2017 FIVB BOYS’ U19 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- August 18th-28th
- Riffa and Isa Town, Bahrain
- Schedule
- Teams
- Day 1
- Day 2
- Day 3
- Day 4
- Day 5
- Round of 16
- Quarterfinals
- Semifinals
- Finals and Bronze Medal
- Event page
Stanford bound Jaylen Jasper topped all scorers with 23 markers, but Team USA gifted Egypt with 34 turnovers as Yousef Elsirgany and Youssef Hamdy Awad (Elsafy) headed the Egyptian 3-1 (18-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-21) defeat of USA in Pool A. Elsirgany and Elsafy teamed-up to run the Egyptian offence and scored 19 and 17 points, respectively.
USA opened the match with a win, with Jasper and Joel Schneidmiller in the forefront of their offence. Egypt held their ground and benefited on two of USA’s turnovers to level the match at 25-23. Elsirgany and Elsafy kept Egypt’s offence running, while USA suffered on more turnovers. The African side focused their attack on the weakness of their opponents until they completed the upset in four sets.
Despite its loss, Team USA qualified for the next round of play, and will face off against France next.
Here are the post match reactions:
Egypt’s coach Nehad Shehata: My players played perfectly today. They are growing from match to match. They are making progress from day to day. We came here to show a great level and surprise the field to be able to reach the quarterfinals.
Egypt’s captain George Bakhit: This was really a better day for us. We beat USA and we hope to Cuba in the next stage. We hope to be in the top eight. All our players made an effort today and we hope to put in some more.
USA coach Sam Shweisky: This is obviously not the result that we wanted but I think the positive thing here is that we had participation from many different guys on the team. We tried to fight hard. We will now look at the video and try to improve and keep our fighting spirit. Egypt are a very good team and they played very well. It’s unfortunate that we lost but we now have to move forward and continue doing our best.
USA captain Joel Schneidmiller: All these teams that we faced so far were a test, but from now on, we know that every team is going to be good. So we need to be prepared.
Below, pools and recaps from all of the day’s action.
Pool A
| Matches | Pts | Sets | Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | W | L | W | L | Ratio | W | L | Ratio | |
| 1 |  Egypt |
3 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 1.667 | 387 | 381 | 1.016 |
| 2 |  Bahrain |
3 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 1.429 | 397 | 342 | 1.161 |
| 3 |  United States |
3 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 1.429 | 403 | 379 | 1.063 |
| 4 |  Puerto Rico |
1 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 0.636 | 370 | 424 | 0.873 |
| 5 |  Tunisia |
0 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 0.500 | 410 | 441 | 0.930 |
Pool B
| Matches | Pts | Sets | Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | W | L | W | L | Ratio | W | L | Ratio | |
| 1 |  Japan |
4 | 0 | 11 | 12 | 3 | 4.000 | 361 | 310 | 1.165 |
| 2 |  France |
3 | 1 | 9 | 11 | 6 | 1.833 | 407 | 374 | 1.088 |
| 3 |  Brazil |
2 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 1.000 | 354 | 349 | 1.014 |
| 4 |  Cuba |
1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 0.364 | 299 | 336 | 0.890 |
| 5 |  Poland |
0 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 0.417 | 361 | 413 | 0.874 |
Pool C
| Matches | Pts | Sets | Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | W | L | W | L | Ratio | W | L | Ratio | |
| 1 |  Russia |
3 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 4 | 2.500 | 332 | 264 | 1.258 |
| 2 |  Argentina |
3 | 1 | 9 | 11 | 6 | 1.833 | 276 | 252 | 1.095 |
| 3 |  South Korea |
2 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 1.286 | 370 | 350 | 1.057 |
| 4 |  Turkey |
2 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 0.875 | 211 | 230 | 0.917 |
| 5 |  Chile |
0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 0.083 | 207 | 300 | 0.690 |
Pool D
| Matches | Pts | Sets | Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | W | L | W | L | Ratio | W | L | Ratio | |
| 1 |  Iran |
4 | 0 | 11 | 12 | 2 | 6.000 | 336 | 261 | 1.287 |
| 2 |  Italy |
3 | 1 | 10 | 11 | 5 | 2.200 | 366 | 337 | 1.086 |
| 3 |  Czech Republic |
2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 1.000 | 321 | 316 | 1.016 |
| 4 |  China |
1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 0.556 | 303 | 322 | 0.941 |
| 5 |  Mexico |
0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0.000 | 214 | 303 | 0.706 |
FIVB Recaps
France x Poland
Current champions, Poland was knocked out of the tournament in the first round after its fourth loss, this time to the French squad. Celestin Cardin scored 30 points to lead France in their 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-20, 40-38) win. Cardin had 26 attacks, two blocks and two aces; then Pierre Derouillon and Remi Bassereau chipped in 21 and 16 points, respectively, to bring France’s third win in four matches. Bartosz Firszt and Regiusz Kapica headed Poland’s offence with 22 and 20 points.
Poland and France were evenly matched in strength at the start of the match, but the defending champions had a better break to clinch the first set. Cardin and Bassereau then splurged on an attack spree that smashed the Polish defense, leading to two-set wins by France. France fired two aces to seal match victory in the extended fourth set 40-38.
Here are the post match reactions:
France coach Belmadi Slimane: This is a great moment for my players. They played well against a great team like Poland. Poland needed to win to stay alive in the competition, so they gave it their all. It was a little bit odd in the first set, but after that we changed our attitude. When we did that, we were a little bit better in defense, attack and in every aspect of the game.
France captain Lucas Soldner: We have to win every single match to be able to win the competition. We need to prepare in each and every game and treat it like a final. We need to continue with this good spirit and stay focused until the end. It doesn’t matter which team we will be facing in the next round. We will be prepared.
Poland coach Maciej Zendel: This is sport. Today we tried but we lost again. We played much better. We made some mistakes but we tried our best. The French team was better in this game and that is why they won. It is a very difficult situation when you lose day by day. For the players it is very difficult because you have in your head that you lost yesterday and then you lose again today. When you lose so many matches, it gets very hard to get up and play the next day.
Poland captain Szymon Jezierski: It was a good match but we lost when things turned serious in the end. We now have no chance to go to the next round. We are very disappointed because we are here to win the championship. We prepared well for two months before coming here, but I do not know what happened and we are very disappointed.
Turkey x Argentina
Turkey survived the challenge of Argentina to win 3-2 (28-26, 25-22, 21-25, 25-19, 15-11) in Pool C. Turkey captain Adis Lagumdzija scored a match-high of 27 points to lead Turkey to a 3-1 win-loss card after the Preliminary Round. Argentina captain Federico Seia likewise led his team in scoring, with 20 points in the match.
Turkey dominated in the first two sets, showing a powerful offence anchored on Lagumdzija. Argentina showed they could play at par with this kind of power and raced to force the fifth set. With each point in the decider being closely contested, Argentina soon lost their composure and suffered from errors. The European side seized momentum and led on all fronts, posting 55 attacks, 17 blocks and nine service aces.
Here are the post match reactions:
Turkey coach Umit Hizal: We came into this competition after many other tournaments and some of my players are a bit tired from successive events. Adis (Lagumdzija) is one of them, and today, I can see that he is slowly getting back to the best level of his game. He is the leader of the team, and I think he proved that in this match. I believe we can play even better in the next round.
Turkey captain Adis Lagumdzija: Today, we played much better than our previous games. If we can play as good as today, or even better specifically in reception, then I think we can succeed in the next round. I was not able to have a lot of time to train and prepare with this team, but slowly, we are starting to communicate more easily. We are getting better.
Argentina coach Luis Testa: We did not have the right attitude at the start of the match. We tried to adjust in the third and fourth sets, but in the tie-break, the main difference was we were not able to respond to the crucial details of the match.
Argentina player Luciano Palonsky: I think we have prepared well for this competition, and we should not lose our focus.
Iran x Czech Republic
Iran raced to a straight-sets win against Czech Republic (25-22, 25-12, 25-19) to claim top spot in Pool D The Asian side concludes the Preliminary Round with a record of four wins in as many matches. .
Iran’s Porya Yali charted a total of 17 points scored off purely on attacks, while Amir Hossein Toukteh contributed another 11 points. Iran completely dominated in offence, posting 38 attacks, while Czech Republic managed to connect with 23 spikes. The Asian side gave much difficulty for the opponents to pass the ball successfully. The usual hitters of the Czech side could not seem to find their known tempo. Every Czech player needed to work hard on defense, leaving minimal momentum to run the offence precisely. The European side saved several match points from opponent errors, but Iran’s lead proved difficult to surmount.
Here are the post match reactions:
Iran coach Reza Vakili Farjad: I would say I am about 80 per cent satisfied with the performance of the team so far. I think it has something to do with the age, that they can be prone to too many mistakes. We do not have any solution for this except time itself. We need experience.
Iran player Porya Yali: This is the second time I have played in the World Championship. Two years ago, I was mostly staying on the bench, and now I can play on the court. I have great motivation to perform well each time. I am hungry for every win.
Czech Republic coach Jiri Zach: Iran played a good match, they are a very strong team. They did not give us any room as they were much better in attack. It was they key to their victory.
Czech Republic captain Ondrej Piskacek: We have to improve on our counter-attack. We were not able to play well today.
Japan x Brazil
Kento Miyaura delivered another consistent game in Japan’s 3-0 (25-25, 26-24, 25-18) win over Brazil in Pool B. Miyaura drilled the Brazilian net defense as he scored all of his 13 points from the attack line; then Tatsunori Otsuka added 10 points. Japan only had 13 errors in the match, compared to Brazil’s 33 turnovers. Brazil relied on the offence of Victor Cardoso and Arthur Nath, who finished with 17 and 14 points, respectively.
Japan started off strong with a 9-4 blast, but Brazil later on sparked a run to tie the score at 18-all. Japan regained their focus and seized the set 25-21. Miyaura and Victor Cardoso led the tight second set showdown, but Japan managed to score the two-point cushion to close the set 26-24. Japan steadily took the match in straight sets as they prevented Brazil to stage any big run.
Here are the post match reactions:
Japan coach Hiroshi Honda: I am very happy with the way we played I the preliminary round. We have reached our goal and my players deserved to be on top. Before the tournament, we didn’t think that we have the ability to be first. We did not know which teams would be the strongest in the competition. Now we are getting better each day and we have good confidence in the team.
Japan captain Kento Miyaura: I am very happy that we have been playing very well. We got first place but we must now change our mindset for the next stage and we must focus on our next target.
Brazil coach Leonardo Carvalho: Japan played an excellent match today. They are very technical and if you want to win against this kind of team, then you must only commit a few mistakes. We had a lot of unforced errors today. We had an opportunity in the first and second sets, but we did not take advantage of it. We need to have a little more experience in these kind of games. I’m totally not upset about today’s game, even if we lost 3-0. In the first and second sets we played very good volleyball. I’m sure that after this round, our team have improved and we can do better in matches in the next round.
Brazil captain Joao Franck: Even if we lost the game, we didn’t play so bad especially in the first two sets when we had the opportunity to win. We weren’t able to take advantage of these opportunities and when you play against a team like Japan, you will probably lose.
Russia x Korea
Russia registered a 3-1 win against Korea (25-22, 25-16, 22-25, 25-20). The European bronze medallists completed Pool C of competition with three wins and one loss. Stanislav Antonov took charge of main scoring duties for the Russian side, posting 22 points, while Artem Melnikov added another 14 points. Doghyeok Im continued to be Korea’s leading scorer with 21 points in the match.
Russia showed their power by capitalizing on a tall front line, as Korea played with quicker offence. It was clear how the European side adjusted to their opponents’ style of play: to be quick and persistent enough with the blocks. Russia dominated on net defense with 16 block points, with Melnikov taking credit for 10 successful deflections. The Russian team also knew how their opponents could play good defense, so they added more pressure from the service line. Russia scored off a total of seven service aces in match, besting Korea’s three points from serves.
Here are the post match reactions:
Russia coach Andrey Nozdrin: Today, we played against a good team. Korea has such a good opposite player, and we were able to use our tactics against them. There will be no rest for us, but only to prepare for the next round.
Russia captain Konstantin Abaev: Korea is a strong team, with a good opposite, and good defence. Today, I think we played well because we had maximum concentration during the game. Our coach reminded us to play with 100 per cent concentration, so we had a good match.
Korea coach Wongil Park: We want to focus next on our rest and recovery, and just restore our play to the level we want to achieve
Bahrain x Tunisia
Bahrain’s trio of Mohamed Jasim, Hasan Mohamed and Sayed Mohammed Alabbar led the charge in their 3-1 (25-19, 25-18, 23-25, 25-22) win over Tunisia in Pool A. Jasim, Hasan and Alabbar scored 16 points each and were three of the four Bahrain players who scored in double figures. Tunisian Salem Naffeti led all scorers with 21 points, but the home team outscored his team in attacks 50-43 and blocks 17-8.
Alabbar stayed aggressive on offence to help Bahrain gain the first set win at 25-19. Bahrain took their second-straight set-win as Hasan took over on scoring and the team’s net defense toughened up on the Tunisian attack. Naffeti got Tunisia back on track with a solid performance from the attack line in the third set. Jasim got into the scoring picture to ensure Bahrain’s four-set win.
Here are the post match reactions:
Bahrain coach Yusuf Khalifa: I think the game was easier for us because all the pressure to win was on the Tunisian team. We were able to take the first two sets, but they returned in the third and that proved why they are champions of Africa. We are glad that we were able to end it in the fourth set and relieve some pressure on our players. We have to forget everything at this point. We will face different teams in the next stage and we have to be confident in what we are capable of.
Bahrain captain Saif Yusuf: Our first aim today was to beat the African champions, and second second was to get a good position for the Round of 16. People had doubts that we could qualify to the next stage, but we will now enter that stage and fight until the end.
Tunisia coach Chokri Bouzidi: The Bahrain team was prepared for this match more than my team. The level of Bahrain’s libero amazed me. He was superb and he was the key to their victory. We lost again as we were not really prepared for this tournament, but we gained experience for the players. We can select maybe one or two from this group for the men’s team.
Tunisia captain Atef El Khadim: Bahrain were much stronger and more focused. They fought hard and had teamwork. Our team was out of form. We were not prepared for this tournament. I believe that whatever tournament we will next play in, we will be better.
Italy x China
Italy claimed a 3-1 match against China (25-22, 25-13, 20-25, 25-23). The European vice-champions conclude Pool D of competition with three wins and one loss after Tuesday’s match at Isa City Sports Hall. Diego Cantagalli led the Italian side with 20 points (18 attacks and two blocks) while Lorenzo Cortesia posted 17 points. China captain Cong Tian likewise charted 20 points for his team.
Italy seized good advantage with the first two sets, showing their dominance in their front line. Cantagalli and Cortesia combined for Italy’s powerful offence, that China needed to work doubly hard on defense. The Asian side employed steadier play to win the third set, as they came up with good decisions in crucial points. The European side suffered from errors, allowing their opponents to inch closer in the fourth set. But Italy tried to remain steady to take the decisive moments for victory, posting a total of 48 attacks, 12
Here are the post match reactions:
Italy coach Mario Barbiero: I am happy because we won. Although I think it was not the best match for us. We had some problems in reception, but I am sure that my players will prepare for a strong match against a new set of opponents in the next round.
Italy player Diego Cantagalli: We won today but I think I am not completely satisfied with my performance. We could have done a lot more things in this match. We could have done better. We know our real capacity and ability beyond this. Of course, we have gained three important points, and we just have to better in the next match.
China coach Haichuan Wang: We tried to improve our performance in the third and fourth set, as all the players really worked hard. But when we had the chance to win, we could not handle the important moments precisely so we lost the match.
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