Cuba team in U21 volleyball world championship
Havana, October 2 (RHC)-- The Cuban national team will face Iran this Saturday in search of the victory that will allow them to dispute the ninth place in the Under-21 Volleyball World Championship taking place in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The opponent will come out of the Canada-Thailand duel, while the semifinal program in the Balkan country will be completed by the match between Bahrain-Morocco, whose winner will play this Sunday for the 13th place against Egypt, winner of Cameroon 3-0 by no-show.
Meanwhile, in the Italian city of Cagliari, Russia and Argentina will meet, and the hosts will face Poland to define the two teams that will dispute the title a day later.
In Carbonia, the Czech Republic-Bulgaria and Brazil-Belgium will do the same in search of the success that will allow them to fight for the fifth place on Sunday's final day.
The Cuban team will face an Iranian team that had four wins and two losses in the previous rounds.
In preliminary group C, they lost to Belgium and Argentina, although they were forced to take five sets. Then they swept Morocco.
The other victories were in this order at the expense of Egypt, Morocco again and Thailand, all with straight sets.
Cuba accumulated three successes and an equal number of failures. In key B, they lost to Poland 1-3 and Bulgaria 0-3, and overcame Bahrain 3-1.
Meanwhile, in group H, Cameroon won by default, once again dominating the Asian team 3-1 and losing to Canada.
In the last two matches, the Caribbean team was unable to count on its outstanding corner player Marlon Yant due to a second-degree abdominal injury.
"He has been rested due to medical considerations. We still don't know if we can use him in the remaining two games, but he is recovering and undergoing the indicated treatment," methodologist Osvaldo Arias, head of the delegation, explained to JIT.
"He has been training in case it is necessary to use him in the defense, but so far we do not plan to use him, although he is progressing satisfactorily," he added.
Another point player, Jose Miguel Gutierrez, is the best overall performer according to the statistics of the official FIVB site: 7th in serving, 15th in blocking, 17th among the top scorers, as well as 12th in receiving.
Also the lanky U-19 player, Alejandro Miguel Gonzalez, stands out among the most outstanding middle blockers by ranking fifth.
Passer Christian Thondike is sixth in his position and in 26th place among the top scorers is opposite Alexei Ramirez.
With this tournament, Cuban indoor volleyball concludes its commitments in 2021, while more than 25 players are already in the different clubs contracted for the 2021-2022 season.
