Cuba, Netherlands move into semi-finals
 Visakhapatnam,
India, August 11, 2005 - Cuba and the Netherlands have
joined Russia and Brazil in the semi-finals of the Men's U21
World Championship. On completion of the two six-team groups
on Thursday, Cuba booked second place in Pool A behind
Russia by beating Korea, and the Dutch finished runners-up
to Brazil in Pool B.
Russia will play the Netherlands, and Brazil will meet Cuba
in what promise to be two absorbing semi-finals on Saturday,
after Friday's rest day.
In Pool A, Korea and Serbia and Montenegro finished third
and fourth, respectively, to qualify for the 5-8
classification rounds. India and Morocco were both
eliminated.
In Pool B, Iran and the United States filled the two spots
for the classification round, behind Brazil and the
Netherlands, while Germany and Tunisia were eliminated.
Group winners Russia and Brazil both finished group play
with perfect 5-0 records.
In the opening game of Pool A, everything rested on the
Cuba-Korea showdown as both sides entered the match with
identical 3-1 win-loss records.
In the end it was a no-contest, as Cuba smashed their way
into the last four with a power-packed straight-sets victory,
25-13, 25-20, 25-16 in 62 minutes.
The Cubans are famous for their acrobatic spiking and
high-speed combinations, but they know how to defend, too.
On this occasion they had certainly done their homework on
Korea's most dangerous player, Moon Sung-Min, and they
restricted him to a meagre eight points.
In contrast, Cuba's Osmany Juantorena scored 22 points,
including 16 ferocious winners which came down at such a
steep angle they even had the Korean diggers shaking their
heads in despair.
Korea's head coach, Lee Kyung-Suk, could only marvel at the
strength in depth of the Cuban squad, who played without
captain Yadier Sanchez and fellow wing spiker Michael
Sanchez for long periods.
"They take a player out but the new one is just the same
level, and their play continues. It keeps you under pressure
all the time," said Lee, whose team will now enter the 5-8
classification rounds.
Looking ahead to Saturday's semi-final with Brazil, Cuba's
head coach, Lawrence Garcia Ramon, said: "We know that
Brazil is a wonderful team, and we have to work out how to
beat them."
The Brazilian players and technical staff received a
first-hand report on the Cubans, as they watched their match
against Korea from the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium stands.
In the second match of the day in Pool A, Russia outclassed
India 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-16) in 57 minutes. The home
players could do nothing against the powerful all-round game
of Russia's "Big Blue Machine", who extended their perfect
win-loss record to 5-0.
It was another dynamic team effort from Russia, whose coach,
Yuriy Marichev, said they would prepare for the semi-final
in the same way, according to their training programme. "But
in the serve, block and attack we must take more care," he
said, suggesting there was still room for improvement.
In the final Pool A match, Morocco left with a smile after
beating an out-of-sorts Serbia and Montenegro 3-2 (25-18,
24-26, 25-18, 14-25, 15-12).
The outstanding Zakaria Bairi had a game-high 23 points,
including a flashing winner on their third match point at
14-12. "We were motivated for every point," said a delighted
head coach, Abdellaoui Maan.
Pool B kicked off with another five-set epic, this time
between the United States and Germany. The Americans won
25-23, 21-25, 25-22, 25-27, 15-10 in one hour, 50 minutes,
to improve their win-loss record to 2-3.
Jayson Jablonsky and captain Jacob Schkud both scored 18
points for the Americans, and Paul Lotman added 17, while
Marcus Bohme led the German reply with 16.
The Americans had lost their first three games, but had
bounced back with two straight wins to finish the group
strongly. The Dutch had put themselves in a commanding
position to take second place in the group, behind Brazil,
thanks to the previous evening's win against Iran.
Against Tunisia they made no mistake, though victory did not
come without its concerns. The Dutch took the first set
25-14 in just 16 minutes, but the North Africans hit back to
level the match 1-1 by winning a close second 25-23. In the
third, the Netherlands pulled away to win 25-15, and
finished the job 25-19 in the fourth, inflicting a fifth
straight defeat on Tunisia. Jeroen Rauwerdink led the Dutch
attack with 15 points, including 14
spikes.
Iran were involved in yet another five-set thriller...and
lost again. They gave Brazil a mighty fright before going
down 25-18, 25-20, 21-25, 23-25, 15-11 in another cracker
for the crowd of 3,500. |
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