THIRD TIME LUCKY?

Azerbaijan's women's volleyball team has for the third time qualified for the final stages of the World Championship which will be held in Italy in the autumn. They achieved this after winning all their matches in the third qualifying stage at the start of this year in Baku.

Coach Faiq Qarayev's girls were lucky with the draw in the qualifying stage. Estonia and Israel should not have caused any problems for the Azerbaijani team. The main battle for first place in the group, as originally predicted, was with one of Europe's top teams, Serbia. After beating Israel and Estonia, we clashed with Serbia in the decisive match. Although Qarayev's team was not the favourites they were able to cause a sensation.

Everything was decided in the tie-break, when with the score at 2-2 Azerbaijan triumphed in the final set and took first place in the qualifying group. This means the national team can now take part in the World Championship, having recovered from the fiasco at the European Championship.

That said, the changes in the team were evident during the qualifying tournament. In the past Qarayev mainly had to rely on just 6-7 players from the main squad who tired rather quickly, and we have become used to attacking in an orthodox manner and to Natalya Mammadova playing a key role. But in this tournament Anastasia Qurbanova, Yana Agayeva, Kseniya Kovalenko and Aysan Abdulazimova all played well. Ceyran Aliyeva's successful debut and the efforts of Oksana Kisileva, who was a worthy replacement for the missing Valeriya Korotenko, should also be mentioned. Qarayev gave everyone a chance to show what they could do in the key match against Serbia, and he deserves praise for that. The oldest player in the team, Yelena Parxomenko, who is 32 this year, spent the least time on the court.

There are eight months to go before the World Championship and we are unlikely to see any new faces in the national squad in that time. With no limit on the number of foreign players in the Azerbaijani Volleyball Super League, there is no possibility of any new player being elevated to the level of the national squad. But this period can be used to improve the team's performance.

Faiq Qarayev, the chief coach and vice-president of the Azerbaijani Volleyball Federation, shared his thoughts about Azerbaijan's chances in this championship with R+.

- Did you expect the team to qualify for the World Championship?

- As chief coach I have always believed in our team. It was no fluke that we qualified but the result of hard work. Since May the team has been playing warm-up matches and the main aim was to take part in the World Championship. And we can proudly say that Azerbaijan deserves to qualify. This is down to each and very member of the federation and the team, and, of course, we must mention President Ilham Aliyev for taking time out to praise our volleyballers.

- The team showed character in the match against Serbia. Do you agree that we were lucky in that match?

- Flukes don't happen in professional sport. To beat several teams and become champion is not down to luck. Everything depends on training and self-belief. In the tie-break we were four points behind Serbia but we managed to win the set. We knew we could beat Serbia and we did. No other result would have been acceptable for our supporters.

- Did the fact that you knew the Serbian team quite well help you prepare for this match?

- We have known the Serbian team for a long time. Some of them play in our championship, and in Turkey, too. In the first two games in the group stage we were able to study our opponents even more. Still, there was great excitement and tension as both teams had a chance of winning. After we had taken two sets we were 99 per cent certain we would qualify for the World Championship, because there was hardly likely to be the same number of points and sets won in the other groups. Before the match the main job was to win two sets, and in the tie-break the girls began to play confidently and without tension.

- We were four points behind in the fifth set and with the score at 8-12 only three accurate strikes separated our rivals from victory. Surely your belief in victory must have waned at that moment?

- Those few minutes were very tense, but still we were confident. Four points is not such a big margin in volleyball. The players fought to the end and stopped their opponents playing. Victory under such difficulties is all the more desirable.

- How do you see our chances at the World Championship?

- The World Championship will be held in Italy in September-October so we have plenty of time to prepare. I don't think we'll be bringing any new players into the team. We have plenty of reserves and we need to work with them. There will be 24 of the world's strongest teams competing in the championship. We still don't know who our opponents will be. It wouldn't be right to talk about the draw. We are planning to hold friendly matches against strong opponents. Good training is half way to success. On the other hand, we need to protect the top players in the squad and any injuries could cause problems.

- At times people say that being in charge of a women's team must be quite difficult? Is that the case?

- It is easier to work with men than women. Girls are more sensitive and emotional and they worry about what's happening at home. If they have problems at home this clearly affects their game. So we try and make sure our girls have no problems at home.

- Having new players in the national team has been a good thing. But there must be a limit on the number of foreign players in the Azerbaijani Super League. The way things are at the moment only foreign players are picked, but if Azerbaijanis are not getting a game this will make it difficult to strengthen the national team.

- I fully agree with you. The federation is already working on imposing a limit on foreign players. Each club must give more chances to local players. If they aren't playing in the league, where are they going to get experience? Clubs must think about the national team. Imposing a limit will give a boost to the development of local players.

AZERBAIJAN AT PREVIOUS WORLD VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Azerbaijani women's volleyball team first took part in the World Championship in 1994 in Brazil. After beating Peru, they then lost to Cuba and Netherlands, finishing third in the group with four points. The team finished 10th out of 16 teams in that championship.

It was another 12 years before we next took part in the World Championship and Azerbaijan was among the 24 countries that qualified for the 2006 championship in Japan. At the first group stage we defeated the Dominican Republic and Mexico but lost to Russia, Germany and China. But by finishing fourth in the group we qualified for the next stage. In the second group we lost to Brazil and Netherlands, but defeated USA and Puerto Rico. Azerbaijan eventually shared 13-14th place with South Korea. The trip to Italy will be our third World Championship.