Poland was beaten by Australia and waste a advantage over Bulgaria in pool A. As the result, Poland lost the first place in group and this team will not be seeded in top 8. USA loosely overcome Tunisia and Italy will be its opponent in quarter-final. Great Britain comes back homes. Tunisian, Serbian and Australian team managers can book return tickets to their homelands.
Pool A
Australia 3 – 1 Poland
Top scorers: T. Edgar 26, N. Roberts 18, A. White 10; B. Kurek 14, J. Jarosz 14, M. Winiarski 9
Poland lose with Australia 1 – 3 (21-25, 22-25, 25-18, 22-25) in the last match of the preliminary round of the Olympic man’s volleyball tournament disappointing Polish fans who tightly filled Earls Court.
It has been the worst performance of Polish team since World Championships 2010. Andrea Anastasi’s wards were not able to show their best making plenty of unforced mistakes and wasting numerous attacks. Poland was sometimes powerless in the case of incredible defense and counterattacks from Australian side. As Igor Yudin said, it was the best match in Australian volleyball history. Nevertheless, Poland did not win pool A, so ‘ White and red’ will be forced to compete with Brazil or Russia in quarter-final.
Thomas Edgar was the best scorer of the match, ending his game with 26 points, well served by his setter Harrison Peacock. What is interesting, Thomas Edgar was playing in Polish league, but only in division B. Moreover, he was released due to being too weak.
Australia shoved extremely good volleyball in London, but the team did not take up a proper place to gain qualification.
Bulgaria 3 – 0 Italy
Top scorers: T. Sokolov 26, T. Aleksiev 13, V. Yosifiv 10; I. Zaytsev 15, M. Lasko 14, C. Savani 6
Another chapter to Bulgaria’s fairy tale in the men’s Olympic tournament was added on Monday afternoon as the group captained by Vladimir Nikolov got past Italy in three straight sets (32-30, 25-20, and 25-19) to improve their wins/loss record to 4-1 and finish at top of the charts in Pool A.
Bulgaria was once again paced by diagonal player Tsvetan Sokolov who scored 21 points while Italy’s offense was anchored by Michal Lasko and Ivan Zaytsev with 15 and 14 respectively. Bulgaria’s supremacy in the game is testified by all stats with 9 blocks vs. 5 for Italy and a total of 6 aces. With this result that moves the head-to-heads on the Olympic arena to 3-1 for Bulgaria, Italy’s record dropped to 3 wins and 2 losses and the side mentored by Mauro Berruto is likely to finish fourth in the group.
Bulgaria will face Germany in quarter-final.
Great Britain 0 – 3 Argentina
Top scorers: O.Bakare 14, A. Pink 7, M. McGivern 5; F. Conte 15, F. Pereira 8, R. Quiroga 8
Argentina beat Great Britain 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, and 25-15) in the fifth and final round of men’s volleyball preliminary matches at Earls Court on Monday to improve their record to 3 wins and 2 losses and finish third in the group. Facundo Conte top scored for Argentina with 15 points, including 2 aces, while Dami Bakare registered 14 for the home side of GB.
The result secured the South Americans a place in the knockout stages and eliminated the British, who lost all five of their matches at London 2012 without winning a set.
Standings
Pool B
Russia 3 – 0 Serbia
Top scorers: M. Mikhailov 18, T. Khtey 10, N. Apalikov 8; A. Atanasijevic 18, B. Janic 6, M. Podrascanin 5
Russia cruised to a straight sets victory (25-15, 25-20, 25-17) against Serbia at Earls Court on Monday to confirm their place in the men’s volleyball quarterfinals.
Serbia could have drawn level on points with Russia in Pool B if they won, but Russia were dominant from the outset with a combination of pure power and delicate shots to quickly establish a two set lead. In the final set Russia piled on even more pressure and raced into an early 6-1 lead thanks to some powerful serving.
Russia Maxim Mikhaylov was at the centre of most of Russia’s attacks, scoring 18 points. When Serbia did manage to break through the Russian defence, it was often Aleksandar Atanasijevic who won the points, with the 21-year-old responsible for 18 of the 52 his team managed over three sets.
USA 3 – 0 Tunisia
Top scorers: D. McKienzie 17, S. Rooney 12, M. Anderson 10; I.Moalla 10, H. Kaabi 8, A. Kadhi 5
USA beat Tunisia 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, and 25-19) in the fifth and final round of men’s volleyball preliminary matches to top pool B at Earls Court on Monday. This improves USA record to 4 wins and 1 loss and the leadership in the group of the guys captained by Clayton Stanley won’t be challenged by the result of the last game on schedule starring Brazil and Germany. David McKienzie top scored for USA with 17 as coach Knipe partly rested his starting players, with Sean Rooney finishing with 12 and Matthew Anderson chipping in with 10. USA finish top of pool B and will face Italy, who were fourth in pool A, on Wednesday, 8 August. Tunisia, who have lost every match, are eliminated from the competition.
Brazil 3 – 0 Germany
Top scorers: Lucas S. 10, Wallace 8, L. Vissotto 8; B. Andrae 14, J. Schops 12, S. Schwarz 4
Brazil beat Germany in straight sets (25-21, 25-22, 25-19) in match that finished preliminary round of the Olympic man’s volleyball tournament at Earls Court.
Germany started the game in the reserve composition without passion and belief and this team did not have too much desire to win Brazil, however, it was clear that Germany will not advance to better position in pool B before quarter-finals. On the other hand, Grozer and rest would not like to be higher because they will face Bulgaria in play-offs.
Brazil made the final step to achieve the second position after first phase. However, Giba and his team mates cannot expect any easy opponent in top 8.
Lucas concluded the match with 13 points while Wallace and Vissotto totaled. Among Germans, Bjorn Andrae was the best scoring 14 points.
Standings
Quarterfinals
Bulgaria – Germany 08 – Aug 21:30 local time/ 22:30 CET
Poland – Russia 08 – Aug 19:30 local time/ 20:30 C ET
Argentina – Brazil 08 – Aug 14:00/ 15:00 CET
USA – Italy 08 – Aug 16:00 local time/ 17:00 CET
Source: own news/ fivb.org