|
2007 Women’s World Championship
Day 4
Brazil, Italy and
U.S.A. stay on top, Kenya lost the fourth match
 Tokyo, Japan, November 6, 2007 – After a day full of thrills the
big contenders for the title Brazil, Italy and U.S.A. Continued
their victory rhythm at the 2007 Women’s Volleyball World Cup
and lead the standings with four wins and no loss after the
competition day 4 here at Osaka and Sendai on Tuesday. The
competition played its 4th day opening the venues in Osaka and
Sendai. The same teams that played in Tokyo moved to Osaka,
while the six squads performing in Hamamatsu were on Sendai’s
court. At the end of the six matches,
The European champions Italy had to work hard to beat regional
rivals Serbia 3-2 in a rematch of their European Championship
final on Tuesday. Italy won 23-25, 25-14, 16-25, 25-17, 15-7 to
extend their World Cup win-loss record to 4-0, while dropping
Serbia to 3-1. Italy had beaten Serbia 3-0 in the European
Championship final on September 30 to win the Euro crown for the
first time, but 2006 World Championship bronze medallists Serbia
took them all the way this time in a fluctuating encounter.
Italian Captain Eleonora Lo Bianco said that 'we were not
ourselves today. We made a lot of errors and took too much time
to find our rhythm. The match was always close, neck and neck.'
Korea ended a run of three straight defeats at the FIVB World
Cup 2007 by beating wild card Dominican Republic 3-1 at Namihaya
Dome. Korea won 26-24, 22-25, 25-20, 25-21 to improve their
win-loss record to 1-3 after four of the 11 rounds, dropping the
Dominicans to the same mark. Captain Sa-Nee Kim has no doubts:
'I am so happy to get this first victory in the World Cup. We
had more concentration about the game after losing the three
games in Tokyo. We knew that this game and tomorrow’s game
against Thailand are really important for me and all the
players.'
Asian champions Japan put Sunday's defeat by Serbia behind them
by sweeping regional rivals Thailand 3-0. In the third match of
the first day at Osaka, world No. 7 Japan had too much big-match
experience for the world's 30th-ranked team and came home in
style 25-19, 27-25, 25-14. The straight-sets victory (in front
of 7,100 spectators) improved their win-loss record to 3-1 with
seven matches to play, but Thailand dropped to 0-4 on their
World Cup debut. 'I was trying to give a better set' said Japan
Captain Yoshie Takeshita 'and use the centre players more
effectively, and how to build the game around our formation.
Araki did a very good job and scored some points, so that worked
well. We will face Italy tomorrow, another strong team, so we
have to do better defence and be prepared for that.'
In Sendai, Kenya – U.S.A. was the first match of the day.
Kenya's woes continued in the World Cup as they faced the
unbeaten United States, who were in no mood to be merciful at
Sendai City Gymnasium, crushing the African champions 25-9,
25-20, 25-10. Kenya Head Coach Sammy Kirongo has a positive
attitude: 'In a competition you are supposed to continue playing
as required. For the team to play well we must do a lot of
things. Today was an interesting match and we will continue
playing and putting things right so I hope things will be OK
like today and even more than today.'
Cuba continued to go the long haul with a hard-fought 21-25,
26-24, 22-25, 25-21, 15-13 victory over Poland. After a long
match, point to point, neither team would give ground as the
tiebreak got under way, but Podolec came up with a good spike
followed by an even better block on Ramirez for an 8-6 Poland
lead. Barros planted a spike down the middle and Carcaces
thumped an even bigger shot to pull Cuba level. With Poland
leading 13-12, Cuba twice shut down Podolec to give them match
point and Carrillo delivered the coup de grace with a punishing
dipping serve that the Poles couldn't touch. The Cuban Coach
Antonio Perdomo was not smiling at the end: 'The Olympic
qualification? It is still possible but it's a long competition
and it's still possible to make the best three if we don't lose
any more games. Regarding today's game, as we dropped two sets,
obviously we didn't have the right rhythm today. I have to say I
am not satisfied with the way we played, even though we won.'
Brazil continued their unbeaten run with their fourth straight
victory in the World Cup on Tuesday, a routine 25-17, 25-15,
25-17 win over Peru. Brazil player Jaqueline Carvalho: 'I think
overall today we played very well, although part of the way
through the match we lost our way a bit, but in the end we came
through with a good result. I hope we can continue and come up
with a final result that we are happy with.'
The 2nd Round matches will end tomorrow. The teams then will
travel to reach the new venues for 3rd round in Sapporo and
Kumamoto.
Competition Schedule (2nd Round)
City date Loc. time/GMT time
Osaka 07 Nov 12,35 3,35 Korea - Thailand
Osaka 07 Nov 15,05 6,05 Dominican Rep. - Serbia
Osaka 07 Nov 18,00 9,00 Japan - Italy
Sendai 07 Nov 12,35 3,35 Kenya - Poland
Sendai 07 Nov 15,05 6,05 Cuba - Peru
Sendai 07 Nov 18,05 9,05 Brazil – U.S.A.
Standings after the competition Day 4
Brazil, Italy and U.S.A. 8; Japan and Serbia 7; Cuba 6; Poland,
Korea, Dominican Republic and Peru 5; Thailand and Kenya 4 (2
points for victory, 1 for loss)
Photo Caption
Dorcas Ndasaba (KEN) receives.
By Tarek Aladwar from Japan
|
