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2007 Men’s Junior World Championship
Casablanca & Rabat,
Morocco
7 – 15 July 2007
Brazil, Russia, Iran and Italy into semi-finals, Egypt
and Morocco play for 9-12
 Casablanca,
Morocco, July 11, 2007 – The two African representatives Egypt
and Morocco will compete for positions 9- 12 in the 2007 FIVB
Men's Junior World Championship in Casablanca and Rabat, Morocco
after both came at the bottom of their pools in the preliminary
round. Three continental champions – Russia (Europe), Iran
(Asia) and Brazil (South America) joined Italy to compose the
top four teams of the competition, after an emotional and
surprising final round day, to reach the semis on Wednesday in
Casablanca and Rabat.
Defending seven-time world champions Russia set the local
supporters in Rabat alight with some truly magical spells of
Volleyball in their three set win over African Champion Egypt.
The European Champions powered through the game 25-12, 25-17,
25-21, getting the tickets for the weekend last round in
Casablanca. In the semis Russia will play Iran that qualified to
semifinals for the first time ever by wining Morocco. Asia will
still be represented in the semifinals after in Pool A, Asian
champions Iran had it easy with hosts Morocco and won in three
sets 25-15, 25-16, 25-14. Iran qualified into the top four for
the first time ever and will play the defending World Champion
Russia on Saturday waiting for a miracle.
Pool A
in Casablanca saw a great match were Cuba beat Bulgaria 3-2
(17-25, 25-14, 27-29, 25-17, 19-17). The Norceca Champions
rising to their utmost motivation managed to win the towering
Europeans with high spirit. The 26 points of scorer Raydel
Delgado were decisive for the team of Juan Gala to stop the
Bulgarian intentions of qualifying to the semis giving the
chance to the Italian team.
Italy
set the most exciting competition performance as they pulled off
a great 3-1 victory (20-25, 25-19, 25-18, 27-25) over Japan and
qualified to the semifinal by ratio points. The European team
showed high spirit against the enthusiasm of the Japanese that
fought until the end for their tickets to the next round.
Italian Matteo Martino scored 20 points for the Azzurri while
Rocco Barone and Gitto Carmelo were important elements in the
block. Italy will play Brazil on Saturday.
In a
surprising result in Pool B, Argentina dashed any hopes the USA
may have had for a berth in the semi-finals. The South Americans
beat their North American rivals, who seemed tired from their
previous evening's five sets against Slovenia. Argentina won 3-0
(25-20, 25-20, 25-20).
In
other action in Pool B Slovenia challenged the mighty
Brazilians, stealing the second set from them and conceding the
third at 25-20. The Europeans who are playing for the very first
time in a Junior World Championship, lost 12-25, 28-26, 20-25,
17-25 allowing Brazil to top the group and qualify for the next
round. The South American Champions, silver medalists in the
last Junior WCH 2005, will play Italy on Saturday in the semis.
Thursday and Friday are rest days before the semi-finals resume
on Saturday. In Saturday's matches, Brazil challenge Italy at
16:00 h, while Russia goes up against Iran at 18:30 h. Both
matches will be held in Casablanca. The winners will play for
the gold medal on Sunday evening and the losers will go for the
bronze two hours earlier. In the 5th-8th classification round,
to be played on Saturday in Rabat, Bulgaria face USA at 16:00
and Cuba against Argentina at 18:30 h. Finally the 9th-12th
classification round will be played on Saturday's morning in
Casablanca with Japan against Egypt at 09:00 h and hosts Morocco
against Slovenia at 11:30h.
Photo
caption
Morocco double block against Iran.
Pool
Ranking |
