TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran coach and captain say they shouldn't be seen as surprise to the FIVB World Championship Final Six Round as they are now among the world volleyball powerhouses.While many volleyball experts are labelling them as the surprising teams of the tournament in comparison to the other three big machines in the Final Six, the representatives of Iran, France and Germany all think their squads are as capable to win it all as the more favoured teams from Brazil, Russia and host Poland.
They attended to a press conference organized on the eve of the start of the third-round competitions in Katowice where they expressed their arguments to justify why their sides should be considered strong contenders to move into the last round with fair chances of continuing to do what they have achieved thus far.
Irans coach, Serbian Slodoban Kovac, was the most emphatic of all of them when assessing the possibilities of his team advancing to the Final-Four group.
We are here not because we are lucky but because we are good and have been playing good for the last four months, he said.
Weve played well for the whole tournament and we want to continue playing good volleyball, he added.
The Asian champions had showed excellent consistency throughout the competitions this year and for the first time in Iran's history secured a spot in the third round of 2014 FIVB Volleyball World Championship to play against Brazil, Russia, Poland, France and Germany.
For the last four months we have been training hard and playing and winning against very good teams in Tehran and outside of Tehran. We won matches against teams like Italy and Brazil and finished fourth at this years World League, Slobodan Kovac underlined.
The third stage of the tournament will have France, Germany and Iran battling in Pool G in Katowice and Poland, Brazil and Russia competing in Pool H in Lodz.
The top two ranked teams of each pool after a round-robin affair will advance to the semifinals with the two lowest placed will determine the 5th and the 6th positions.
Like the first round of the tournament, Seyyed Mohammad Moussavi was named as the best blocker (1.36), and Capitan Saeid Marouf as the best setter (9.64) of the second round of FIVB World Championship.
Marouf and Moussavi had also ealier been selected as the best setter and the best defender of the FIVB Men's Volleyball league in Italy a few months ago.
The 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship matches are underway in Poland from August 30 to September 21, 2014.
By Fars News Agency
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