The FIVB Men’s Junior World Championship: Pool E update
With the first round of the FIVB Men’s Junior World Championship successfully completed, the teams had a rest day on August 4th. The initial stages of the tournament were conducted in Rio de Janeiro as well as Niteroi, two cities of Brazil. The
second round is scheduled to start shortly today, August , with eight teams qualifying and divided into Pools E and F.
Pool E consists of an interesting mix that includes United States, Spain, Russia and Iran.
The United States belonged to Pool A initially and had a deciding match with the Japanese on Wednesday, August 3rd. The match went on until four sets at the end of which the Americans found themselves to be on the top of their pool. The first
set saw the Japanese take some time adjusting while the U.S. dominated the game for the most part. As the set drew to its close, the Americans were able to bag it at 25-20. However, the Japanese successfully equalised the match by taking the second set at
25-21 but they lost the third one to the U.S. with a significant margin at 25-18. Likewise, the fourth set of the game saw the Americans cruise through as the Japanese put in a half-hearted effort that cost them the final set at 19-25.
Spain competed with the Argentineans on Wednesday but both the teams were already in the second round of the competition. The match was a decider for the first place in Pool B. The contest went on till four sets but ended in a loss for the Spanish as the
Argentineans bagged a 3-1 win. The first set of the match was bagged by Argentina at 25-20 but Spain neutralized the Argentinean advantage by taking the second set of the game. Unfortunately, the Spanish could not show a fighting spirit in the third and the
fourth sets which the Argentineans won by 25-14 and 25-8 respectively.
The Russians got into the second round by defeating the Germans 3-1 and also earned themselves the top spot in Pool C. Russia won the first set by 25-20 but lost the second set after an intense struggled in which the Germans bettered them by 26-24. The next
two sets went tight as well but the Russians prevailed in to bag a win by 25-23 in the third as well as the fourth set.
Iran got into the top eight running by handing out a defeat to the Belgium team by 3-1. The win got its record to show a total of two wins at the expense of one defeat. Iran got itself in the second slot in Pool D by winning at the following final set scores:
25-20, 23-25, 25-23 and 25-17.
The teams that will earn the top four positions in the tournament remain to be seen in the days to come.
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