2017 FIVB MEN’S U21 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP – Pool H
- Pool H
- June 27th-29th, 2017
- Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- MU21 World Championship Round 2
- Schedule/Results
Pool H Standings:
| RANK | TEAMS | MATCHES | RESULT DETAILS | SETS | POINTS | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOTAL | WON | LOST | 3-0 | 3-1 | 3-2 | 2-3 | 1-3 | 0-3 | POINTS | WON | LOST | RATIO | WON | LOST | RATIO | ||
| 1 |
|
2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 6.000 | 169 | 144 | 1.173 |
| 2 |
|
2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1.000 | 181 | 178 | 1.016 |
| 3 |
|
2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1.000 | 181 | 184 | 0.983 |
| 4 |
|
2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0.166 | 147 | 172 | 0.854 |
Turkey remains the only undefeated team in just Pool H play after Japan fell to Ukraine. Turkey now sits at 3-2 overall in the tournament, as they just missed the top eight after a five-set loss to Cuba. They’ll look to complete the pool unbeaten to maximize what place-match they’ll have in the next juncture of the tournament.
Ukraine’s win does more than put it into second in Pool H – it also gives them their first win of the tournament after losing the first four. After Egypt and the U.S. collected wins, Morocco now remains the only team in the field who has yet to come out of a match victorious.
TURKEY DEF. MOROCCO 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-18)
Morocco had won just one set coming into the day, and Turkey made sure that stayed the same, as they swept the match.
While the first set wasn’t a blowout, Turkey was the driving force. Behind Abdullah Cam and his 18 point performance, Turkey pulled through for a 25-21 first set victory. The second set was even tighter, as Youssef Aatata carried the Moroccan offense. Aatata was the only one on his side with more than seven points, as he had 12. Again though, behind Cam and his teammate Adis Lagumdzija, Turkey edged out a 25-23 second set. Leading 2-0, the third was more comfortable as Turkey won 25-18 to pull off the three-set-sweep.
Turkey had an eight point advantage between the combination of spikes and aces (both teams had 19 attack errors). The biggest difference was the 11-6 block advantage for Turkey.
“We played like a team,” Cam, the Turkish captain, told FIVB post-match. “We tried to block as much as possible, that was our strategy.”
Turkey now sits atop the pool as they are 3-2 overall in the tournament. They’ll finish up pool play tomorrow with Japan.
On the other side of the net, Morocco has one more chance in pool play before the positioning stage to get a win. They’re 0-2 in Pool H and 0-5 overall as they’ve only collected one set victory in five matches. Tomorrow they’ll face a Ukraine team that got its first win today.
UKRAINE DEF. JAPAN 3-1 (25-23, 25-14, 24-26, 25-21)
Japan had scored an opening win against Morocco to improve to 2-2 overall in the tournament and 1-0 in Pool H on day one. Ukraine meanwhile came into the day at 0-4 overall between their first weekend and Pool H, as things looked good for Japan to improve to 2-0 and set up a battle for the top of the pool tomorrow with Turkey. However, Ukraine had other plans as they nabbed their first victory.
The first set was tight and would go down to the wire. Eventually though, Ukraine came out on top 25-23. With a 1-0 lead, they flexed their muscle in set two. A barrage of points came from Oleh Plotnytskyi and Rohozhyn Andrii, who each had 20 total for the match, to to give Ukraine a 25-14 win and a 2-0 set lead. Behind them were Tymofii Poluian (15 points) and Ostapenko Volodymyr (13 points) as no other Ukrainian scored more than four. Japan responded in the third though. Kenta Takanashi wasn’t inserted in the match until the third set but made his presence known with eight total points and six in just the third. His contribution along with Japan’s two players in double-digits for points – Kenyu Nakamoto (11 points) and Yudai Arai (10 points) – propelled the side to a 26-24 third set victory. Ukraine countered though by winning the fourth behind Plotnytskyi and Andrii again, as they took the match 3-1.
Ukraine did have 10 more attack errors, but they offset it with 16 more spikes. They also added two more blocks and had a decisive 10-3 advantage in the ace department.
“Of course we knew we had to win,” Ukrainian head coach Mykola Pasazhin told FIVB after the match. “We knew how we wanted to play and it resulted in our first win.”
And with that first win Ukraine now has a chance to finish in the top two of the pool and set itself up with a better overall finish in the tournament. They’ll match-up with Morocco tomorrow, who has yet to win a match.
Japan falls to 2-3 overall in the tournament and 1-1 in the pool. They can amend their loss today by taking out pool-leader Turkey tomorrow.
Leave a Reply