The Qatar national team is off to Tehran, Iran with dreams of playing hard volleyball and acquiring their best finish in the Asian Championships.
Coached by Argentine Juan Manuel Cichello, the Qatari spikers are certainly riding an upsurge at the continental level, having landed 14th, 12th and 11th places in the last three editions. Their performance has been much better during the Asian Games as they grabbed the fourth spot when they hosted them in 2006 and were sixth in Incheon, South Korea last year.
The Qatari players will have a week’s camp in Tehran, which is hosting the championship from July 31 to August 8, before the final 12 are announced.
Cichello sounded buoyant and confident about his players being in their best fettle and mettle and putting up their best display in the recent years.
After the team’s last home work-out at the Al Arabi Club Indoor Hall, the Argentine mentor said he was delighted with the team’s build-up so far and thanked the Qatar Volleyball Association (QVA) for doing its best to prepare the national players.
“The team, I think, has improved a lot since we participated in the home international event earlier this month in which we took the second place behind strong Egypt. The players have also put in a great deal of efforts to be in the best possible shape for the Asian championships.
“Now it is the time to really translate all the hard work and improvement into the real match situations and try to do our best. I think the players are also quite keen to go to the courts and live up to the expectations,” he added.
The primary goal of the team is to carve a place among the best eight.
Cichello said, “We’ve have the best possible preparations over two months. We played friendly tournament and matches. Now the players appear to be at their sharpest of the physical, mental and skills aspects. We’re also hoping to qualify for the second stage and break into top eight (after a long time)”
Qatar’s best placement in the Asian Championships was eighth when they organised the event in Doha in 1997. Later, they improved it to seventh in Suphanbari, Thailand, eight years later.
In the last three clashes, Qatar have not been able to beat Australia in the last three clashes in the Asian championship. But in the 2005 edition, Qatar had upset the Spikeroos to gain their best possible finish till date – seventh.
With the team having fine all-round capabilities, especially its middle play being quite potent, the Qatari outfit is more than ready. “Now I believe that we have a team which is prepared to give more than 100 percent at the court. We’re not depending on just one player to win points. We’ve a good, fighting team to bank on.
“Once we secure our basic target of reaching the last eight, we’ll then sit down and work on the plan to improve our standing. It is not an easy task but it is very difficult either,” Cichello said.
Qatar’s first match is against Australia, which is expected to be their hardest challenge. The team from Down Under is ranked much higher than Qatar. However, the good thing about this clash is that Qatar would be under no pressure whatsoever and at their best to tackle them.
On the third day of the championships, Qatar will take on India, which is expected to be the most crucial game for the former. If Qatar can beat India, it will pave the way for them to move into the second stage and create an opportunity for them to get among the best eight of the continent.
Qatar’s third opponents are Turkmenistan, the weakest in the pool and all the other teams of the pool should be able to beat them fairly easy.
“Our second match against India is key to our Asian championship ambition. We’re committed to do our best and let us see how my players take up this challenge,” Cichello said.
Qatar have taken only one libero in the team – Suleiman Saeed. “Ya, he is officially the lone libero in the team. He is playing well. We had other liberos as well but we decided to take Suleiman only. If he gets injured in Tehran, we’ve the option of naming Renan Ribeiro as his replacement.”
Qatar’s schedule
August 1: Vs Australia
August 2: Vs India
August 3: Vs Turkmenistan
