Rivalry in pool A keeps getting better and more and more exciting. Nine-time World League champions Brazil still remained unbeaten but Poland showed that beating the best team in the world is still possible… well, almost possible 🙂
USA played tough games with Puerto Rico and as in case of battles Brazil-Poland the final score doesn’t show the true epic story behind the games.
If someone asked me before this World League weekend what scores I expect, I would definitely say a victory in straight sets for Brazil and USA. Actually I would be close to the right result but far from the truth. Volleyball is not only about numbers and statistics. It is more about the atmosphere in the team, creating and sustaining the mentality of the winner and keeping the faith even tough the circumstances might make it difficult to think about the victory… From the psychological point of view, both battles between Brazil and Poland and Puerto Rico versus USA were curious cases.
Puerto Rico – newcomer to the one of the most prestigious volleyball competitions in the world, Cinderella in the pool A to meet the reigning Olympic champions, a team which has no respect even for Brazil and Poland – the new team consisting mostly of youngsters, coming back to life after the disastrous world championship, a team with a new coach to fight against the best team worldwide. What would you do knowing that according to everyone, experts, fans, bookmakers, you have no chances to win? Well if you weren’t a professional athlete, you would probably feel depressed and let it go… But players of Puerto Rico and Poland proved their professionalism and played if they didn’t know who’s on the other side of the net…
In this way we had the ultimate opportunity to see Brazil and USA being forced to fight for every single ball and get sweat while fighting in every little action. As a result of both Poland and Puerto Rico keeping their faith in themselves despite playing with titled rivals, finally we saw some stress on the face of Bernardo Rezende and Alan Knipe. Both coaches seemed to be surprised by the attitude of their competitors and were forced to look for a better solutions in their teams.
Young setter Brian Thornton finally had an opportunity to replace an experienced Donald Suxho and played just brilliantly, especially in the second game. In my opinion in the second match Puerto Rico played so emotionally and ambitionally that it was really close to the tie-break which would be a major sensation of the whole weekend. However if you got Clayton Stanley and William Priddy, it would be a sin against a common-sense not to use them… Powerful spikes and serves by the duo Stanley-Priddy in the key moments of the match were the reason why Puerto Rico might feel only a bitter satisfaction after the game. Also in case of battles Brazil versus Poland the experience and cold blood of the hosts were the key factors for another victory of canarinhos.
Young team of Poland played with passion but it was Brazil who was slightly better in the key moments of the game. Bartosz Kurek, Zbigniew Bartman and especially Michał Kubiak lost twice but left a very good impression and proved they’re on the right path to success. Coach Bernardo Rezende gave a chance to play to the young Wallace and it was absolutely a right decision. Murilo, who’s getting back to the start line-up after some break, leaded his team to the second victory over Poland and was playing his best.
It was also a great opportunity to see probably the best libero in the world Sergio in action. Last but not least, Poland proved that there is a powerful weapon against Brazilian deadly spikes and serves and it’s very simple: the block. Brazil secured their first place in pool A, followed by USA and Poland. Puerto Rico is still waiting for their first points. Next weekend will bring us the creme de la creme of the volley world – Brazil versus USA. The favorite of course is Brazil but the last weekend showed us that on the court, like in life, everything is possible…
photo: FIVB
