In their last game of the tournament Greeks played against last ranked Slovenia. Even when the Slovenians dominated, the Greeks played great at the end of each set and deservedly celebrated finishing first in Pool C.

In Pool D, both Italy and Serbia started with a 1-1 record after their straight-set win against Czech Republic as well as their defeat against Bulgaria. The Italians began more focused, but Serbian team had better nerves and with Ivan Miljkovic points turned around score, wining 25-23. In second set, Italians demonstrated good volleyball and celebrated. But in third set Serbs great volleyball destroyed the Italian and they were on their knees, 25-12. Guided by great captain Nikola Grbic and funtastic hitter Ivan Miljkovic, Serbian team was wery close for qualifying to the next round. Only one more set. Italian coach Anastasi tryed to break the Serbian rhythm with several substitutions but he failed and Serbs won the game 3-1.

Almost 3,500 enthusiastic fans did their best to help host Turkey overcoming France, but the West Europeans didn’t waste any time when they walked through in straight sets. The French, on the other hand, finish second in Pool A accompanying Poland (1st) and Germany (3rd) to the Playoff Round.

In the last match of Pool D at Abdi Ipekci Sports Hall in Istanbul, Bulgaria continued their winning streak with a 3:1 win over the Czech Republic.

In Pool B, Russia destroyed their rival leaving them only 43 points for 63 minutes and finishing first in their Pool.

With crowd behind them, Argentina players got a quick lead 5-1 blocking Alexander Moreno spikes in first set. The score was 8-3 heading into the first technical time-out. Argentina kept making pressure from serving while Colombia attempted different spiking combinations in an effort to score. Argentina was dominant in all fields while Colombia was helpless, loosing 25-15.

The second set started the same way with Argentina leading 3-0. Colombia players fought hard for each ball but Ocampo’s ace put the score 8-4 and fist technical time-out. The score was 16-9 at the second TTO, while Daniel Vanegas missed a serve and Nicolás Mosquera’s error closed the set 25-16.

The third set was more leveled scoring point by point on each side of the net. Argentina coach Javier Weber called his first time-out at 24-22 and with an ace from Gustavo Scholtis the match was closed 25-23, leaving Argentina 3-0 win and World Championship qualifier.

Japan (3-0) and Iran (2-1) took the two remaining tickets from Asia, but Korea (1-2) and Kazakhstan (0-3) will not be going to Italy next year after an emotion-packed final day of qualifying.

After finishing their three-match schedule with a 2-1 win-loss record by beating Kazakshtan, the Iranians had to wait for the result of Japan-Korea before knowing their fate.

And long before Japan completed a high-speed, power-packed 3-0 victory over Korea to finish with a perfect record, the Iranians were hugging each other and exchanging high-fives as they knew their ticket to Italy was secure.

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Colombia won its second match in as many days with an 0-3 (18-25, 16-25, 23-25) cakewalk over winless Bolivia, while favorites Argentina hardly broke a sweat against Chile, romping to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-18) victory.

The wins set up a crunch match on Sunday, the last day of the competition, between the two undefeated teams, with the winner picking up the final ticket for Italy 2010. That team will join Venezuela and Brazil, who received a bye to the Final Round as defending champions, as South American representatives.

Jimenez Meruvia (Bolivian player): “I am very happy to be able to play in San Luis against great players. We lost due to our bad rhythm.”

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The hosts followed up their 3-1 victory over Kazakhstan on Friday by toppling Iran by the same score and becoming the only team of the four to win two games.

Iran and Korea both have one win against one defeat, while Kazakhstan have lost both games, meaning that the two qualifying places for Italy will be decided on Sunday. The third and final day of the round-robin competition will open with Iran taking on Kazakhstan before Japan renew their fierce regional rivalry with Korea.

Korea came back from two sets down to beat Kazakhstan 3-2 (23-25, 18-25, 25-16, 25-19, 15-5) and keep alive their hopes of World Championship qualification, before Japan beat Iran 3-1 (25-17, 25-22, 22-25, 25-17).

In the first game of the second day, dubbed “The Survival Match,” the Koreans had to go the distance again, but this time ran away with the tiebreak 15-5 after losing the deciding set the previous day to Iran.

Kazakhstan had been in control of the match, winning the first two sets 25-23, 25-18. The Koreans had no answer to the nonchalant spiking skills of the 2.10-metre Svyatoslav Miklashevich, who scored points as easily as swatting flies.

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Iran beat Korea 3-2 (19-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-17, 15-12) in the opening match of the four-team round-robin before Japan held off Kazakhstan 3-1 (25-20, 17-25, 25-21, 25-16) in the evening showpiece to send the local supporters home happy.

With Kazakhstan to play on Saturday, followed by Japan on Sunday, the pressure is really on the Koreans to win both games in order to finish in the top two and qualify for the 2010 World Championship in Italy.

Korea started their game against Iran without danger man Moon Sung-Min, who had a slight elbow injury, according to head coach Kim Ho-Chul.

This proved to be a major talking point after the game for Iran’s head coach, Hossein Madani.

“I am happy with the result but I am not completely satisfied with my players because I think our strength is more than this,” he said.

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Runners-up at 10 of the last 12 South American Volleyball Championships, including the latest edition that finished last week with Brazil winning their 27th title, Argentina is the undisputed second-best team on the continent.

Expertly coached by former National Team player Javier Weber, the Argentines are in optimum playing form thanks to the World League and continental championship, the only drawback being a susceptibility to fatigue.

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Hosts Mexico, Canada and Dominican Republic (the second-place teams from three third round tournaments) are joined by Panama (the best third-place side from those events). Puerto Rico, Cuba and United States have already booked their spots in Italy as NORCECA representatives.

Mexico has just returned home following two losses to Germany in a 2010 World League qualifying challenge. Led by veteran Ivan Contreras and with the support of the local crowd, the Mexicans are confident of their chances of making it to the final phase of the world event.

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The four teams will play a round-robin format at Chia Yi City Gymnasium, where the top two teams will advance to Japan, following China and Thailand, which secured their berths in July in Chengdu, China after finishing 1-2 in Pool D.

Kazakhstan and New Zealand earned their third-round berths after placing first and third in Pool B during the second round, while Chinese Taipei was second in Pool C. Korea entered the third round directly.

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Being ranked 13th in the World Ranking Germany stood out as the clear pre-favorite of this match against Mexico but still the hosts had difficulties at the beginning. They missed several services and the block was not as effective as it was supposed to be. But after Mexico leveled the score with an ace of Gustavo Meyer, the German team started playing better.

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