Unbeaten China, Iran top their pools after preliminaries at AVC Cup

The one-week tournament kicked off its pool round-robin preliminaries on Thursday and at the end of the three-day pool plays, all participating teams have been ranked respectively according to their performances in their pools.

 

Sunday is the rest day. A tense battle resumes on Monday in the knockout quarter-finals, with the Pool A winners taking on the Pool B fourth place and the Pool A second place challenging the Pool B third position. The four winning teams in the quarter-finals will advance to the semi-finals, while the four losers will be relegated to the 5th-8th classification round.

 

At completion of the three-day preliminaries on Saturday, world No.20 China, the bronze medallists at the last year’s Asian Senior Men’s Championship in Iran which had already captured the 2012 AVC Cup title in Vietnam following a stunning win over Iran in the final showdown, made a clean sweep in Pool A with 8 points.

 

China, which had five players joining the seventh-place Chinese team at the 2016 FIVB World League Group 2 including Ji Daoshuai and Rao Shuhan, got the biennial top-flight tournament off to a brilliant start with a convincing 3-0 victory over tall and towering Kazakhstan before thrashing hosts Thailand in straight sets and struggling to beat Taiwan in a hard-fought five-set thriller.  

 

Kazakhstan came in second place in Pool A with 5 points from two wins against one loss. The Kazakhs had a dismal start with 0-3 loss to China, but clawed their way back to edge Taiwan on tiebreaker and wedge out hosts Thailand with a dramatic 3-1 win.

 

Taiwan finished third position in Pool A with 4 points from one win against two losses. They became the only team which had to play their all rivals in exhausting five sets. Taiwan narrowly beat Thailand in a closely-contested five-set battle in their opening clash, but went down to Kazakhstan and China in epic five sets.  

 

Hosts Thailand, which finished at the bottom of eight participating teams at the previous AVC Cup in Almaty, Kazakhstan two years ago, succumbed to three straight losses to come in fourth place in Pool A with only 1 point. They were narrowly beaten 2-3 by Taiwan in their opening encounter before going down in straight sets to China and 1-3 to Kazakhstan in their last preliminary round on Saturday.

 

Meanwhile, Asia’s powerhouses Iran captured the Pool B top spot after winning three wins in a row to have 9 points. Iran, which reigned supreme in 2008 in Nakhon Ratchasima and repeated the feat in 2010 at home in Urmia, pulled off a dramatic 3-1 win over Australia before stunning two elite teams, Asian winners Japan and defending champions Korea, both in straight sets.

 

Korea, which outclassed India in the final clash to win the 2014 episode in Kazakhstan, finished second in Pool B with 5 points from two wins against one loss. The Koreans overpowered Japan in gruelling five sets in their opener and struggled to beat Australia in a close straight-set battle before going down to much stronger Iran in straight sets in their last preliminary encounter.

 

Japan took the third place in Pool B with 4 points from one win against two losses. World No.14 Japan, which captured the 2015 Asian Senior Men’s Championship title after a surprise win over Iran on the rivals’ home soil, went down in five sets to Korea and lost in comfortable straight sets to Iran. The Japanese regained their form to brush off Australia in straight sets in their last preliminary match on Saturday.

 

Australia became the only team which have yet won a single point in the eight-team tournament following their three straight losses. Going down 1-3 to Iran in their first match, Australia succumbed to a straight-set loss to Korea and faced the similar fate in their tussle against Japan.

 

In the knockout quarter-finals on Monday, Pool A winners China will battle it out against Pool B fourth place Australia, with Pool B second spot Korea taking on Pool A third place Taiwn, Pool A second place Kazakhstan challenging Pool B third place Japan and Pool A fourth position Thailand going up against Pool B winners Iran.

 

Saturday’s results

Iran b Korea 3-0 (25-23 25-17 25-16)

Japan b Australia 3-0 (25-14 25-19 25-23)

Kazakhstan b Thailand 3-1 (25-22 25-21 20-25 25-18)

China b Taiwan 3-2 (25-14 23-25 23-25 25-23 15-13)

 

Rankings after completion of preliminaries

Pool A: 1. China 8 points; 2. Kazakhstan 5 points; 3. Chinese Taipei 4 points; 4. Thailand 1 point

Pool B: 1. Iran 9 points; 2. Korea 5 points; 3. Japan 4 points; 4. Australia 0 point

 

Match Schedule

Monday, September 26, 2016

Quarter-finals

11.30am: 1A-China v 4B-Australia

2pm: 2B-Korea v 3A-Chinese Taipei

4.30pm: 2A-Kazakhstan v 3B-Japan

7pm: 1B-Iran v 4A-Thailand