Iran defeats the United States at the 2013 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Grand Champions Cup in Japan, Press TV reported.
On Wednesday, Argentinean head coach Julio Velasco's team edged past Italy 3-2 (26-24, 16-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-12) at Kyoto prefectural gymnasium, where the first round of the tourney is being held.
Mohammad Mousavi led the way for the Iranians by putting up an amazing defensive effort and gaining 17 scores, eight coming from blocks.
"That was a special game for us and also for our coach," said Iranian team captain Saeed Marouf, adding, "We finally got the opportunity to play many international matches with strong teams and not only with the best sides in Asia. As you know, Asian volleyball is not really that strong at the moment and therefore we need to see where we really stand by playing teams from other continents."
In other matches of the day, Brazil and Russia blanked their opponents, the United States and host Japan, 3-0.
Iran lost its first match to Brazil 1-3 despite a great performance on Tuesday and currently stands in the fifth spot of the table with two points. Brazil, Italy, and Russia are on top with 6, 4, and 3 points, respectively.
The Iranian volleyballers are scheduled to take on Russia in their next match in the Japanese capital Tokyo on Friday.
The 2013 round of the games kicked off in Japan on November 19 and will wrap up on November 24.