Argentina rallied back from one set down to beat China 3-2,
scoring their first victory in the men's volleyball World
Championships in Saitama, Japan on Sunday.
Argentina, who lost to Puerto Rico and Poland in previous
matches, defeated China 22-25, 25-21, 17-25, 25-17, 17-15 in one
hour and 44 minutes.
"At the beginning of this World Championship we could not win
and could not express our own play. We expected it to be hard
against China and we had many difficulties. The key factor in our
victory was that the players could keep their composure in a
difficult situation." said Jon Uriarte, head coach of
Argentina.
Marcos Milinkovic pulled off a wonderful performance with a
game-high 29 points for Argentina, while Gustavo Porporatto,
Alejandro Spajic and Gaston Gianni added 15 respectively.
Due to a slow start and a string of unforced errors, Argentina
lost the first set 25-22, but controlled the rhythm of the second
set, pulling level 25-21.
In the third set, China took the lead twice at 8-6 and 16-13
before setting up a world-class performance with a 9-3 run to
finish the set 25-16.
Argentina, who ranked sixth in the 2002 World Championships,
soon geared up in the fourth set to completely overwhelm China and
forced the match into the deciding set with a 25-17 win.
Both sides fought fiercely with the fifth set becoming a see-saw
battlefield until 15-all before Giani scored the last two winning
points for Argentina for the great comeback victory.
Shen Qiong had 20 points to lead the Chinese team, Wang Haichun
had 16 and Sui Shengsheng 14.
"I expected the match to be tough and we had prepared for it.
But we could not show our good points. When we are leading the game
we can't maintain the winning momentum and finish the set. This is
what we must improve when we play Egypt." said China's head coach
Zhou Jianan.
China will play Egypt on Tuesday, while Argentina faces off
against host Japan.
(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2006)