Both coaches admitted the first set was the key between winning and losing the match

Cairo, Egypt, August 31, 2012 – Iran coach Julio Valesco complimented his players on their ability to overcome a bad start to win the crucial opening match against Egypt 3-0 (33-31, 25-22, 25-19) in the two-match World League 2013 playoff series.

Iran just needs to win one set in Sunday’s second game, also in Cairo, to advance to a playoff with Japan for a place in next year’s edition of the World League.

Iran coach Julio Velasco: We are very happy for the win which gives us a good chance to advance to the next round. The first set was very important to win the match. We started very badly but managed to finish in good way and dominate the match.

Iran captain Alireza Nadi: I am happy for this win but we have another match on Sunday. We prepared well for these matches and we studied the Egyptian team perfectly before we came here. 

Egypt coach Hossam Abdelaziz: I only took over the responsibility of the team 35 days ago, we couldn't play any friendly matches as all teams took a rest after the Olympics. Today, we committed a lot of personal faults especially in the first set and if we would win the first set we had a chance to win the whole match. I tried to make adjustments in our block system and serving but the time was very short.     

Egypt captain Ashraf Abouelhassan: I congratulate Iran for this win and I satisfied with our performance today. We had little time to prepare properly for these matches while Iran had a good preparation. Iran is a good team and have a big name coach. I hope we get better in the next match.

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