Indian Volleyball

[ornatebrute]

^ Something for Jayakris to cheer for

[ornatebrute]

Good win against Thaland

[ornatebrute]

Straight sets win against the formidable South Korea. We finish 2nd in Pool B! This U18 team looks set to qualify for U19 Worlds 2023.

[sameerph]

Wow, that is a really good win against Korea who are pretty good I think generally at Asian level. Looks like there is still light at the end of the tunnel for our volleyball.

[jayakris]

Yeah, a really good win. South Korea had lost to Japan 2-3 in a 13-15 fifth setter just like we did, so I wouldn't have expected us to roll over them in straight sets like this! Hmmm.... This is looking very positive indeed. We get Chinese Taipei next in the QF. They beat Kuwait but lost 0-3 to Iran and China in the other pool.

Let's hope we can beat Taiwan and make the semis. That is the best we can do, because we are set to lose the SF. You know why, and you can guess who our SF opponent is expected to be. Hoping for Thailand to upset those guys in the QF.

[Dinakaran]

Won quaterfinal against Taiwan (3 to 1 sets) and moved to semifinal. Also Got confirmed for u19 world championship

[jayakris]

Yep! India d. Taiwan, 25–19, 25–14, 25–27, 25–23 ... It got tight in the end but we held on. Korea upset China in the other half, and they play Japan in the semis.

But we know that our run has ended. Lost to Iran in the semifinal. Well, no, we haven't played, but this is a done deal, right?... Death, taxes and India losing to Iran in volleyball - the three things with 100% probability in the world. And this is being played in Tehran

Congrats boys for a great run. You did well. Come back home proudly.

[suresh]

Death, taxes and India losing to Iran in volleyball - the three things with 100% probability in the world. And this is being played in Tehran

[jayakris]

India behind Iran, 15-25, 0-0

Japan beat S.Korea 3-1 in the other semi.

EDIT: India behind, 15-25, 19-25

EDIT: India lost to Iran 15-25, 19-25, 18-25

So, add it to the long list of losses to Iran in volleyball. It is not just that we lose. I don't remember us even taking a set off Iran in ages at any age level of volleyball. There is never a chance. We may as well not play if it is Iran. Just concede and save time. Hey, we could have saved energy for playing better against South Korea in the 3rd place match tomorrow, had we done that today.

[I think Iran hardly has a women's volleyball team. Actually they did suit up (literally "suit up") a bunch of ladies a few years ago for a team, and if I am to guess, our women probably lost to them somewhere too. I am kidding, but it is possible ]

[jayakris]

I did a quick check on when we last won a set against Iran. It might have been 12 years ago at the AVC men's Central Asian championships (I think they used to do some regional events those days). We managed to win the fist set, but then lost the next three. And this was the case even on a home court (in Kolkata!). Not just that. Iran had actually sent their second string team. Their entire first string was playing in Italy or somewhere, to prepare for the world final-16 that they had qualified into. Something like that.

On searching here, I find a match in 2012 where we played them close. Jaydeep was celebrating that we took Iran to extra points (25-27 and 27-29) in two sets. But we still lost in straight sets. Oh the futility of it all

Does anybody have the 2003 world championships u19 scores? That was our peak in the juniors, as Sridharan's bunch finished with a silver (in the world finals!) at Suphanburi in Thailand. Iran finished third there. I am going to assume that they were in the other half of the draw and we never faced them...

[sameerph]

Does anybody have the 2003 world championships u19 scores? That was our peak in the juniors, as Sridharan's bunch finished with a silver (in the world finals!) at Suphanburi in Thailand. Iran finished third there. I am going to assume that they were in the other half of the draw and we never faced them...

It is there on wiki and we did beat Iran in SF there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_FIVB ... ampionship

[jayakris]

^^^ That must be the last time we beat them. 19 years and counting.

[prasen9]

Is there a third place game?

[jayakris]

^^^ Yes. We play South Korea tomorrow. We had beaten them in our pool, but tomorrow is another day. Hope we repeat. I think it does not matter much. Finishing in the final would have got us a top-8 seeding at the u19 world final-16 and thus an easier initial pool of four without two seeds to beat. But those rankings and seeding are not that reliable, so we are ok. Still, I want us to beat South Korea once more!

[Dinakaran]

India defeated Korea 3 -2 sets and won bronze after 14 years gap...hope this is start of good times considering our decline in senior team due to association issue