Brazil defeats U.S. in the FIVB World League to move on to the semi-finals
Two of the best teams in the FIVB World League contested each other on Thursday in the Final Round of the tournament.
The match went on to four sets in which Brazil was able to earn a win over the U.S. squad after losing the first set of the game. The league matches are being held in Gdansk, Poland.
The Brazilian team seemed out of sync as they lost the opening set by quite a margin to the Americans. But ever the competitors, the Brazilians were able to pull themselves together in the second set of the game and went on to win the third as well as the
fourth set. The final set scores stood at the following points by the time the Brazilians were finished with the Americans: 15-25, 25-22, 25-22 and 25-15.
Alan Knipe, the head coach of the U.S. side made the following comments after his team had been blocked from moving on to the semi finals, “For us, it’s about keeping sustained pressure on the teams that we play. After winning the first set, the next three
sets we were down fast - by the first technical - and came back in all three of those sets and made it close by the second technical. Our slow starts in those games really affected the outcome.”
The start of the first set of the game went well for the U.S. squad as they were able to take the lead at 8-7. As the two teams came back from first technical time out, the Americans did not let their momentum break and kept the lead at 11-8.
When the Americans were still going strong at 12-9, the Brazilians felt it was time for a timeout. It did not work too well for the Brazilians as the Americans went ahead with a 17-12 advantage which they took to 20-12. After this point, it was not a tough
job for the Americans to finish off the opening set at 25-15.
The Brazilians started off the second set of the game with renewed confidence and determination that enabled them to take the lead at 5-1. The Americans kept on the chase at 8-4 but the Brazilians kept extending the advantage to 11-10.
The match was tied at 13-13 when Brazilians charged again to gain control at 18-15 but the Americans were not backing off and made the set reach a tie at 19-19. However, it was the Brazilian squad that sealed the deal by bagging the set at 25-22.
The third set of the match was intense as well with quite a lot of lead changes and ties. The score was still tied at 18-18 when the Americans got into a leading position at 20-19. However, Brazil took the lead and finished off the set at 25-22.
Being at a 2-1 deficit, the Americans played half-heartedly in the fourth set of the game which eventually led the Brazilians to win the final set at 25-15.
The Brazilian squad will be playing the semi final match later today.
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