The last day of the Almirante Brown tournament in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina, offered two very exciting games. In the Sunday program opener the favourites Germany were surprised by a motivated Bulgaria, whereas the hosts Argentina dropped a set against Portugal but won in four.
We already discussed yesterday about the missing names in both line-ups. Vital Heynen counted on the captain Bjorn Andrae and Sebastian Schwarz as outside hitters. His colleague Nayden Naydenov, who has been appointed today as the official new head coach and follower of Radostin Stoychev, started with the same roster that lost to the hosts on Friday, but managed to stand up and defeat Portugal on Saturday. Andrae and Schwarz had real problems penetrating the Bulgarian block and as a result the “lions” took the first set by a comfortable lead. Heynen changed Schwarz shortly after the beginning of the second set with Denys Kaliberda and the display of the Bundesteam boosted significantly. The Germans dominated in the next two parts and were only a set away from sealing a third consecutive victory in Almirante Brown. The young Bulgarians, however, played very confidently in the fourth set and not only made it to a decisive fifth one, but showed a great volleyball till the end of the game. Two mistakes in a row by the setter Georgi Bratoev threatened utterly the success of Bulgaria and gave Germany an 11-13 lead in the tie-break. It was due to the great serving of Tsvetan Sokolov that Bulgaria equalised at 13-13 and later, thanks to a sublime Viktor Yosifov, the guys of Naydenov celebrated a second consecutive victory over Germany as the scenario repeated from the tournament in Frankfurt. Jochen Schoeps was the top scorer for Germany with 20 points, while Tsvetan Sokolov finished the game for the winners with 28.
Vital Heynen, German coach: “I want to congratulate Bulgaria because they had a more enthusiastic game and I hope to get revenge next weekend.”
In the other game of the day hosts Argentina were not supposed to have difficulties versus the young Portuguese. The team coached by Flavio Gulinelli stole a set from both Germany and Bulgaria previously and wanted to prove that it was not a sudden endeavour. Argentinians started shaky and quite deservedly Portugal took the lead after a close 25-23 first part. From then on the “gauchos” increased the level and won the next two parts easily. In the fourth set the boys of Javier Weber dropped a significant advantage of 7 points, allowing Portugal to come very close in the score race, but still won the game 3-1. Marco Ferreira was the highest scorer of the match with his 19 points.
Teams will need some time now to recharge the batteries and travel to the next destination of Pool D, namely Guimaraes in Portugal. Germany again will be the team to beat there. Bulgaria will appear with the same squad, there is a possible rotation though in the middle-blocker position where the recovered Nikolay Nikolov might swap Viktor Yosifov in the roster. The head coach Javier Weber announced in front of local media that Argentina might travel with the B squad to Portugal, but we will have to wait for the official list of players to know if it will be the case indeed.
Almirante Brown, Day 3
Bulgaria – Germany 3-2 (25-19, 14-25, 19-25, 25-23, 16-14)
Argentina – Portugal 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-19, 25-23)
Current standings after 2 weekends:
Germany 13 pts, Argentina 12 pts, Bulgaria 11 pts, Portugal 0 pts
Pictures: FIVB
