Fukuoka and Nagano, Japan, October 5, 2019 – Brazil remain the only undefeated team in the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup, while Poland, Italy, Canada, Iran and the United States chased victories on Saturday.
The Brazilians improved to 4-0 mark with a straight-set triumph 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-22) against back-to-back Volleyball Nations League champions Russia. Alan Souza amassed 18 points, including four service aces.
“Today, our volleyball was based so much on the serve, so even when Russia started to serve better and put us in trouble in the third set, Alan (Souza) then made a good sequence of serves at the end, and I think we did a great job,” Bruno said.
“We played smart against a strong team in block, so we are really happy because after a not so good match yesterday, I think we improved a lot. We’ll just keep pushing and be focused for the next match.”
In the other matches in Nagano, Canada were pushed to their limit by Egypt before regaining their composure to end the match in their favour in the tiebreaker and break into the win-column. Canada captain Nicholas Hoag had a match-high 20 points that helped his squad record a 3-2 (27-25, 27-25, 16-25, 22-25, 15-9) victory against the African team, which dropped to two wins and two losses in the competition.
Iran won their second consecutive match after starting with two losses, as Amir Ghafour brought his A-game and scored 18 points, powering Iran’s 3-1 (25-22, 18-25, 25-18, 27-25) win over their continental rivals Australia.
Meanwhile, USA are on a three-match winning streak in Fukuoka following their 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-21) victory over hosts Japan. Matt Anderson and Aaron Russell had a good run as they steered the team’s offence and defence in the first set. By the second set, the North American squad had momentum, allowing coach John Speraw to utilise his other players and giving Maxwell Holt the go-signal to complete the win.
“We came out aggressive,” Holt said. “We weathered the storm early and I think we did a good job in the first set of playing as a team – our union, blocking, defence and our serve was really aggressive. We just played our game.”
After their loss to the USA on Friday, Poland got back on the winning track. However, they had to endure a hard-fought battle with Argentina. The South American team managed to snatch the opening set with a two-point edge, but the European squad fought back to get the next three with Wilfredo Leon on the forefront of their offence. The heavy-hitting spiker collected 17 spikes, a block and two aces and led the team to its third victory.
Italy produced an easier victory against Tunisia 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-18) after their previous five-set encounter against Argentina. Gabriele Nelli topped all scorers with 21 markers, including 19 attacks, a block and a service winner to improve his team's record to 2-2.
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