Nagano, Japan, October 1, 2019 - Russia got their 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup campaign off to a winning start on Tuesday, persevering against an impressive Iran to claim a 3-1 (25-21, 25-18, 24-26, 25-22) victory at White Ring Nagano.
Russia coach Tuomas Sammelvuo: “First of all I’m very happy about the victory, and most of all about the spirit and the energy that we had on the court. That was obvious because there are many players that want to show themselves. That’s the first thing. And then I think it was an interesting game because both teams have setters that can play fast, that can hide the ball, and I think Iran, if they pass well, they are one of the best teams in the world inside out, they play so fast. They have a setter that is very difficult to read, so I’m very happy that we managed with our serve and with our defence to stop their attack a little bit. For us, ok there’s the result but I think in the third set we started to watch the score a little bit and they worried about what would happen, ‘maybe we will win’, and the thoughts went away from just ‘live the moment’. And that’s why I’m especially happy because in the fourth set the team didn’t do the same thing. Moments in the game were very nice. The national season is very long. For me it’s the longest I’ve experienced. Before I was the coach of Finland, and I think this summer is like a marathon, especially this tournament. So there’s really no time to celebrate about the victory, just focus and recover and concentrate on the next game. Our team is new so hopefully we have the energy. I don’t say young because Grankin is, I don’t know, he’s almost 50 years old and still wants to be here! So I’m really happy that they want to be here, they really want to be here so that’s great.”
On plans for the next game:
“I have no clue what will happen tomorrow. But I hope that we will block and serve well, that’s what I can say. I don’t know, every opponent is different, and service and reception is always the main factor of the game. Today we managed to block pretty well, tomorrow I don’t know. But I hope. It’s not the kill blocks that are making the difference. Maybe we had some today, but our attack was also not so high. Because Iran played defence, and this is even more beautiful volleyball like this. We have to play better defence, as our captain said.”
Russia captain Sergey Grankin: “This was a very tough, difficult game for us. Having said that, this was the first time these team members had played together at an international tournament, but I don’t think we got off to a bad start. Our block was working well, although I think there was room for improvement defensively, but overall I think we played a good game.”
Iran coach Igor Kolakovic: “First of all, congratulations to the Russian team for their victory. Secondly, in the first two sets we were sleepy, we didn’t play well, without focus on our game. Russia were better than us in all elements, especially in service, and we didn’t find a way to solve the problems in the first two sets. In the middle of the third set we changed the situation and started to play as we know, but in the last set also, in the last period after 20-20 again, Russia were really good in the service. One service was on the line, it’s not possible to cover all of the court in that moment, and that was a really important point for Russia.”
On plans for the next game:
“If you compare the number of blocks between us and Russia it’s a big difference. This means we are not a blocker team and we can play block defence tactically, but without kill blocks because our players are not able to make a lot of kill blocks like the Russian team. Not just because the Russian team is so much taller than us, just because our game is completely different. We play with really good energy and big fight, but today we didn’t have it, especially in the first two sets. I hope we can continue our game with high fight and big motivation. I know this game needed a lot of energy, but we can’t play volleyball without this.”
Iran captain Mir Saeid Marouflakrani: “I don’t think we had enough power to fight against Russia today, our team spirit was not so perfect, and on the other side were great on service to win the sets and our fight wasn’t enough. Now we have to look forward to the other games in this tournament.”
On the Russian players:
“Everybody knows that Russia have one of the best blocks in the world, and they were perfect at blocking today and we suffered a lot. On the other side their serve was strong. We didn’t change anything, just in some moments our outside attackers played perfectly and in other moments Russia’s block was so strong. I think they didn’t let us play our volleyball. Ok, we weren’t powerful enough, but their blocks didn’t let us play.”