Brazil recovers from shock defeat: 2011 FIVB Men’s Junior World Championship
Brazil recovered from shock of an early defeat in the prelims of the 2011 FIVB Men’s Junior World Championship, which started off on Monday, August 1st. The host Brazilian team has been placed in the Pool A along with teams from Japan, Bulgaria, and the
United States. The opening day of the tournament featured preliminary matches and Brazil was challenged by Japan in the first match. With immense emotional support of local fans, tag of defending champions and a strong team-line, Brazil had great chance of
winning the match but Japan surprised everyone with a win in five sets.
It was a bad start for Brazil but they got out of the blues in the next match against the U.S. team. Brazil worked out a great win over USA in the second match of preliminary round on Tuesday, August 2. The defending champions posted 3-1 (25-19, 21-25, 25-23
and 25-19) victory over American competitors and created a chance of celebration for the home audience. The Maracanazinho hall in Rio de Janeiro echoed the happy slogans of local spectators.
“We played our last chances to survive in the tournament and that putted much emotion in the match. We played as if each point was the last of the match. We played better today, but each match has its own history and tomorrow, against Bulgaria, it will be
a new battle” Said the Brazilian coach Leonardo Carvalho after the match.
John Hawks, the mentor of U.S. team appreciated the great comeback of Brazilian team. He stated that it’s always hard to recover from defeat as the one they received from Japan. Speaking of American team’s failure, the coach said: “Our receiving was bad
and that killed us. I believe that 80 per cent of our game depends on the receiving”.
Brazilian skipper Otavio Pinto commented: “It was a really tough match. Our heart and our will of winning prevailed. We missed that in our first match. Now we will play another hard match against Bulgaria”.
Taylor Sander, the American outside hitter was named the top-scorer of the match. He was credited for 20 points. On the other side, Ricardo Lucarell of Brazli and Maurice Torres of USA contributed 19 points in each in the score for their respective teams.
Brazil opened the game and promptly picked up lead over U.S. Team. Eduardo Loh of Brazil served with precision and accuracy, which greatly benefitted the team. Meanwhile Ricardo directed the ball towards corners and didn’t leave a choice for American defenders
to dig his shots. Brazil maintained dominance until the end and secured opening set.
U.S. answered Brazil's hard hitting in the second set. They covered the flaws and used Maurice Torres to devastate the Brazilian defence. Brazil tried to hinder the performance of American team but couldn’t avoid the chances of a tie. Afterwards, both sides
struggled to take the lead in third set but only Brazil could succeed in doing so. They captured third set to extend their lead to 2-1 and closed match by winning fourth set.
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