Bahrain fall to dominant Italy

Bahrain were handed a disappointing 0-3 (10-25, 15-25, 13-25) defeat by an overpowering Italy Monday night in the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship 2019 at Shaikh Isa Sports City in Riffa. The Bahrainis suffered the loss in what was their first game in Pool F of the tournament’s second round, which along with Pool E features the top eight teams still in contention for the semi-finals.

The result maintained the Italians’ pristine record so far in the competition, having claimed their fourth win in as many fixtures. They had previously swept their first three games in the first round. The Bahrainis, on the other hand, suffered their second successive defeat. Also in Pool F on Monday, Iran pulled off a hard-earned 3-1 (25- 19, 23-25, 25-22, 32-30) victory over Argentina in a highly competitive match. Meanwhile, in Pool E, Russia and Brazil came out firing on all cylinders against their opponents.

The Russians comfortably defeated Korea 3-0 (25-16, 25-13, 25-15) in a match that lasted just over an hour, while Brazil overcame China 3-0 (28-26, 25-23, 25-21). Like Italy, Russia stayed unbeaten while the Brazilians gave the Chinese their first loss. In the day’s other matches in classification Pools G and H, Canada beat Puerto Rico and the Czech Republic battled hard past Egypt, with both games ending in four sets; while Cuba comfortably swept Tunisia in three sets and Poland doing the same against Morocco.

Action in the top eight and the classification groups continue on Tuesday, July 23, at the same venue. All are welcome to attend. Entrance is free of charge. In Bahrain’s loss, Italy were dominant from the very beginning and the hosts could not mount a serious challenge. The contest lasted just an hour and six minutes as the Italians never took their foot off the gas. They outscored the Bahrainis in almost all categories, including attack (32-21), block (10-2) and serve (9-0), and also got 24 points from Bahrain’s errors. Kristian Gamba scored 15 to lead Italy, while Davide Gardini added nine. Hasan Mohamed led Bahrain with eight points while Sayed Mohamed Alabbar contributed seven.

Bahrain coach Yusuf Khalifa said: “It was a difficult match because the Italians will always be good in volleyball. Bahrain was okay, we know we can try to do some things in our level. We lost the match tonight but we won in terms of experience against the Italians. This is what we can take from this match.” The Bahrainis will be hoping to bounce back from the loss when they take on Argentina on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Iran needed to overcome a spirited challenge from their Argentinian counterparts in a contest that went over the two-hour mark. The Iranians were superior in attack, led by their one-two punch of Morteza Sharifi and team captain Amirhossein Esfandiar.

They combined for 47 points, with Sharifi scoring 24. Argentina were spearheaded by an inspired performance from Luciano Palonsky, who led all scorers with 27 points. But his fine showing was not enough to overcome the firepower of their rivals. Esfandiar later said: “It was a good match, but also a very difficult one. It was an important win because we knew that Argentina could play very well. “I think after this win we can just play better match by match. I hope we win the next matches so we can join the final four teams.” In Russia’s quick triumph, they gave their Korean opponents no chance to settle and they never wavered.

Maksim Sapozkhov paced the victorious Russians with 18 points, while Ivan Kuznetcov and Alexander Zakhvatenkov each finished with 10. Korea skipper Donghyeok Im had 13 to lead his team in their loss. Russia coach Andrey Nozdrin: “Each match is very important. Now, we’re in the second round, and for me, for us, this feels like the playoffs.” In Brazil’s win, the South Americans took advantage of their underperforming Asian opponents, who headed into the match unbeaten. Victor Aleksander Almeida Cardoso led the Brazilians with 13 points, while Angellus Cosata Da Silva added 12. For China, Cong Tian also had 13 in the setback.

Brazil head coach Giovane Gavio commented: “They have an attack system that’s different, with very high balls and fast balls. This was a little bit difficult for us. But we served well and that’s how we challenged ourselves today: We served well enough to try and stop them from doing these attacks. “In the first set, we had seven errors in serve, and against China, you just can’t make these mistakes. We were able to fix this. “In this round, we have nice teams, we have very strong players in attack. We have to study these teams today to try and find our way to victory. But for sure, it will be very hard.”