Brazil began their defence of the FIVB Men’s World Grand Champions Cup with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Cuba.
The South American champions beat the NORCECA champions 25-22, 24-26, 25-18, 23-25, 15-10 in a match full of fire and powerful spikes.
"Today we had a good match, but there has to be a winner and a loser. I am really sorry for losing today because this competition is a world level event, so I did not want to lose any game. From tomorrow I want to win the rest of the games,"said best scorer of Cuban team (22 points) Wilfredo Leon
Coach Bernardo Rezende: "We have to congratulate Cuba for a big fight. They have travelled a lot but are still very powerful and can come up with their serve like they did in the fourth set. As their coach said, we had a more experienced team and could control the tiebreak. It was a tense and difficult match. Tomorrow we play Iran. They had a great victory today against Egypt. We must give them respect and focus on our game and try and leave Osaka with two victories. That will be very important."
from FIVB
