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2006 FIVB Women’s
Volleyball World Championship
Brazil and Russia to meet again in the final
booking its place after an impressive straight-sets
victory over defending champion Italy. The South Americans came
home 25-17, 25-14, 21-25, 25-20 against a tired Serbia and
Montenegro in the first semi-final to book their second
appearance in a World Championship final in the team’s history.
They will face Russia, who can now only improve on their record
at the last three World Championships, where they took
consecutive bronze medals. The Russians saw off world No. 4
Italy 25-19, 25-16, 25- 20 with an awesome display. Buoyed by a
return to form of the injured Lioubov Shashkova, Russian captain
Natalia Safronova exuded confidence after her team won its
semi-final. “Our goal at these World Championships is to win the
final, and as we expected we were able to win this game. Our
game was more organized and we were able to concentrate very
well.” Brazil’s coach José Roberto Guimaraes had earlier
described Shashkova as the “best player in the world”. After
receiving the backing of the Brazilian men’s team coach Bernardo
Rezende upon his arrival in Japan today, Ze Roberto drew his own
parallels with the men’s team. “I won the Olympic Games with the
men's team in 1992,” he said, “and I think we're following the
history of the men's team with the women's team now. But you
need to play many tournaments to learn how to win at this level.
I think we're now in a position to win, but Italy and black">th
place. Cheered on by a capacity crowd of 8,000 in Osaka’s
Municipal Central Gymnasium, Japan left the Netherlands’
disorientated with their quick-fire combination play to take a
25-21, 25-27, 25-21, 25- 21 victory. The United States cruised
past Chinese Taipei 3-0 in the first match of the 9-12 playoff
bracket. The Americans won 25-15, 25-20, 25-21 to set themselves
up for a match against Turkey tomorrow for 9th place. The
Turkish team came from behind to overcome Germany 3-1 (23-25,
25-16, 25-20, 27-25) and their 22 year-old wing spiker Darnel
Neslihan is firmly on course to take the honours as top scorer
tomorrow.
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