Argentina forces Portugal to stay winless in the second leg of the World League – Volleyball news
Men’s national volleyball teams from Argentina and Portugal crossed their paths in the last match of second leg of the 2012 FIVB World League on Sunday.
The match took place at Almirante Brown in Argentina, which provided a competitive advantage to the hosts to win the match. Portugal received 1-3 (25-23, 21-25, 19-25, 23-25) defeat in the match and stayed without any victory after a series to six matches
in the first two weeks of the competition. On the other hand, Argentina claimed fourth victory in the tournament and moved to No. 2 position in Pool D with an overall record of 4-2.
Portugal lost the fight but it had the top scorer of the match in the form of Marco Ferreira, who charted 19 points. Ivan Castellani led Argentina with team-high 13 points.
Set 1 started out evenly, while Argentina wanted to delight the home fans and Portugal showed ambition to break the ice. Hosts led the scores at the FTT but visitors came in power at the next technical break. Argentinean coach made necessary changes in the
team-line but it did not prove helpful. Portugal continued with success and finally claimed the first set with two-point lead, 25-23.
Success in first set enabled Portugal to take a good start in the following set. They staged a consistent performance and led the score at FTT. Nonetheless, Argentina put up a spirited effort and went up at the second TTO. Thereafter, Portugal team made
frequent attempts but failed to clinch success. Argentina finished the second set with four points (25-21) and managed to come out of the blues.
Third set also came successful for Argentina on account of better attack strategy (25-19). The loss of two sets in row rang the bells of danger for Portugal. However, the team gave a good competition to Argentina in fourth set and struggled to save the match.
Pumped-up Argentinean squad denied all their efforts and did not stop until the final whistle of referee at 25-23, which announced winning status of hosts.
Head Coach of Portugal Flavio Gulinelli revealed his thoughts at the post-match press conference. He stated, “My first goal was to change the way we play and I hope we go on improving as a team. My players felt down and could not recover mentally to change
the end result.”
The winning coach of Argentina Javier Weber also had his say about the match. He said, “I am satisfied with the victory and because the team overcame the problems in the field. It was important to widen the experience of all players and I could manage that.”
Guimarães in Portugal is scheduled to set up the field of play for Pool D matches in third week. Hence, Gulinelli’s team has shifted all its attention to upcoming home matches. The coach and players are hopeful to get enough support from local fans, in order
to break the ice.
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