Lozano’s men were Saeid Marouf, Milad Ebadipour, Seyed Mohammad Mousavi, Adel Gholami, Farhad Ghaemi, Shahram Mahmoudi, and Mehdi Marandi (as libero). Their rival Cuba was not in level of Argentina and Poland, which provided the team additional esprit to score easily.
Cubans were working hard to reach Iran when two consecutive points gave Iran a clear edge. With excellent defense, Iran secure the first set 25-21.
The second set was an exchange of points, with Cubans investing on long and high balls above the net, where Iranians welcomed the position. With Iran’s getting 4 points and widening the gap, Cuba requested a timeout which helped them to close the gap again 2 points; with a blunder, they went even closer in points: 21-20. They succeeded to fight neck-and-neck up to point 24 to turn the set to a marathon where Iran’s upper hand came in point 31 to win the second set.
The 3rd set was a good start for Iran where a distraught Cuban players proved frustrated when they lagged behind Iran while they had been scoring up to 8th point when Iran broke the tie. Cubans, dispirited and on disarray, proved weak in receives while their attacks were blocked by Iran’s defense. The result was easily known: 25-16.
This was Iran’s first win in the history of Olympics. Lozano’s men will face Egypt in high spirits on Saturday.
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