FIVB Boy’s U19 Champs/ Vakili: I want my team to show good volleyball

Riffa, Bahrain, August 26, 2017 – Iran coach Reza Farjad said that everyone in the team helped in their straight-set win over Korea in semifinal of the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship at the Isa City Sports Hall on Saturday.
Iran coach Reza Vakili: We had some very good team play today. Two years ago, we took the bronze medal against Russia and we needed to improve that. Now we are against Russia in the final. This game is very important for us to play good volleyball. The energy and tactics must be divided into all the players. Just like today everyone in the team helped to win.
The tournament final will be different from the other games. I want my team to show good volleyball. We must focus on playing well and the results will come. I think our two teams are equal. There is a chance for both teams to win. It is a matter of which team has more motivation to win. I think this will be the key. Russia are very strong, so we must not allow them to have any energy in the game.
Iran captain Amirhossein Esfandiar: Today was important for us because now we are guaranteed of a medal. We will only think about the gold medal tomorrow.
Korea are a good team, which play at a very high level. I want to thank our coaching staff for preparing us and for getting everything done in this match.
Russia are a very strong team and have a very good setter. Two years ago, he was in Argentina. (Konstantin) Abaev has a very good reputation in both the youth and junior age groups. He is a leader on the Russian team. It will not be an easy match tomorrow, but we will make an effort to go for the gold medal.

Korea coach Park Wongil: We played really bad and Iran played great. They had great reception. They are a great team and they showed that they are better than us. Our service was not sufficient and that is one major reason why we lost. Improving our service is a main point for tomorrow against Japan. If we can do better tomorrow then we can execute our plays.

Korea captain Choi Ikje: Iran team played great today. We hope we can improve against Japan tomorrow. Our last match against them was at the Asian Championship final. We were really exhausted so we lost 3-0. They have a good team so we have to prepare on our reception. Both teams are not tall but both are very skilled. Reception and digging will be the key for us in the next match.