Cuba - Argentina Friendly Match

Havana, Jun 7 (JIT) - The Cuban team said goodbye to the friendly match against Argentina with another setback, but with a better face by extending the challenge to a tie break at the Aldo Cantoni stadium in the city of San Juan.

The hosts won with scores of 25-19, 25-20, 21-25, 18-25, 18-25, and 16-14, which shows how hard-fought the second match was, in which the outcome was decided by the Cubans' own mistakes, mainly in service and defense of the court.

Technical director Jesús Cruz opened with auxiliary attackers Marlon Yant and Miguel Ángel López, opposite Yonder Bisset, passer Christian Thondike and middle blockers Javier Concepción and David Fiel. Yonder García was the libero.

Yant and Lopez, who were not in the first game dominated by the Albicelestes, performed well in their debut, but not Bisset and Concepcion in the first two sets. Collectively they were off until the changes in the third when they won two sets.

Juan Miguel Gutierrez replaced Lopez, Roamy Alonso replaced Concepcion, Bryan Camino replaced Yonder and Julio Gomez replaced Thondike. The debutant setter performed as expected with effective actions in passing and serving, although the power to effectiveness ratio in the service game is not yet ready.

Marlon's outstanding performance, Roamy's good blocking, Juan Miguel's execution, and Bisset's improvement in the attack, allowed the victory in the third and fourth sets. They even came close to victory when they tied in the tie break in the 14th set against a team already prepared for the Nations League (VNL).

The change in the dynamics of our team is encouraging after the moves made at the end of the season, very positive for what is still required for the ideal coupling of the machinery, of which Cruz and his coaching staff are confident to meet their goal of qualifying among the top eight.