U.S. sweeps past Japan in 2011 FIVB Men's World Cup match - Volleyball news
The third day of the third round of the 2011 FIVB Men's World Cup reached its close on November 29th afte the United States men’s national volleyball team beat Japan by 3-0. The match was held in the Japanese city of Fukuoka and the venue of the
competition was the Marine Messe. Japan is playing host to the tournament after it had successfully hosted the 2011 FIVB Women's World Cup recently.
The first set was the only one that was competitive as both teams played the frame with heart and soul and a number of set points were reached before the frame was bagged by the Americans. The gruelling opening set of the game seemed to have taken out all
the steam from the Japanese and they only put in a half hearted effort in the second set. The performance of the home team was visibly slack that made it all the more easier for the Americans to smother their opponents in the second frame.
The third set of the match followed the same pattern as its predecessor, with the Serbians trailing far behind all through while the Americans speeded up ahead to secure the third frame and seal the deal on the match at the following final set scores: 39-37,
25-16 and 25-15.
Alan Knipe, the coach of the American team, expressed himself in the following manner at the press conference that was held after his team had won the match: "Our serving and passing were the difference. A lot of times that's what it comes down to. We kept
the pressure on with our serving. It was a huge advantage for us to win the first set like that. This late in the tournament that is really big.”
On the other hand, the Japanese coach, Tatsuya Ueta, shared his disappointment by giving the following comments: "The first set was the key. We had both good and bad moments. We could not keep the situation like we wanted. We have three more games and we
will try to do our best".
The recent win has improved the number of tournament wins to four for the Americans. The number of times that the U.S. squad has experienced defeats in this championship so far is also four. On the other hand, the Japanese home team have only been able to
post two wins. In contrast to this, Japan has lost a total of six matches up till this point.
The player that proved to be the top scorer of the match was the American Matthew Anderson with 19 points.
Tags: