Japan upset Pakistan in Asian Men’s Volleyball

LAHORE: Japan stunned Pakistan in the Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship in the first of their second stage classification round matches at Iranian capital Tehran’s Azadi sports Complex on late Tuesday.

Japan claimed an easy 3-0 win, according to information received here. Pakistan put up a good show and tried to catch up with Japan’s exceptional tactics. But their efforts were not enough to pay off dividends as they lost the first set fighting hard 25-23.

They tried to bounce back, but Japan intensified their attacks and defence to clinch the second and third sets 25-20 and 25-21. Pakistan will take on Chinese Taipei in their next fixture on late Wednesday.

The topflight championship is a biennial international volleyball tournament, organized by the Asian Volleyball Confederation.

The top eight teams from the championship will go through to the 2020 AVC Men’s Volleyball Olympic Qualification Tournament, to be held early, next year. Pakistan also lost to Chinese Taipei with a set score of 3-2. It was a very well contested match on Wednesday. The points were 23-25, 25-17, 20-25, 20-18, 11-15. Pakistan Coach tried new boys like Usman Faryad, Fakhar, and Bilal as libero. This was to give chance to new players as this match would not have any repercussions on results. In reality tomorrow match will determine the position because if Pakistan wins against Australia in Semi finals and if Pakistan loses, it will play for 5-8 positions. Australia in preliminary round defeated Iran, which was a big upset, as Iran is ranked No. 5 team in the world.

In today’s match Pakistan played good in all departments and it was a winnable match, but Pakistan had some gaps in its defence. The attack was very well combined as the 2 sets that Pakistan won with good margin, and it lost 3 sets with close margin. It seems Coach had a strategy to lose 5th set as he put all new boys because if Pakistan had won, it would have had to face Iran, which is reality is a stronger team.