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Japan's Men Sweep Iran to Reach LA 🌍
Three sets in Kitakyushu, 25-21, 26-24, 25-23, and the first continental place in the men's Olympic tournament is gone.
Japan beat Iran 3-0 (25-21, 26-24, 25-23) at the Kitakyushu City General Gymnasium on Sunday night and became the first men's team anywhere to win a place at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Continental champions take five of the twelve places at that tournament and Japan have the first of the five. The Americans are in as hosts and until Sunday no other men's side had a place of any kind.
Japan did not lose a set in the entire championship.
Eleven Asian titles is a record, and it is also old news. Japan already held that record when they won their tenth in Urmia in 2023, and they swept Iran in that final too.
As THE ANSWER reported, no Japanese side in a men's team ball sport had qualified for Los Angeles before Sunday, and the country's only berth of any kind so far is in rhythmic gymnastics.
Japan's eleventh Asian title was the smallest thing they won on Sunday.
The Same Two Teams, the Third Straight Sweep
Iran and Japan have played the last three finals of this championship and not one of them went past three sets. Iran swept Japan in Chiba in 2021. Japan returned it in Urmia in 2023 and again on Sunday.
Japan arrived without dropping a set anywhere. They took Bahrain 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, 25-23) and Australia 3-0 (25-20, 25-13, 25-21) in the pool, then India 3-0 in the quarter-final and Korea 3-0 in the semi.
Iran needed four sets twice. Porya Khanzadeh scored 24 against Chinese Taipei in the quarter-final, and Roberto Piazza's side dropped the second set to Australia on Saturday before taking the next two.
Iran have four Asian titles and Japan now have eleven, which is what this fixture looks like across sixty years rather than across three days.
Iran's Coach Said It Before It Happened
Tiredness is the obvious way to read a sweep on the third day of three and it does not work here. Piazza spent the morning of the final complaining about that schedule and also said his own side had four more hours of recovery than Japan.
Iran head coach Roberto Piazza, to the Japanese outlet THE ANSWER on the morning of the final, in translation.
What makes Japan dangerous to its opponents is that they can play as a team. That's what Philippe and Laurent have taught. Yuki is the most famous player, but Nishida and Ran are close behind him. But even they can't play without a setter or a libero. I could name everyone. They can play as a team, and that's Japan's strength.
He gives two coaches their first names only and we are not going to guess at the surnames.
What matters is that he said all of it hours before the match and then stood on the other side of the net while it happened.
Korea Took the Bronze, Iran Took Nothing
Korea beat Australia 3-2 (16-25, 25-18, 22-25, 25-18, 15-9) in the bronze-medal match and, as SBS reported, took a place at Poland's World Cup next September with it.
Iran leave Kitakyushu with a World Cup place and no Olympic one. Their remaining routes run through Poland next year and then through the world ranking, in the summer of the Games themselves.
Their last Asian title was in Chiba in 2021, against Japan, and they have lost both finals since.
The Awards Landed a Day After the Match
Ran Takahashi was named the most valuable player. He scored 17 points in the final, three of them on serve, and Yuji Nishida scored 18.
Japan took three places in the all-tournament seven, Iran three and Korea one. Hideomi Fukatsu at setter, Takahashi at outside hitter and Taishi Onodera in the middle for Japan; Poriya Hossein Khanzadeh Firouzjah, Ali Hajipour Moghaddam Farouji and Seyed Eisa Naseri Chenari for Iran; Kyeongmin Park at libero for Korea.
Volleyball World puts the crowd at over six and a half thousand and nobody has printed an exact figure, so that is the number we have. The match took an hour and twenty minutes.
Yuki Ishikawa, the Japan captain, at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday, translated here from the Japanese.
I am relieved we were able to win yesterday's Asian Championship. I am glad we achieved the goal. But our goal is not here. Winning a medal at the Olympics is the final goal. I felt we are still not strong enough, so I want to keep growing. As captain I want to build the team as well.
The tournament he is talking about starts at the Honda Center in July 2028. Japan have not medalled at one since Montreal in 1976.
