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Players' spirit was main reason for our win - Velasco
Velasco said he hopes the strong turnout of fans will encourage more international events to be held in Iran
Tehran, Iran, September 7, 2012 - Iran coach Julio Velasco praises the spirit of his players after his side beat Japan in straight sets in the first of the two match World League 2013 qualification playoff on Friday.
Iran coach Julio Velasco: There were different reasons for the win over Japan today. The most important reason was the high spirit of players. But I thought we would win and my squad played well, especially during the first and second sets. In the Olympic qualification tournament, we defeated Japan 3-0. Before the match, we thought that if the players put in the same effort as they had in the Olympic qualification we would win.
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Iran coach Julio Velasco: There were different reasons for the win over Japan today. The most important reason was the high spirit of players. But I thought we would win and my squad played well, especially during the first and second sets. In the Olympic qualification tournament, we defeated Japan 3-0. Before the match, we thought that if the players put in the same effort as they had in the Olympic qualification we would win.
(Re. third set): We made some mistakes, as the players lost their concentration a bit after winning the second set so easily. We made mistakes on service, reception and spiking and usually we don’t make such mistakes.
(Re. future events in Iran): I hope that the representative of FIVB for these games saw the enthusiasm of the fans and will mention this in his report to the FIVB, and they will give Iran the chance to host important tournaments in Iran.
Japan coach Naoki Morokuma: In recent years, the Iran team has made a great effort to improve and have become powerful. Today, we had a hard match. A huge number of spectators were in the hall and they made a lot of noise, which made us lose our concentration. I was expecting to have a hard match against Iran but it was harder than I thought it would be. The Iran players showed they had done some hard training and are a strong team. We want to make it to the World League, so the coming match with Iran is very important for us. We must win 3-0 or else it’s totally meaningless.
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