Indian Volleyball

[ornatebrute]

India defeated Thailand in SF 3-1. Match was streamed live https://www.youtube.com/embed/34JdDDO9Xv0
Through to finals. Great month for Indian junior volleyball. Sincerely hoping these are real age appropriate "juniors" and replicate this success in the seniors.

[srini]

So can we hope that our boys just grab the 2nd chance in the Finals and end the long long wait the Indian sports fans had endured to see the day we win over Iran ?

[jayakris]

So can we hope that our boys just grab the 2nd chance in the Finals and end the long long wait the Indian sports fans had endured to see the day we win over Iran ?

NO. You can hope for a 20+ score in a set, but probably won't get even that. Straight sets loss coming. 21-25,12-25, 18-25 is my prediction.

[ornatebrute]

Well, well! After losing the first two sets 12-25 19-25 we have managed to win the third set 25-22 (despite being 24-17 up ntl)

[ornatebrute]

Disastrous 4th set. Like all the players forgot to serve, smash and receive. Absolutely irresponsible playing. We lose the finals 12-25 19-25 25-22 15-25.

[jayakris]

We must be really really good this year, to have taken a set off Iran. Wow. Never thought I would see that.

Congrats, boys. No, I am not being sarcastic. They deserve congratulation for a great run. They only lost to that one team that they can never ever beat, but they went ready to beat everybody else and finish at the highest finish possible.

But I wonder if any Indian coach has really sat down and analyzed what goes wrong for us when we go up against Iran. There must be something. This cannot just go on like this, and it is not a coincidence or anything that we keep losing to them. In fact, I am not even sure whether anybody else outside of this forum is even really aware in India about this curious record we have against Iran. I have never seen it mentioned or discussed anywhere else.

[prasen9]

Well, in this case, Iran was the best team. So, no problems with this one. We should analyze when we choke. Or when Iran is bad and we still lose to them. Everybody lost to them this time.

We did beat them recently in junior basketball in a close-ish match. Article So, this is not over all sports or anything. They are just very good at volleyball.

[jayakris]

Yeah we beat them in other sports. And it is only India who has such a struggle against them in volleyball too. Other teams routinely take sets off Iran and sometimes beat them too. But not India. We don't even take sets off them. And it is only in volleyball. No other sports. There is some sort of match-up issues or something that is always present when we play Iran, which makes us do significantly worse than other teams against them. Yes, Iran is always very good in volleyball. Often the top side in Asia but China, Japan etc have finished ahead if them, and not that infrequently either. We have played China and Japan closely and even beat them at times. But none of that ever happens against Iran. Even the Iranian sides that do not finish first in Asia. Not even a close match. We typically lose 75 points to 45 or 50 points, which is utter surrender in volleyball.

[jayakris]

The new under-19 world ranking just came out from FIVB (they only update it once in 6 months or more... The last one was in early March). This uses our u18 performance at the Thailand where we finished third. Interestingly we are ahead of Thailand who played the final against Iran (to whom we lost and played the bronze match with a win over Korea).

Iran 2 spots up to #3T in the world.
India 35 spots up to #14
Thailand 32 spots up to #17
Japan down 39 spots to #46T
Korea down 36 spots to #46T
Taiwan down 26 spots to #46T

Basically after the top 3, we have China, Australia, Pakistan, Bahrain, etc, all at #46th. After the top 23 teams, there is a big group tied at 24th and then the rest of the teams are all at #46th. Very few numbers and points to work with for the rankings, which is why.

The u21 rankings where they will use our recent u20 Asian runner-up points, are not out yet. That FIVB rank list has not been updated since last October. I assume some of the continental u20 events are still to be done. We can expect a big jump from tied for #44 (ie lowest rank) to somewhere in the top-15 or possibly top-10, when those rankings come out fairly soon.

[Dinakaran]

Some sort of cruel satisfaction - Brazil beat Iran and rejected them QF place in men's world championship

[jayakris]

^^^ Yeah. Down Down Iran Volleyball!

[Saffron Lenin]

Pakistan defeated Iran 3-1 in the final match to win the Central Asian Volleyball Championship.

Is anybody following volleyball????? Does Pakistan beat full - strength Iranian Team...??
Something appears fishy here!!!!

[jayakris]

^^^ I think it is some second string guys. This was a no-name tournament and their top players weren't going to go to Lahore to play against Pakistan, Srilanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. If Kazakhstan or India were also there, they might have thought of sending a good team. They probably underestimated Pakistan though. Pakistan does have a good team now, a bit better than India's right now (we may see it change in the next 3-4 years, as we do have some good youngsters coming up). Pakistan is not good enough to beat Iran; I don't think so. They may not lose as decidedly to Iran as India does so consistently, but they won't beat Iran's first team. No way in hell.

[jayakris]

The new u21 world rankings came out in late October, from FIVB. I had forgotten to check. We have gone way up to #15, thanks to the runner-up finish in the u20 Asian championships.

Iran up +4 to #8
Thailand up +5 to #12
India up +29 to T15
Korea up +26 to T18
Bahrain down -4 to #23
Bangladesh up +19 to T25

Those are the top 6 in Asia. China, Japan, Australia, and the "stan" countries are all #30 or below in the world.

[Saffron Lenin]

Does u21 ranking perform translate in Senior team performance? I have checked fiva Ranking, it is 59 now!!!!