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Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship: Iran defeats Qatar to capture gold, Power Pinoys take seventh

MALL OF ASIA ARENA, Pasay City—Matin Varamin-Iran went unscathed throughout the tournament to capture the 16th Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship (AMCVC) by outlasting Al Rayyan-Qatar, 19-25, 25-17, 26-24, 25-16 before a near sell-out here.

The Iranians, bolstered by the omnipresent support of their countrymen residing in the Philippines, overcame a sluggish start to snare the second set in convincing fashion before seemingly being doomed in the third set 19-24. Iran leaned on their excellent net defense, quick plays and a series of uncharacteristic errors by the Qataris to rattle off seven straight points and steal the third set 26-24. A spate of yellow cards and an eventual red card for Qatari libero Said Saad Sulaiman sent Al Rayyan began ripping the team’s morale apart.

It was all downhill for the 2012 champions as the reigning title-nation completely controlled the fourth set en route to its second straight crown and tenth overall in sixteen stagings of this prestigious event.

Matin Varamin was led by eventual MVP Shahram Mahmoudi with nineteen points, while Mostafa Sharifat and Mousavi Seyed Mohammad added thirteen markers apiece.

Al Rayyan’s seasoned Italian import Christian Savani also tallied nineteen to pace the Qataris, while Brazilian reinforcement Yosleyder Cala Gerardo and local 6’10” behemoth Mohamed Saeed Ibrahim contributed seventeen and thirteen points, respectively.

In the battle for seventh place, the PLDT Home TVolution-Philippines squad needed to go the full route to triumph over a depleted Zahra Al Minaa-Lebanon 25-19, 26-24, 13-25, 21-25, 15-13 to end its stint on a high note by winning its final match.

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The partisan crowd energized the Power Pinoys and propelled the Filipinos to claiming the first two sets against the Lebanese whose core was playing under the weather.

Philippine Air Force wunderkind Alnakran “Ran-Ran” Abdilla paced the Philippines with a game-high 25 points, most of which came in the first two sets as Lebanon bucked the early loss of star spiker Bruno Furtado due to a severe case of the flu. They also sidelined middle-hitter Firas Al Helou and Christian Assaf as the entire squad became afflicted with a strange virus that also caused some members of China’s Baic Motor contingent to miss the bronze medal win against Kondensat-Kazakhstan.

However, the Lebanese came to life in the third set as their net defense began turning back the aggressive attackers of the Philippines behind emotional leader Adam Khoury and defensive ace Ghazi Al Fanaj. They also claimed the fourth set with hardly any struggle from the Power Pinoys.

What looked like a sure win for the Filipinos turned into a major gut check for Head Coach Francis Vicente and the rest of the Power Pinoys as they had to defend home turf in a fifth set.

When the decider began, Lebanon erected an early 6-3 advantage and looked poise to foil the Filipinos’ bid for an upset. But then Australian setter William Lewis began finding his countryman Cedric Le Grand for a much needed offensive surge while former Rizal Technological University (RTU) standout Jeffrey Malabanan carried the cudgels in the end game; scoring four of the Philippines’ final six points. Abdilla nailed a crosscourt winner to seal the dramatic victory and catapult the Philippines to its best finish in its history of joining this annual tournament organized by the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) and sponsored by PLDT Home Fibr.

“It’s been awesome playing for (the Power Pinoys),” Lewis said after the match. “We’ve only been here a couple of months, and yet it’s evolved to more than a team; we’re like a little family now and it’s just been great.”

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“This is probably the most memorable experience for me,” Le Grand interjected. “Will (Lewis) and I have played around the world, but the reception and warmth of the Filipino people to us and the team was just phenomenal. Imagine what it would be like if we made it all the way to final. I hope to be back.”

They may be seeing action in the Philippines anew in the Philippine Super Liga (PSL) Grand Prix slated for October of this year, but that is still in the pipeline.

In the battle for fifth place, the smaller squad from Taipei City-Chinese Taipei trounced the two-time conquerors of the Power Pinoys, South Gas Club Sports-Iraq, 25-22, 25-18, 25-19.

Heading into the match, Iraqi coach Khalaf Abdul Alaa went under fire for the uncouth statement he made at the previous competition day’s press conference where he castigated Vicente.

It was alleged that Alaa, when asked about how the Philippines can progress in the sport, said: “Change the coach,” stating that the training methods and strategies employed by the Power Pinoys are “only used for girls” and that “it is no longer done in Asia”.

Vicente was decent enough not to comment on the matter.

Also, as mentioned above, Baic Motor-China dug deep to motivate themselves to finish on the podium after railroading Kondensat-Kazakhstan, 25-17, 25-14, 25-20 for the bronze medal.

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Belgian reinforcement Wout Wijismans led the Chinese attack with fifteen markers while fellow import Frederic Winters and local stalwarts Yang Fan and 6’9” Liang Chun Long added ten points apiece.

For the individual awards, here’s how it went down:

1st Best Outside Spiker: Maxim Samarin (KAZ)

2nd Best Outside Spiker: Christian Savani (QAT)

1st Best Middle Blocker: Mousavi Seyed Mohammed (IRI)

2nd Best Middle Blocker: Mostafa Sharifat (IRI)

Best Utility Spiker: Vitaliy Vorivodin (KAZ)

Best Setter: Li Run Ming (CHN)

Best Libero: Said Saad Sulaiman (QAT)

MVP: Shahram Mahmoudi (IRI)

It was a tremendous experience being tapped to be among the television broadcasters for this undertaking. I was in the anchorman rotation with Chiqui Reyes and Sochi veteran James Velasquez while working with us as analysts were Ronnie Magsanoc, Anthony Suntay, Xavi Nunag and the courtside people were Justin Sulit, Apple David, Mara Aquino and the always effervescent Denise Tan. The folks at Sports5 were phenomenal and I wish I could thank them all by name.

The Local Organizing Committee (LOC) under the auspices of Score Events Management also did a fantastic job of making sure everything worked out, led by Dr. Ian Laurel and his team of Don Caringal, Mike Tavera, Allen Reyes and the VIS chief Benson Bocboc, as well as the Philippine Volleyball Federation with President Karl Chan and Secretary General Rustico “Otie” Camangian.

It’s been an incredible nine days and I’m quite certain the contingents will have fond memories of their brief stint in the Philippines.

One thing is for sure: volleyball has taken another leap forward and with the quality of matches and team play with witnessed here, it won’t be long before the country hosts another prestigious event—rumored to be the AVC Women’s Championship in 2015 and also that the transfer of technology progresses more rapidly.

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The Filipino volleyball fans also made an effort to watch people they’ve never heard of before from country’s they’ve never been to before because the volleyball action was top notch. They’re not looking to check out personalities anymore, they’re watching the game. The evolution is on.

Congrats to the Power Pinoys and good luck to the Power Pinays—which will be seeing action in the distaff version of this tourney on April 17-25 in Nakhompathom, Thailand.

#VolleyballNeverStops – how’s that for an honest hashtag?

BOXSCORES:

Battle for Seventh: PLDT Tvolution-Philippines def. Zahra Al Minaa-Lebanon—25-19, 26-24, 13-25, 21-25, 15-13

PHI—Abdilla 25, Le Grand 12, Malabanan 9, Lewis 8, Ramos 7, P. Torres 5, J.P. Torres 3, Mosuela (L) 0, Fernandez 0, Franco 0.

LIB—Al Zayek 21, Barretto 21, Khoury 12, Carrasco 8, El-Sharif 6, Issa 4, Al Fanj 4, Assaf 3, Al Helou 1, Obeid (L) 0, Furtado 0.

Battle for Fifth: Taipei City-Chinese Taipei def. South Gas Club Sports-Iraq—25-22, 25-18, 25-19

TPE—Huang C.F. 11, Wang 10, Liu 10, Chiang 7, Lu 7, Chen 1, Lin (L) 0, Huang P.H. 0, Tung 0, Huang C.C. 0.

IRQ—Metodi 14, Arpad 7, Mohammesali 6, Safaa 5, Husam 2, Ali Hussein 2, G. Mustafa 1, H. Mustafa 1, Itaftov 1, Aiman (L) 0, Aseel 0.

Bronze Medal match: Baic Motor-China def. Kondensat-Kazakhstan—25-17, 25-14, 25-20

CHN—Wijismans 15, Liang 10, Yang 10, Winters 10, Wang 9, Li 7, Shan (L) 0.

KAZ—Samarin 15, Vorivodin 7, Kuznetsov 3, Prokofyev 3, Shevtsov 3, Khandrolin 1, Ponomarenko 1, Gof 1, Badashev (L) 0, Nurmukhanbetov 0.

Gold Medal match: Matin Varamin-Iran def. Al Rayyan-Qatar—19-25, 25-17, 26-24, 25-16

IRI—Mahmoudi 19, Mousavi 13, Sharifat 13, Mirzajanpour 8, Nasr 7, Nazari 2, Tajer 2, Marouf 1, Shirkavand (L) 0, Seyed 0, Razmifar 0.

QAT—Savani 19, Cala 17, Ibrahim 13, Al. Mohamed 6, Ali Hassan 1, Mubarak 1, Sulaiman (L) 0, Am. Mohamed 0, Ali Eshagh 0, Andreluiz 0.


Follow Noel Zarate on Twitter (@NoelZarate) and email sportztackle@yahoo.com