Argentina beats Finland in five set thriller – 2011 FIVB World League
Argentina and Finland clashed in the opening match of fifth-week of 2011 FIVB World League Prelims on Thursday, June 23.
The Polideportivo Cincuentenario competition hall in Argentinean City Formosa set the field of play for thrilling encounter in Pool C. Argentina exhibited a wonderful performance and posted 3-2 (21-25, 25-17, 19-25, 26-24, and 15-11) victory over Finland.
Around 5,000 spectators came to watch the match. After losing the first match of the tournament to Serbia in first week, Argentina maintains the winning streak of 8 matches.
Match summary
The opening set of the game was dominated by Finnish side. They hit the ball hard and managed to find the gaps in Argentina’s half. Finland scored the first three points of the match, while Argentina was yet to be on board. Argentina’s Facundo Conte stood
up against rivals and hit back strongly. He poked the ball with such skill that it promptly hit the floor on other side. Argentina chased the score and created first tie of the match at 4-all. In response, Finland once again started the heavy strike. They
attacked with Konstantin Shumov, who worked out great shots and put his team in lead. Finland continued with success and sealed first-set win with four points.
The sight of dropping opening set in front of local audience put Team Argentina in sheer embarrassment and anger. They threw everything in attack in the second set. On the other side of the net, Finnish squad was aware of the hostile response of home team.
They tackled the difficult shots carefully and returned the ball in Argentinean half. Both teams played well in second set and remained at close difference until the second technical timeout. Afterwards, Argentina stormed opponents’ half with ground breaking
shots and levelled the game score by winning second set.
Argentina opened third set with powerful serves and put away early points on board. Finland also hit nice shots and didn’t allow Argentina to make some huge gap of points. The exchange of swift spikes and tricky bump-passes continued, while the score tied
at 10-10. Argentinean side applied full force to extend their lead in third set but Finland defended well. Finnish team performed better and claimed third set with a margin of 6 points.
The see-saw battle continued and Argentina pulled off success in fourth set. The fighting spirit of Argentinean players saved them from defeat in fourth set. The game entered 15-point golden set and tons of pressure was mounted on both teams. Argentineans
remained well focused and gave out a remarkable performance in fifth set. They were good offensively and defensively. The hard work paid off and they captured the final set of the game. The team clad in ‘sky blue and white’ outfits confirmed it thirst for
dominance and walked away with the tag of winners.
Post match
The head coach of Argentina, Javier Weber expressed his views after the match.
He said, “The first set was hard on us. We could not maintain our aggressiveness. In the second, we improved even though some of our players did not have a good performance. Technically, I must say that the team had many ups and downs, then we found our
rhythm and with good serving we found our way.”
Finnish mentor, Daniel Castellani praised the good effort of Argentinean team. He credited the players for their consistent behaviour.
Speaking of his own side, he said, “My team improves day by day but it was not enough to win today and if we want to win we must perform better.”
The captain of winning squad, Rodrigo Quiroga said that the match was full of ups and downs. He explained that loss of concentration caused them damage in third set but they overcame the weakness and clawed their way to victory. His counterpart, skipper
of Finland looked disappointed about the loss of important match.
As the preliminary round is quickly moving towards its end, Finland is losing its chances to play in the top-8. Finland and Argentina are supposed to meet on Friday in the next match.
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