Korea beats Cuba by 3-2 in a FIVB World Grand Prix match
The Korean and the Cuban sides locked horns together on 12th August in Zielona Gora, Poland in a FIVB World Grand Prix match.
The contest was a thrilling one to watch as both the teams played with spirit and skill, taking the game to five sets. However, it was the Korean team that was able to celebrate a win at the end of the competition at the following final set scores: 17-25,
25-16, 25-17, 23-25 and 25-12.
The first set of the match was majorly dominated by the Cubans as the Koreans struggled to get into form. After losing the opening set, the Koreans came out strong in the second none and took it by a significant margin. Soaring on the confidence generated
by winning the second set, the Koreans were able to better the Cubans in the third one as well.
The third set of the game was the most competitive as the Cubans wanted a win to take the match to a fifth set while the Koreans wanted to have an early stop to the match. But the Cubans prevailed in bagging the fourth set only to lose the fifth one to their
rivals.
The coach of the Korean team, Hyung-Sil Kim, expressed himself in the following words at the end of the match, “I'm thankful to my players for beating Cuba. We didn't play good enough, we won, because Cuba made more mistakes than us. We need to improve the
technical side of our play to win next matches.”
On the other hand, the Cuban coach Juan Gala Rodriguez gave these statements, “Korea played very well tonight. I feel that my team didn't play well. In crucial moments they played better and we had problems with reception, which was the key point in our
loss. We have to play very hard tomorrow, because everybody here has the same chances. We need points now. We are prepared to win.”
As the first technical timeout of the opening set was reached, the Cubans were leading at 8-3, an advantage they were able to extend until 13-6. The Koreans kept on the trail but they could not over take the Cubans who won the set at 25-17.
Korea had the lead at 11-8 which they were able to improve to a five point margin. The Cubans could not recover from this gap and eventually lost the set to the Koreans at 25-16. The third set told the same story as the second as the Korean got themselves
the lead and kept the advantage till they had won the set at 25-17. The fourth set was tied at 4-4 but the Cubans got to dominate the courts and grab a win at 25-23
The fifth set saw the Koreans take the lead at 7-5 that got extended till 12-10. Before the Cubans could make any head way, the Koreans sealed the deal at a 15-12 win.
Next in line for the Koreans is a match against the home team of Poland.
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