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Brazil, Russia await semi-final rivals
 Visakhapatnam,
India, August 10, 2005 - Russia and Brazil are safely
through to the last four of the Men's U21 World Championship.
But their opponents in Saturday's semi-finals will not be
known until the two preliminary groups are completed on
Thursday.
In Pool A, Russia will be joined by Cuba or Korea, who clash
in the last round of the preliminaries. In Pool B, the Dutch
are the favourites to join Brazil after a nail-biting 3-2
victory over Iran in a two-hour, 22-minute epic late into
Wednesday evening.
In the first Pool A match of the day at Rajiv Gandhi Indoor
Stadium, Korea had to work hard to beat a fired-up Morocco
3-1 (25-10, 32-34, 27-25, 25-20). The match began
disastrously for Morocco, who lost a key player, Adil Bsina,
after only two points with an injured ankle. He screamed in
pain, and had to be carried from the court by his teammates.
Pic: Cuba beat India 3-0 (25-19, 31-29, 26-24) on
Wednesday
This seemed to affect the morale of the team, and they
succumbed tamley 25-10 in the first set. But in the second
set they really started to fire, with Zakaria Bairi leading
the charge. He scored a team-high 26 points in the match,
although he made too many errors on his serve. In a gripping
end to the second set, Korea missed three set points before
Morocco clinched the 34-minute marathon 34-32 on their
seventh set point. This was their first set of the
championship after three straight 3-0 defeats, but it was of
no consolation to captain Amine Lankaoui.
"We came here to win the match, and we thought we had a good
chance against Korea because they are not so tall," he said.
For Korea, Moon Sung-Min scored 29 points, including 28
kills, and many of them came at crucial moments.
Looking ahead to Thursday's crucial game with Cuba, Korea's
head coach, Lee Kyung-Suk, said: "Cuba is a very strong
team, and we must prepare well. Especially our blocking and
serve reception because defence is very important against a
team like Cuba.
"The Cubans are very tall and athletic jumpers, so the
timing of our blocking will be a key factor. We want the
ticket to the semi-finals."
Cuba joined Korea on a 3-1 win-loss record by beating India
3-0 (25-19, 31-29, 26-24). India failed to capitalise on six
set points in the second set, and one in the third, leaving
head coach Chander Singh to say: "Our team had the
opportunity to kill the set, but in that situation the
negative points set in. A hundred per cent it must be killed.
"It is down to total mental relaxation, and the same can be
said for all our national teams."
The brilliant Osmany Juantorena led Cuba's attack with 16
points, although they rested some of their key players in
the third set.
Looking forward to the Korea clash, Cuba's head coach,
Lawrence Garcia Ramon, said it was a vital game for both
teams, as the winner would enter the semi-finals from Pool
A.
"Our block is not working like it is supposed to be, so we
are going to have to block much better. We must also stay
focused and concentrate more so we do not make as many
errors."
In the last match of the day in Pool A, Russia defeated
Serbia and Montenegro 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 25-15, 25-17) in an
occasionally bad-tempered encounter. Russia improved to 4-0,
while Serbia dropped to 1-3. But Russia are not content just
with qualification, according to captain Serguei Grankine.
"We must not start thinking about the semi-finals because we
still have to play India on Thursday," he said. "We want to
win the group and improve our performance match by match."
In Pool B, the United States began the day with a 3-0
victory over Tunisia (25-17, 25-14, 27-25) in 58 minutes.
Jayson Jablonsky scored a game-high 16 points, including 14
spikes, and he was supported by Paul Lotman (14 points) and
captain Jacob Schkud (11), as the Americans (1-3) recorded
their first victory of the week. For Tunisia (0-4), Hichem
Kaabi scored 10 points, but no other player could manage
double figures.
Next on were Brazil and Germany, and the South Americans
extended their winning streak to four games while Germany
dropped to 2-2. Brazil looked set for a straight-sets
victory after winning the first two 25-18, 25-17, but the
Europeans fought back and took the third 25-21. In the
fourth set, Brazil stepped it up again and closed out the
match 25-18 for a 3-1 success. Vinicius Marcus Jube scored
18 for Brazil, comprised of 12 spikes, three blocks and
three service winners, while Dirk Westphal and Max Gunthor
led Germany's reply with a modest, team-high eight points.
The Germans were aided by 36 Brazilian errors.
The last match in Pool B on Wednesday night was a
cliff-hanger, as the Dutch beat Iran 3-2 (25-21, 28-26,
22-25, 24-26, 26-24). With the win, the Netherlands moved
into second place with a 3-1 record, behind Brazil (4-0) but
ahead of Iran and Germany (both 2-2).
The top two in each group enter the semi-finals, the third
and fourth-placed teams compete in the classification
rounds, and the fifth and sixth are eliminated.
On Thursday, it's Cuba against Korea, Russia against India
and Morocco against Serbia and Montenegro in Pool A.
In Pool B it's USA against Germany, Netherlands against
Tunisia and Brazil against Iran. |
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Competition Formula
