OKAYAMA -- The 6th day competition at the 2007 men's volleyball World Cup ended with Russia much closer to the final goal: the podium and a place at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Russia's Semen Poltavskiy spikes the ball over the block of Spain's Guillermo Falasca during their third round match at the men's World Cup volleyball tournament in Fukuoka. [Agencies] |
The Russians used their awesome power game to batter down the Spanish resistance with an outstanding 3-0 in Fukuoka on Sunday.
The big match against the European champions ended updating the win-loss record of Russia to 6-0.
Russia has lost only one set in those six outings, against African runners-up Tunisia.
In other action in Fukuoka, Argentina beat Puerto Rico 3-2 and Japan defeated Egypt also in five sets.
In Okayama, the United States overpowered Tunisia 3-1, Bulgaria outperformed South Korea 3-0 and Brazil got rid of Australia 3-0.
Russia gained revenge for their shock loss to Spain in the recent European Championship final in Moscow by crushing the same opponents 3-0 in the second match of the day at Marine Messe Fukuoka.
The Russians, who lost the Euro final 3-2 on home soil on September 16, extended its World Cup win-loss record to a perfect 6-0 with a 25-21, 25-13, 25-15 mauling of the recently crowned European champions.
It was as though Russia had a point to prove -- and they proved it point after point with an awesome display of serving, blocking and spiking to drop Spain to 2-4.
"The World Cup and the European Championship are quite different competitions. Compared to the European Championship final, Spain did not play as well today," said Russian head coach Vladimir Alekno.
"For us, this is the start of the second half of the World Cup and we were determined to start it with a win so we can continue our momentum," he added.
Argentina came back from two sets down to beat Puerto Rico 3-2 in the first match of the day.
Puerto Rico looked home and dry after winning the first two sets in style, but the South Americans regrouped to come back and take it on their first match point in the tiebreak.
The victory, by 19-25, 22-25, 25-16, 25-21, 15-13, improved Argentina's win-loss record to 4-2, while dropping Puerto Rico to 3-3.
"The third set was the important key as it changed the mood of the game," said Argentina captain Marcos Milinkovic. "Our serve and reception improved, so we could win the third set and then maintain our momentum and pace."
Japan inflicted a sixth straight World Cup defeat on Egypt. In front of a capacity crowd of 7,600, the hosts recovered from 2-1 down to win 25-17, 19-25, 21-25, 25-23, 15-9 to improve their win-loss record to 3-3.
