India defeats Germany in the opening match of the FIVB Men’s Junior Championship
The FIVB Men’s Junior Championship started on the 1st of August with Brazil playing host to the tournament this time around. The Maracanazinho Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro saw the Indians compete with the Germans in Pool C.
The opening match of the tournament went on to four sets at the end of which the Indians were celebrating their first win in the tournament. The first set of the game went in favour of the Germans but the Indians rebounded while taking the second one. The
third set saw both the teams go in for the kill and no one was sure where the tables would turn until the very end and the Indians bagged a win. The Germans could not take the match to a decisive fifth set as the Indians sealed the deal on the game by winning
the match at the following final set scores: 19-25, 25-21, 25-23 and 25-20.
The Indian head coach, M. H. Kumara, made the following comments at the end of the match while addressing the press conference: “This is the second time we play against Germany in a Junior World Championship. In the first, we lost 3-0 in 2003. We knew that
blocking was their best weapon and we had to play very fast to overcome it.”
On the other hand, the German head coach, Stewart Bernard, expressed himself in the following words: “India played very well. We started the match well and had a good performance in the second set, but we made mistakes in the most important moments.”
The start of the first set of the game was tight as both teams were determined to lead the score board. However, it was the German team that eventually got the advantage with them at 13-10 and was able to extend it until 16-11. Despite the fact that the
Indians tried to close in the gap, they could not stop the Germans from bagging the first set of the game at 25-19.
The Indians were able to get themselves in a leading position at 15-9 in the second set of the game largely because of German errors. As the game progressed, the Germans improved their performance but by that time the Indians were striding towards a win
at 25-21.
The start of the third set was in favour of the Asian team but the Germans took control in the middle before giving the lead away to the Indians in the final stages. As a result, the Subcontinent was able to bag the third set at 25-23.
India stayed dominant for the most part in the fourth set and kept the lead until they had secured what became the final set of the game at 25-20.
Even though his team lost the match, the German player Simon Hirsch was able to tally the highest number of points for both teams by scoring 31 of them. The Indian player that got the nearest to that mark was Dhanabalan Selvaprabhu, who registered 17 points
for his team.
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