Russia to meet Brazil in
Girls' U18 final
 Macau,
China, July 30, 2005 - The ninth final of the FIVB Girls'
U18 World Championship will be between former champions
Brazil and Russia at the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion on
Sunday. In two fiercely-fought semi-finals on Saturday
evening, both teams fought back from first-set losses to
triumph 3-1 in thrilling style.
In the first semi-final, Brazil recovered from a poor start
to beat Italy 3-1 (8-25, 25-16, 25-19, 26-24). The Canaries
were over-run in the first set by a fast and fluid Italian
team, but they regrouped and battled back to register a
spectacular victory.
"I told them at the start of the second set to forget about
the first set and start again, point by point, and not to
even think about losing," said Brazil's head coach, Luizomar
de Moura. "That was the key point for us."
Reflecting on his powerful squad, the Brazilian coach added:
"Our motto is that good players win matches, but good teams
win championships."
Captain Betina Schmidt said they were still not satisfed,
despite reaching the final. "We want more," she said.
"At the end of the first set I said to my players that it
does not matter what's happened. We have worked together
since March and have gone through a lot, and we were not
going to give up the game because of
one bad set."
In the second semi-final, Russia lost the first set 19-25 to
a talented American team, but their greater experience
showed when they took the next three 27-25, 25-20, 25-17.
The Americans, however, can still improve on their previous
best finish, fourth two years ago, in Sunday's bronze medal
game with Italy. In the first classification match to
determine positions five to eight in the overall rankings,
Croatia beat Argentina 3-1 (25-13, 25-17, 23-25, 26-24) for
the second time in this championship after their group game
at the Macau East Asian Games Dome. It took Argentina until
the third set to get fully focused, but they left it too
late.
In the second classification match, Korea rocked China for
the second successive match in this championship.
After beating the reigning Asian champions and two-time
world champions 3-2 last Saturday in group play, Korea
stormed to a 3-0 win (25-23, 25-21, 25-21).
China could not match Korea's intensity in defence or
variety in attack, and lost for the second straight day
after the quarter-final defeat by the United States on
Friday night.
"We lost twice to China in the Asian Championship in the
Philippines in May, but they changed four players for this
event," said Korea's head coach, Ahn Byung-Man. "I know they
are still a very good team, but our junior players are
growing stronger."
PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1989, Soviet Union; 1991, Korea; 1993,
Russia; 1995, Japan; 1997, Brazil; 1999, Japan; 2001, China;
2003, China. |
Competition Formula
