FIVB Men’s Challenger Cup: Portugal & Czech Republic Get Opening Sweeps

2018 FIVB MEN’S CHALLENGER CUP:

• June 20-24, 2018
• Matosinhos, Portugal

A chance at making the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League is on the line, as the winner of the 2018 FIVB Men’s Challenger Cup will appear in next year’s big event. The tournament, hosted by Portugal will work into the championship match on June 24 to culminate the action. Results, standings and more can all be seen below.

FORMAT:

• What’s on the line?
  • The winning team of the tournament will replace the lowest ranked challenger team at the 2018 FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League in the 2019 version
• Six teams are split into two pools (three in each)
  • The six are made up of the host nation (Portugal), South American qualifier (Chile), Asian qualifier (Kazakhstan), North American qualifier (Cuba) and Golden European League qualifiers (Estonia & Czech Republic)
  • The top two teams from each three-team pool will move on to the semifinals
    • Pool A#1 vs. Pool B#2 & Pool B#1 vs. Pool A#2

RESULTS:

Pool A:

• World Rankings: #30 Portugal, #32 Estonia, #35 Kazakhstan

PORTUGAL DEF. ESTONIA

• Portugal def. Estonia 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-20)
• Portugal improves to 1-0; Estonia falls to 0-1

Estonia went 7-1 en route to winning the European Golden League and even took down Portugal in the semifinals of the event in straight sets. Portugal, of course, knew they already had a spot in this event locked up as hosts though, so may have been holding back a bit. They let out all of their top play in front of their home crowd though to start off on the right foot.

What sparked the strong showing was the difference in serve. While Portugal notched seven serves and kept Estonia guessing, the losing side had just one ace. That led to easier looks offensively for Portugal as well, who recorded 10 more kills. The effort was spearheaded by the Ferreiras in Alexandre Ferreira (23 points) and Marco Ferreira (12 points). Their combined 35 points were one more than every individual added up for Estonia.

Pool B:

• World Rankings: #16 Cuba, #27 Czech Republic, #41 Chile

CZECH REPUBLIC DEF. CUBA 3-0

• Czech Republic def. Cuba 3-0 (25-19, 25-22. 25-21)
• Czech Republic improves to 1-0; Cuba falls to 0-1

Despite Cuba being the highest ranked team in the entire event, Czech Republic looked like the clear-cut top team as they earned a sweep. It’s quite the turnaround for the Czech side too, who started 2-4 in the European Volleyball League but hosted the final round so didn’t have to find their top gear until then, as they’ve been a completely different team since.

The block (8-3) was the most apparent difference between the nations, while the Czech side had a handful more spikes and were more efficient with six less errors. The biggest plague that caused those differences for Cuba was a lack of balance; despite the wonderful efforts of Miguel David Gutierrez Suarez (24 points), no others on the team had more than six points. Compare that to Czech Republic, who had four at seven and more in three in double-digits led by Michal Finger (18 points).

STANDINGS:

Pool A

		Matches		Pts	Sets			Points
Rank	Team	W	L		W	L	Ratio	W	L	Ratio
1	Portugal	1	0	3	3	0	MAX	75	55	1.364
2	Estonia	0	1	0	0	3	0.000	55	75	0.733
3	Kazakhstan	0	0	0	0	0	MAX	0	0	MAX

Pool B

		Matches		Pts	Sets			Points
Rank	Team	W	L		W	L	Ratio	W	L	Ratio
1	Czech Republic	1	0	3	3	0	MAX	75	62	1.210
2	Cuba	0	1	0	0	3	0.000	62	75	0.827
3	Chile	0	0	0	0	0	MAX	0	0	MAX

Full Schedule:

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
20 Jun	21:00	Portugal	3–0	Estonia	25–19	25–16	25–20			75–55
21 Jun	18:00	Estonia	–	Kazakhstan	–	–	–			0–0
22 Jun	21:00	Kazakhstan	–	Portugal	–	–	–			0–0

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
20 Jun	18:00	Cuba	0–3	Czech Republic	19–25	22–25	21–25			62–75
21 Jun	21:00	Czech Republic	–	Chile	–	–	–			0–0
22 Jun	18:00	Chile	–	Cuba	–	–	–			0–0