With each team equipped with a new National Team coach in their first games on the bench, the men of Iran (new coach Igor Kolakovic) and Montenegro (new coach Veljko Basic) faced off for two friendlies last week. Iran next will head to Slovenia for another pair of friendlies, this time against Slovenia’s National Team where Kolakovic was the coach from 2014-2015.
Scorelines:
- May 9th – Iran def. Montenegro 3-2 (26-28, 25-21, 24-26, 25-16, 25-21)
- May 10th – Iran def. Montenegro 3-0 (25-14, 25-17, 25-22)
Rosters:
- Montenegro: Minić- Dabović, Babic, Bojic M, G. Cuk turners B Ćaćić, Culafic Radoniæ, Lakcevic, Popovic, B. Cuk, crayons with, MILIĆ Delic Vukašinović Ječmenica, Tatar. Coach: Veljko Basic.
- Iran: Salafzoun, Ebadi Pour, Faezi, Marouf, Ghaemi, Mousavi, Fayazi, Heydari, Gholami, Ghafour, Nazari Afshar, Mirza Janpour, Hossein Abadi, Manavi Nejad, Fallah, Shafei, Ghara, Vadi, Marandi, Gholami, Cheperli. Coach: Igor Kolaković.
We started with our strong preparation a week ago, so in the first game we entered with a strong pace and have shown that we have the power to deal with the team that is currently ranked seventh in the world,” said Montenegrin caoch Veljko Basic. “I must point out that we have a lot of progress in the areas of defense and blocks, also in both matches, all players were given their chance to show how much they are ready. It is evident that (the second) match we were weaker and quite emotionally and physically worn out, which is to be expected. Of course the goal was not to get the strongest pace in the second match, more it has served as a guide to see where we are compared to really a much stronger team. The overall impression is very positive and has plenty of room for improvement.”
The teams’ first set went to 5 sets, where they agreed to play a full 25-point tie-breaker, instead of the standard 15-point 5th set, in order to test tactics. For Montenegro, ranked just 49th in the most recent FIVB World Rankings, to push Iran to a 5th set, if only once, will be a big boost for them headed toward both the upcoming World Championship qualifying and the World League and European Championships later this summer. There, Montenegro will have every opportunity to earn a spot at the World Championships. Their Pool D is arguably the weakest of the 6 pools, and after Russia there is a severe dropoff in quality. A second-place finish in their pool would push them to the last-chance European Qualifying pool, where they’d have to beat the other 2nd-place teams to secure a spot for the 2018 World Championships.
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