Russia and Brazil stayed on top two of the standings at the 2007
men's volleyball World Cup after recording their seventh and sixth
win in a row against African teams Egypt and Tunisia respectively
on Monday.
Russia's captain, Vadim Khamuttskikh, received the perfect gift
from his teammates on his 38th birthday: a seventh straight win at
the World Cup -- and the day off.
In the second match of the day at Marine Messe Fukuoka, the
European runners-up beat Egypt 25-19, 25-18 and 25-19 to improve
their win-loss record to 7-0 with four matches to go.
Khamuttskikh could even enjoy his birthday by watching the
action from the sidelines with the other substitutes, as second
setter Sergey Grankin took over.
World Cup holders and South American champions Brazil thrashed
Tunisia 25-19, 25-16 and 25-21 in Okayama to improve to 6-1.
Brazil coach Bernardo Rezende took the opportunity to rotate his
players, with captain Gilberto Godoy Filho (Giba) sitting this one
out, Murilo Endres and Andre Heller given rare starts and even
23-year-old Samuel Fuchs getting in on the action. The Olympic and
world champions still romped home, though, with an impressive
showing from man of the match Murilo helping drop Tunisia to 1-6.
Tunisia lost the distinction of having won at least a set in each
of their matches.
The big match of the day was played in Fukuoka by Japan and
Puerto Rico. Carlos Cardonas's team beat Japan for the first time
ever in an outstanding match in front of a 5,170 audience.
Puerto Rico avenged their loss to Japan in the World
Championship last year with a straight-sets sweep of the World Cup
hosts. With the 25-23, 25-23 and 25-21 victory, Puerto Rico
improved their win-loss record to 4-3, ropping Japan to 3-4 in the
process with four matches to go.
"It was very important to play a good game tonight after losing
yesterday," said Puerto Rico head coach Carlos Cardona. "We lost
our energy due to the defeat (3-2 against Argentina), so within 24
hours we had to recover our strength and our power, so I am very
satisfied with the result today."
Spain recovered from their straight-sets demolition by Russia
the previous day to sweep Argentina 3-0 in the first match of the
day. The European champions improved their win-loss record to 3-4
with a 26-24, 25-22 and 25-18 victory over an out-of-sorts
Argentina, who dropped to 4-3 after their attack was blunted by a
strong Spanish block.
Argentina came into the game with two of the top five scorers in
the World Cup -- Marcos Milinkovic (third with 108 points) and
Guillermo Garcia (fifth with 92) -- while Spain's best scorer to
date was Guillermo Falasca (joint 14th with 76).
In Okayama, United States stormed past South Korea in straight
sets to improve to 5-2. With Ryan Millar and Salmon Riley a
constant thorn in the South Koreans' side, the Americans proved far
too powerful for the wild cards and won 25-18, 25-15 and 25-18 at
Momotaro Arena, dropping the Asian team to 1-6.
In Monday's other action, Bulgaria romped past Asian champions
Australia 25-17, 25-19 and 25-13 to improve to 5-2, while the
Australians dropped to 3-4.
(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2007)