The second day of the Olympics was the first for males volleyball players. You could see several interesting games and the exciting match of the day between Poland and Italy.
Pool A
Great Britain 0 – 3 Bulgaria
Top scorers: M. Plotyczer 16, O. Bakare 11, N. French 8; V. Nikolov 15, T. Skrimov 14, N. Nikolov 10
Bulgaria beat Great Britain in straight sets (25-18, 25-20, 26-24) in match that opened the men’s Olympic tournament at Earls Court on Sunday morning. This was the first time in history these sides were crossing their ways and even though the home heroes were cheered by a massive crowd, still they could not crown their Olympic debut with a victory. Todor Skrimov and Vladimir Nikolov piled up 14 points apiece for Bulgaria while Mark Plotyczer set the pace for Team GB with 16. Bulgaria played with more consistency in all fundamentals, registering 13 blocks and 4 aces vs. 6 and 2 for the Britons.
Australia 0 – 3 Argentina
Top scorers: S. Sole 13, F. Conte 12, P. Crer 11; T. Edgar 16, I. Yudin 13, A. Zingel 7
Argentina beat Australia in straight sets (25-21, 25-22, 25-20) in their opening men’s volleyball preliminary round Pool A match at Earls Court on Sunday and this team shoved their aspiration in order to be dangerous for each team.
Sebastian Sole, Facundo Conte ,and Pablo Crer finished with 13, 12 and 11 points to spearhead the winning offense while Australia’s Thomas Edgar had a match-high 16 points and Igor Yudin added 13. Sole was effective in 9 of 11 killing attempts while Crer was even better going 8-for-9 in his attacks.
Italy 1 – 3 Poland
Top scorers: C. Savani 15, M. Lasko 14, I. Zaytsev 13; B. Kurek 18, Z. Bartman 15, M. Winiarski 13
The last World League edition winner Poland beat Italy in the match of the day (21-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-14) in front of 15.000 spontaneously reacting Polish fans in the Earls Court. The competition was presented as a dual of two charismatic, Italian coaches Andrea Anastasi ( Poland ) and Mauro Berutto ( Italy ). The first one could have celebrate. It was a strong performance by the Poland team which is considered as one of the favourites to take home one of the three medals here.
Bartosz Kurek scored a match-high 18 points as one of three Polish players with double figures in the scores. Zbigniew Bartman and Michal Winiarski contributed 15 and 13 points respectively. Italy’s Cristian Savani finished with 15 points while Michal Lasko and Ivan Zaytsev closed the match with 14 and 13 tallies.
Poland had an effectiveness of 41 percent in their attacks compared to 29 by the defeated Italians. In the serves category, the winners held a slight advantage in serving aces (7-6) and also in blocks (8-6). They made 23 unforced errors to 30 by the Italians.
Standings
- Bulgaria Pts 3
- Argentina Pts 3
- Poland Pts 3
- Italy Pts 0
- Australia Pts 0
- Great Britain Pts 0
Pool B
Germany 0 – 3 Russia
Top scorers: G. Grozer 10, J. Schops 10, M. Bohme 8; M. Mikhajlov 21, A. Volkov 13, T. Khtey 11
Russia started its Olympic campaign on Sunday by downing Germany in three straight sets (31-29, 25-18, and 25-17) in the first match on schedule for Pool B. With this result the guys coached by Vladimir Alekno improved on their already remarkable record sealing the 18th win out of 21 international matches against Germany officially sanctioned by the FIVB. Russia registered superb figures with a total of 11 blocks and 5 aces throughout the match, but remarkable remains also the 127 km/h serve by György Grozer, a terrific missile that even the Russian defense line could not fully stand.
USA 3 – 0 Serbia
Top scorers: M. Anderson 18, C. Stanley 13, W. Priddy 9; M.Podrascanin 13, A. Atanasijevic 12, M. Nikic 10
The 2008 Olympic champions of USA beat Serbia in straight sets (25-17, 25-22, and 25-21) in their opening match of Pool B at Earls Court on Sunday afternoon. With this result the US Americans could improve their record with Serbia as entering into this game they had claimed only 3 out of 13 international matches against the 2011 European champions. US American rising star Matthew Anderson paced his side with 18 points while middle blocker Marko Podrascanin topped the charts for Serbia with 13. The USA outblocked Serbia 16 to 11 and their all-round performance was very consistent and solid.
Brazil 3 – 0 Tunisia
Top scorers: L. Saatkamp 9, Murilo 9, Wallace 8; H. Kaabi 12, E. Karamosly 9, H. Naaga 6
Brazil beat Tunisia in straight sets (25-17, 25-21, and 25-18) in their opening match of the preliminary round of the men’s volleyball tournament at Earls Court on Sunday. Brazil’s offense was evenly distributed with Murilo Endres and Lucas Saatkamp contributing 9 points apiece but it was Tunisia’s Hichem Kaabi that eventually top scored in the match with 12. It was Brazil’s second win over Tunisia on the Olympic arena and the eighth positive result for the triple world champions in as many matches with the side from Northern Africa.
Standings
- Russia Pts 3
- Brazil Pts 3
- USA Pts 3
- Serbia Pts 0
- Tunisia Pts 0
- Germany Pts 0
Source: own news/ fivb.org
Click Here: Golf special