. Even if we had gone to the field against Bulgaria with reserve players, we should not have suffered this defeat. Unfortunately, the mentality of the players is now a loser, and it is very difficult to turn this issue around from the technical staff. We also have a difficult task ahead of us against Argentina, but I believe that we can beat Cuba. But changing the mentality of a loser is a difficult task, but I hope that the technical staff will prepare the team mentally and they will be able to overcome it.