ITALY need to continue growing as a team if they hope to continue their winning ways in the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship 2019 in Bahrain.
The Italians enjoyed a convincing victory against the host Bahrainis yesterday in their first game of the second round. It was their fourth straight triumph in the competition as they remained as one of only two teams who are unbeaten.
Today, they face a stiffer test against Asian champions Iran, and Italy captain Francesco Recine says that they must bring their A-game.
“Everyday we still need to improve technically,” said Recine after defeating Bahrain. “We need to build our strength as a team. We hope we can continue this way.
“Tomorrow, we have a tough match against Iran. They are a very good team. For sure it will be a great match.”
Meanwhile, the Iranians were also big winners yesterday as they overcame a spirited challenge from their Argentinian counterparts in a contest that went over the two-hour mark.
Iran were superior in attack, led by their one-two punch of Morteza Sharifi and team captain Amirhossein Esfandiar. They combined for 47 points, with Sharifi scoring 24. Argentina were spearheaded by an inspired performance from Luciano Palonsky, who led all scorers with 27 points. But his fine showing was not enough to overcome the firepower of their rivals.
Esfandiar later said: “It was a good match, but also a very difficult one. It was an important win because we knew that Argentina could play very well.
“I think after this win we can just play better match by match. I hope we win the next matches so we can join the final four teams.”
In Russia’s quick triumph, they gave their Korean opponents no chance to settle and they never wavered.
Maksim Sapozkhov paced the victorious Russians with 18 points, while Ivan Kuznetcov and Alexander Zakhvatenkov each finished with 10. Korea skipper Donghyeok Im had 13 to lead his team in their loss.
Russia coach Andrey Nozdrin: “Each match is very important. Now, we’re in the second round, and for me, for us, this feels like the playoffs.”
In Brazil’s win, the South Americans took advantage of their underperforming Asian opponents, who headed into the match unbeaten. Victor Aleksander Almeida Cardoso led the Brazilians with 13 points, while Angellus Cosata Da Silva added 12. For China, Cong Tian also had 13 in the setback.
Brazil head coach Giovane Gavio commented: “They have an attack system that’s different, with very high balls and fast balls. This was a little bit difficult for us. But we served well and that’s how we challenged ourselves today: We served well enough to try and stop them from doing these attacks.
“In the first set, we had seven errors in serve, and against China, you just can’t make these mistakes. We were able to fix this.
“In this round, we have nice teams, we have very strong players in attack. We have to study these teams today to try and find our way to victory. But for sure, it will be very hard.”