Volleyball Update: A hamster in the spinning wheel- Australia’s bad performance in the FIVB Men’s World Championship 2010
Australia is on the board along with other 23 teams in the FIVB Men’s World Championship 2010, which is being played in Italy this week. The team has been placed with Russia, Cameron, and Puerto Rico in Pool C. The first preliminary round of the game has
been covered since the championship started on 25th September, 2010. The outstanding teams made their mark and achieved good status in the ratings. Unfortunately, the Australian Men’s National team has not been able to catch any attention on account
of their shaky performance. They blew out their chances in the first round and firmly held the bottom spot in Pool C.
Australia vs. Puerto Rico – First day
Australia faced Puerto Rico in the opening match of the campaign on 25th September, 2010. Puerto Rico proved to be the bad omen for Aussies as the disaster started with the first defeat. Puerto Rico posted 3-1 (25-22, 25-22, 26-28, and 25-19)
win over Australia.
Puerto Rican forced the Aussies to stay in the limit and restricted them to low score in first set. The strong powerful serves devastated the defence expert of Australian team. The Palapanini Sports Hall in Modena, Italy banged with the thrilling performance
of Puerto Rico. After the first technical timeout, the coach Russell Borgeaud instructed scattered team of Australia to stay united and face the challenge. The Australian players started the strike and returned the ball in Puerto Rican’s court. Their game
saw improvement in the middle but Puerto Rico caught them from the scruff their neck after second technical timeout. They quickly hit the finish line and scored first set victory with the help of 25-22.
The following set had the same flow and energy. The Puerto Rico’s team pushed the Aussies behind and extended their lead to 2-0. The Australian team showed great effort and fought well in third set. They managed to snatch third set from Puerto Rico and hit
the scoreboard with 28-26. Anyhow, the happy moments were short lived as Puerto Rico bounced back in the game and diminished Australia’s chance to win, by capturing fourth set (25-19). Puerto Rico claimed the first match victory against Australia.
Russia vs. Australia – Day 2
In the next match, Australia was challenged by tough contender Russia. It was Australia’s second chance to come out of blue. Despite great effort and good chemistry, the success deceived Australian team in the first set. Russia took the game away from them
by an exhibition of incredible play. Russian “army” had already defeated Cameron in their first match, so they enjoyed the second encounter with Australia. First set was overwhelmed by Russians and claimed it by 25-17. Aussies were dragged under the clouds
of misery with a score of 25-12 in second set. The performance graph was even lower than the first set.
Somehow, the Aussies brainstormed a new plan and put up good fight in third set. Russian blockers had a hard-time to stop Australian fire-balls. Aussies won the third set after a close fight of 26-24. Russians were forced to play another set in order to
be on the winners’ side. Russia was too heavy for Australia as they swiftly posted 25-20 in fourth set. Russia added more fuel to Australia’s injury by conveying another defeat in the tournament.
Australia vs. Cameron- Day 3
Australians contested their skills with Cameron’s team in the last match of first round. They started out on a good note and scored 25-21 in the first set. It created hope for the Australian fans that team has a little spark left in them. Unfortunately,
Cameron crushed Australia’s dream to enjoy the limelight by winning the following three sets. Cameron hit them hard with a score of 25-22, 25-21, and 25-19 respectively. Australia finished the first round with a devastating score of 0, as they lost all their
matches. Australia has been eliminated from the tournament. They have been placed at the 16th spot in overall ratings of FIVB Men’s World Championship 2010.
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