Finland emerges as giant-killer in second match – 2011 FIVB World League
Men’s National Volleyball Team of Finland finally made its mark in Pool C of the 2011 FIVB World League by beating the group leader, Argentina.
Finnish team demonstrated a brilliant performance and posted 3-1 (25-14, 25-17, 23-25, and 28-26) victory over opponents. Match was played at the totally packed up Polideportivo Cincuentenario competition hall in Formosa, Argentina. Around 5,600 spectators
were reported to be seen at the time of exciting match. After losing the previous match to Argentina on Friday, Finland made a great come-back and successfully took revenge of previous defeat. Finnish hotshots managed to outbalance Argentina and broke their
7-match winning streak.
First set
Argentinean team took centre stage and appeared pretty cool and calm. They had worked out a great position for them in Pool C with maximum wins in hand. Moreover, they had defeated the same Finnish team in the last match on Friday. On contrary, Finland’s
squad was totally up for revenge in the second match. They opened the match with strong pushes and put away early score on board. Finland earned three consecutive points due to Argentinean errors before the first technical timeout. Visitors picked up a lead
13-9 and added more points to stretch the gap of points. Boys around Javier Weber (Argentinean coach) trailed behind and dropped opening set of the match with 11-point margin.
Second set
Success in first set was green signal for Team Finland to prove their endeavours. They continued putting more and more effort in second set. Argentina couldn’t resist to the heavy strike of volleys by Finnish players and suffered the set-back. Finland took
full advantage of the situation and built a strong lead of 8-1. The killing spikes and deadly aces of Finnish players provided them with another set-win in 42nd minute of the game.
Third set
Argentina realigned the team-line in third set and changed the strategy. They followed a different approach in third set and managed to find their feet in the game. Finns were equally active in throwing amazing cut-shots and quick passes. The competition
took different turns in third set and suspense took high stake. However, Argentina got lucky for achieving the set points in first place. Finland slipped third set with a narrow gap of two points.
Fourth set
Fourth set was point-to-point tiring fight, which continued for about 30 minutes. Finland was ahead of Argentina in at the first technical timeout. Meanwhile, Argentina came close to Finnish score but couldn’t fully overcome the power of Finns. Fourth set
ended at 28-26, and Finland walked away with victory.
Rodrigo Quiroga, the skipper of Argentinean side congratulated Finland for their return victory. He said Finland got better on account of better serving, which exerted pressure on his side. Furthermore he added, “We must learn from this match and keep working.
We still have ahead of us two very hard matches and we need to return to our rhythm and level, the one we showed until now. This is very positive for myself, mainly thanks to yesterday’s victory.”
The mentor of Argentine Team, Javier Weber also credited Finland for putting up such prolific play of volleyball. He had the same views as Quirega that Finland’s serving and aggressive play enabled them to dismantle the power of Argentinean squad.
A glee of joy could be spotted on the face of Daniel Castellani, the head coach of Finnish side. He was more than happy about his team’s victory in front of home audience.
He expressed his views in the following manner, “I am very happy, mainly because the team improved itself and that is something we are always talking about. The match we lost yesterday taught us that we had to improve ourselves and that helped us win today.”
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