Germans to compete for 9th position in FIVB Volleyball Men´s Junior World Championship
The semi-final of the FIVB Volleyball Men´s Junior World Championship for the 9th slot in the tournament was held between Canada and Germany on the August 9th. The venue for the competition was the Caio Martins Gymnasium in Niteroi,
Brazil. What followed was a four set long duel in which the Germans were able to earn a ticket to compete in the ninth position match with either Japan or Belgium.
The Germans lost the first set of the match as the Canadians managed to dominate the game for the most part. However, the Germans stepped up their performance in the second set and gave the Canadians a hard time in scoring points. The third set of the game
was close all the way to the end but the Germans bagged it as well. The Canadians were slack in the fourth set that made it all the more easy for the Germans to seal the deal on the match at the following final set scores: 16-25, 25-19, 25-23 and 25-18.
The German coach, Stewart Bernard, expressed his sentiments in the following words at the press conference held after his team had won the match: “I´m very happy for this victory for our team. We had lots of pressure on the serve from Canada. We recovered
our confidence in the second set. My team fought back to win the third set. Winning the third set was very important for us. Our team strength made a difference in the end."
Whereas the coach of the losing team, Georges Laplante, gave the following statements: “Congratulations to Germany. They showed great heart through the whole match. We started out strong. They pushed us a lot the rest of the match."
The Canadians were not slow to get the lead early on in the opening set at 8-4 that was later extended to 13-5. The Germans could not get their act together and made several errors. As a result, the Canadians did not have a hard time in bagging a win at
25-16.
However, the Germans learnt their lesson by losing the first set and started off the second one with a 8-5 lead that they still had at 11-8. The Canadians were the ones who were struggling this time around as the Germans kept attacking and extending their
advantage. The Canadians did not provide much of a challenge to the Germans as they went head for the set win at 25-19.
Canada did not give up and got to a leading position at 9-5 in the third set of the game and were still leading at the second technical time out at 16-11 but the Germans got the match into a tie at 22-22. Germany was finally able to overtake their rivals
and grab the third set at 25-23.
The Germans had the lead in the fourth set at 16-11 and they kept extending their advantage with the Canadians trailing behind. The set fell into the German hands at 25-18 in the end.
The German, Simon Hirsch, tallied the highest points for his team by scoring 24 of them while the Canadian, Bradley Kufske, topped his side by scoring 17 points.
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