Canada secures 11th place in FIVB Volleyball Men´s Junior World Championship
The finals of the FIVB Volleyball Men´s Junior World Championship took place on 10th August in Niteroi, Brazil. The venue of the 11th place final match between Japan and Canada was the Caio Martins gymnasium. The Japanese were largely
dominated by the Canadian side which effectively made a clean sweep over their rivals and won the match at the following final set scores: 25-23, 25-20 and 25-19.
The Japanese put up a good fight in the first set of the match but their performance progressively dwindled with each passing set. The second set was relatively easier than the first one for the Canadians but the third set was dominated by Canada for the
most part.
Georges Laplante, the Canadian coach, expressed his satisfaction in the following words at the press conference that was conducted after the match: “We are very happy about the win today. Even though one of our starters was injured (Nicholas Hoag), we picked
it up."
Whereas the Japanese coach, Noriaki Sako, gave the following statement about the outcome of the game: “I´m sorry we lost on the last day. Canada wasn’t also in their best quality, but they were better mentally. One of the reasons was because we couldn’t
get our team together during the match. I salute everyone from Japan, for their highs and lows during this tournament.”
The first set of the match saw the Japanese take a lead at 8-4 and still had the advantage at 16-11 when the second technical time out was reached. As the match reached the final stages, the Canadians were still trailing at 23-20. However, the Canadians
did not give up the chase and put on a spurt of speed that led them to an opening set win at 25-23.
The second set of the game saw the Canadians take the lead at 8-4 and they were able to stick with it until 12-7 after which the Japanese were able to close in the gap at 13-11. However, this was as close as the Japanese got as Canada moved ahead at 24-20.
After this point, the Japanese team could not hold their fort and saw the Canadians secure another win at 25-20.
The third set was tight with the match reaching a tie at 12-12 but then the Canadians took the lead at 16-13 that helped them all the way to a 25-19 win.
The last time that the two teams met each other at the Caio Martins gymnasium, Canada was able to make a clean sweep over Japan. This was in the second round of the tournament. The championship has ended with a 4-4 record for the Canadians while the Japanese
are cradling a 2-6 record.
Tags: