Brazil wins third straight FIVB World Championship
Brazil won their third straight Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Men’s World Champioship on Sunday with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-14, 25-22) victory over Cuba. The match pitted an experienced Brazilian
team against a young Cuban team, and the experience paid off in the final match with Cuba committing 27 errors.
“Today was not our best day, but in the future we will continue working to be among the top three teams in the world,” said Cuban captain Robertlandy Simon. “Brazil played at a high level and we need to
learn to play in these kinds of matches where you have to do or die.”
Leandro Vissotto was the match’s top scorer with 19 points while Wilfredo Leon was the top scorer for Cuba with 15 points.
Brazil cruised to a 5-2 lead in the first set with Murilo Endres serving, and an 8-3 lead at the First Technical Timeout (FTT). Cuba made it close after the Second Technical Timeout (STT). Down 21-18,
Fernando Hernandez served up an ace to make the score 21-19, but with Brazil up 24-22 a short time later, Vissotto scored one of his six points of the set to give Brazil a 1-0 lead with a 25-22 set victory.
Brazil used their first set momentum to take an early 7-1 lead in the second set, although errors by Cuba helped give Brazil the early lopsided score. Cuba did their best to crawl back into the set, but
impressive blocking by Brazil made it difficult as the Cubans lost set two by a score of 25-14.
The third set was closer with Brazil having a slim 8-7 lead at the FTT, and Leon scored nine of his 15 points in the third set for Cuba, but again powerful Brazilian blocking prevented Cuba from taking
the set. Brazil out-blocked Cuba 8-4 overall.
With Brazil up 24-22, Vissotto spiked the ball into the middle of the Cuban court to give Brazil the 2010 World Championship title.
Despite losing in straight sets, taking silver is a huge accomplishment for the Cubans.
“The silver medal means a lot to Cuban men’s volleyball since we have equalled the best ever performance in our history, and that was 20 years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,” said Raul Diago, president
of the Cuba National Federation. “But something very singular and peculiar is that our team is the youngest in the championship with an average of 22.2 years-old.”
Brazil is hoping to continue their success into the World Cup and the 2012 Olympics in London.
“I think the key is that we only focus on the next tournament as the most important one no matter the previous victories,” said Brazilian coach Bernardo Rezende. “With that in mind they have reasons to
keep working harder. I don’t keep track about the numbers.”
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