Belgium wins 9th place in FIVB Volleyball Men’s Junior World Championship
One of the final matches of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Junior World Championship took place between Belgium and Germany. The contest was held at the Caio Martins gymnasium in Niteroi, Brazil. The match was played to decide the 9th place in the
tournament. After a five set contest, Belgium proved itself to be worthy of the slot.
The first set was tough but the Belgians managed to pull up ahead of the Germans in the final stages of the set to bag a win. However, the Germans rebounded in the second set and equalised the match. The third set was tight for the most part but the Germans
again prevailed in the end to earn another win. With one set down, the Belgians put in all their efforts to take the match to a fifth set. Despite the fact that the Germans resisted, the Belgians prevailed and secured the fourth frame. The fifth set was eventually
sealed by the Belgians, who won at the following final set scores: 25-22, 22-25, 22-25, 30-28 and 15-11.
The Belgian coach, Steven Vanmedegael, made the following comments at the press conference after the match: “Congratulations to Germany. I think this is the best match we have ever played against each other. We had some luck in the fourth set. I'm happy
we got our fifth victory in a row."
On the other hand, the German coach Stewart Bernard expressed himself in the following manner: “My boys fought until the end for the ninth place. But in the end it wasn't enough. Belgium won today because they played with the right spirit.”
Most of the opening set of the game was tough with both teams going in for the kill. As the first technical time out was reached, the Belgians were leading at 8-7 whereas the Germans got the lead at the second technical time out at 16-15 but the match was
tied at 17-17. In the final stages, the Belgians had the advantage at 24-22 that got them the win at 25-22.
When the first technical time out was reached in the second set, the Belgians had the lead at 8-6 but the Germans did not let the advantage stay with their rivals for long and moved up ahead at 15-8. There were a couple of lead changes in between but the
Germans got themselves the set at 25-22.
The third set saw the Germans leading at 23-17 and they managed to finish it off with a 25-22 win. The fourth set of the match got into a tie at 24-24, 25-25 and then at 28-28 but it was the Belgian side that eventually had their way with a 30-28 win.
The Belgians had the lead all through the fifth set with the Germans coming close at times but that was all Germany could do as the Belgians went towards a final set win at 15-11.
The German, Simon Hirsch, was able to tally the highest number of points in both teams by scoring 34, while the Belgian, Sam Deroo, topped his team with 27 points.
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