2006 Men’s World Championship – Thailand
Uzbekistan join Thailand in second round (FIVB)
05/22/2005
Ratchaburi, Thailand, May 22, 2005 - After a disappointing match against hosts Thailand on Friday, Uzbekistan eventually found their touch at the 2006 Men’s World Championship first round tournament – Asia Group B on Sunday to beat Afghanistan in straight sets 25-19 25-13 25-18 and claim the remaining second-round ticket on offer after Thailand had claimed the first ticket on Saturday.

It signals an end to a remarkable tournament where all three teams had overcome adversity to not only compete in the tournament but to actually arrive in Ratchaburi, considering war, conflict and natural disaster had affected all three countries one way or the other recently.

Leading up to the final day, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan had both suffered similar straight set defeats at the hands of the home side so Sunday’s match was effectively a play off for the second place in the meet and the second ticket through to the second round.

Afghanistan started ferociously from the opening whistle, attempting to pierce their rivals’ defence with some fierce spiking from Azimi Zameer and Farhamand Mustafa, while Uzbekistan held firm with some solid defence.

Slowly but surely Uzbekistan started to pull their game together. Alexander Ribalkin, the team’s oldest and most-experienced player, produced some spectacular spikes while also combining excellently with Andrey Plotnir to execute several scintillating blocks, which midway through the first set resulted in eight consecutive points. That defensive work set the tone for the match, and it wasn’t long before Uzbekistan had gained the ascendancy and sealed the match in just under an hour.

After the clash, Uzbekistan’s head coach Garri Bagirov said that he was very happy that his team had successfully clinched the remaining ticket for the second round.

“I’m very happy with my players’ performance,” he said. “It was a much better performance than the match against Thailand on the first day. Next month, we have to travel to Iran for the second round. Certainly, a tough task awaits my team and we have to train much harder. I hope everyone will do their best there,” he added.

Despite two straight losses, Afghanistan head coach Mukhtari Sayed was still satisfied with his team’s form. “My team did not train properly before taking part in this tournament. If we had trained much harder, I think we could have matched competitively both Thailand and Uzbekistan. Now, we have to go back to our country and train there secretly for next year’s clash in the South Asian Federation Games in Sri Lanka.”

As tournament winner’s Thailand now head to Chennai for a second round clash with India, China and Indonesia from June 22-24 while Uzbekistan travel to Teheran to play Iran, Australia and the winner from Group A (to be held from May 28-30) from June 22-24.
(Released by FIVB)
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