Nagoya, Japan, November 23, 2009 – Iran was beaten by Cuba 1-3 in their last match of the 2009 FIVB World Grand Champions Cup gold medal on Monday. The NORCECA champion came home 25-14, 25-22, 15-25, 25-15 but had to work hard to hold off a determined Iran side to end the six-team inter-continental championship with a 4-1 record.

Iran closed at 1-4, having started the tournament with a spectacular 3-2 victory over Egypt, but Iran later was defeated by Brazil 1-3, Japan 2-3 and Poland 1-3. They finally finished the fifth before African champion Egypt.

Iran head coach Hossein Madani said " I think in the first two sets our players were affected by the absence of the first setter (No. 4, Marouf), because at the last minute we found he could not play. We had some problems with our second setter (Mahdavi) and we were confused in the first two sets. In the third set our second setter started to control the match.

Iran's captain Alireza Nad said We played well and our players did their best. We can play better, and if we want to win against Cuba we need more friendly matches during the year and to have more experience for these matches. For today in the third set we could defeat Cuba. We started playing only from the third set, but I think our team will grow up more and more in the near future.

The Iranian players, though beaten in their last match, won high praise from their opponents. Cuba coach Orlando Samuels said "Today our team mood was up and down. In the first and second sets we found our pace, and it looked like there was no Iran team on the other side.

"In the third set we lost concentration and made a lot of mistakes, but in the fourth set we got back in the mood. I want to tell the players to concentrate in every moment of every match. That is our aim. I would like to praise Iran for their fighting spirit and for playing hard. We have to learn from their attitude towards the game."