2018 World Champs Volleyball

[PSGman#19]

I think you don't know the format at all. first nobody knows who will play who in the semifinal , there will be 3 group rounds before the semifinal with blind draw for the 3rd round

and second, looks like I have to mention it again. all results from the 1st round will be carried forward to the next round. we have to take all matches serious even Cuba and Finland. because every single set matters.

in second round we will have 4 groups of 4 teams. and after that group winners plus 2 best runners up will qualify for the 3rd round groups. we will play3 matches in 2nd round but all 5 first round matches will be counted too.

our possible second round opponents if we win the group: USA, Canada and maybe Japan
our possible second round opponents if we finish 2nd : Russia, Bulgaria and Netherlands

if we win our group, we have a good chance to beat Canada and the other team (Japan, Belgium or Argentina) and even we lose to USA, a 7-1 record is most probably enough to get us to the 3rd round as group winner or at least one of the best runner ups.

but if we lose to Poland, even if we beat Bulgaria again (and Netherlands) we have uphill task against Russia (the best team in the world right now) and with a 6-2 record it's not a sure thing if we qualify.

we have to win as many matches as possible in first round without thinking about 2nd round opponents. Poland won't be unbeatable we beat them handily 3-0 in Nations League but let's think one match at a time. Cuba is not a pushover, they got poor results so far but we know they are highly talented and with young teams everything is possible.

I don't understand why they organize this kind of mess as world championship? And they don't understand why people aren't interested by following volleyball.

[_Navid_]

Corrupt country hasn't managed to steal today's game so we can't watch the game. While anten is showing the game but you can only watch it in Iran.

[_Navid_]

Only link that I can find if anyone wants to watch:

http://www.slivestream1.com/cuba-vs-...eyball-stream/

[diz]

Iran wins 3-1! Nice work to remain undefeated!

[Irannn]

I found a link for that finally in middle of 3rd set . not a good match but I take the win. I was worry about this match since i know Cuba can play very good sometimes.

good we have 9pts and 3 wins so far. Monday match vs Poland is crucial.

[Irannn]

our possible second round opponents if we win the group: USA, Canada and maybe Japan
our possible second round opponents if we finish 2nd : Russia, Bulgaria and Netherlands

This turned out to be a terrible prediction lol we had some surprise today ! mother of all surprises Netherlands beat Brazil !! and also USA beat Russia in on of the best volleyball matches I ever seen.

now USA will win group C for sure. I think Russia will beat Serbia and finish 2nd.
and in group B now things are getting very complicated, Brazil, France and Canada all of them can win the group or finish 2nd or 3rd. and Netherlands now has a good shot to finish 2nd or 3rd.

this will be a bad news if Brazil finishes 3rd in that group. I don't want Brazil in our group at all. imagine we win our own group still we get Brazil and Russia in next round ! that's not fair.

[Bessos]

This turned out to be a terrible prediction lol we had some surprise today ! mother of all surprises Netherlands beat Brazil !! and also USA beat Russia in on of the best volleyball matches I ever seen.

now USA will win group C for sure. I think Russia will beat Serbia and finish 2nd.
and in group B now things are getting very complicated, Brazil, France and Canada all of them can win the group or finish 2nd or 3rd. and Netherlands now has a good shot to finish 2nd or 3rd.

this will be a bad news if Brazil finishes 3rd in that group. I don't want Brazil in our group at all. imagine we win our own group still we get Brazil and Russia in next round ! that's not fair.

That's what I meant when I said the winner of our group will have a tougher road to the semis.

Imagine if we lose to Poland, we will have a better shot in the next round if the group is Iran, USA, Netherlands, Bulgaria. We will most likely finish second, and thanks to our previous wins, we will advance as one of the better 2nd place teams.

[Irannn]

That's what I meant when I said the winner of our group will have a tougher road to the semis.

Imagine if we lose to Poland, we will have a better shot in the next round if the group is Iran, USA, Netherlands, Bulgaria. We will most likely finish second, and thanks to our previous wins, we will advance as one of the better 2nd place teams.

not a sure thing because we are not the only one having "previous wins" most favorites will come to the next round with a 5-0 or 4-1 records. losing to Poland will be counted too.

and the only sure thing is USA winning Group C. for the rest we don't know anything for sure. Group B is quite unpredictable. even Russia beating Serbia is not a sure thing (even though highly likely)

Poland match is tomorrow and not in the last group day, we can't lose while we don't even know for sure what's happening next.

[Irannn]

Netherlands also beat France last night !! looks like we have to avoid them instead of Brazil/France lol

but seriously we most probably will get either France or Brazil in our group next round. no matter if we finish 1st or 2nd. we usually play bad against these two teams (and Russia) I think we better stop thinking about the next round and just play to win Poland.

we will play 5+3 matches in round 1 and 2. (we already won 3) we can afford losing one. but losing two makes it hard . and 3 (or more) makes it impossible to advance.

[Irannn]

3-0 defeat and we were completely hopeless. 3rd set was better but then when Poland served great we fell apart as usual

honestly I think we got eliminated from competition tonight. the only way we can advance is to win all next 4 matches which is almost impossible. we will have USA, Bulgaria (again) and 4th place team of Group B in next round. that Group B 4th place team will be either France, Brazil or Canada. we will be lucky if we get Canada and even Canada is a very good team.

[diz]

3-0 defeat and we were completely hopeless. 3rd set was better but then when Poland served great we fell apart as usual

honestly I think we got eliminated from competition tonight. the only way we can advance is to win all next 4 matches which is almost impossible. we will have USA, Bulgaria (again) and 4th place team of Group B in next round. that Group B 4th place team will be either France, Brazil or Canada. we will be lucky if we get Canada and even Canada is a very good team.

Spoken like a true Iranian nihilistic fan...have some faith and confidence in your team. We got beaten by the world champion Poles for god sake....not Jamaica (no disrespect to the island nation)!!!

[Irannn]

Spoken like a true Iranian nihilistic fan...have some faith and confidence in your team. We got beaten by the world champion Poles for god sake....not Jamaica (no disrespect to the island nation)!!!

personally even if we are down 2-0 and something like 20-15 I still don't give up hope.

I'm just realistic about our chance. even though some other results in other groups (Brazil beating Canada and Argentina beating Slovenia) gave me some hope for the next round. now I think even a 7-2 record is probably enough for qualification. even though even that will be a hard task to win 3 out of next 4 matches. we almost know our group in the next round beside USA and Bulgaria we won't get Brazil for sure. it will be France or Canada.

and btw Poland is the World Champion but they did nothing special since then. only two months ago we beat them 3-0 in USA. and before the tournament nobody considered Poland as one of the favorites, they were talking about Russia, France, USA, Italy or Brazil.

[Ab-Gosht]

ok so iran has to win 2 of 3 games in enxt round to stand a chance to advance. It will be very hard. personally i think with this new young team it wont be possible. if they can win 1 out of 3 games they have done more than OK and can go home with their heads high and with hope to grow for future.

canada and bulgaria games are 50/50 and usa game is 25/75

[Irannn]

canada and bulgaria games are 50/50 and usa game is 25/75

Yep . agree with that. it will also depend on the order of the matches. if we play USA last, they will probably be qualified before that .

the bad thing is Canada is the only 4th placed team with a 3-2 record. teams with 3 defeats are 100% out and will play just for fun. while in our group all 4 teams are still alive.

we threw away one valuable point today but I'm glad at least we won the match. cuz at some point in 4th set it was like we are losing the match. but the first tiebreaking criteria is the number of wins and not the points. so we are good as long as we win 2 out of 3 matches. not a 100% thing to qualify with a 7-2 record but I think there is a 80% chance for that.

[diz]

Next match: Iran v Bulgaria, Friday, 10:30am PST. Will be a nice rematch, hoping for the same outcome.