Tokyo 2020: Day 4 – Brazil, Poland and Italy first quarterfinalists. Wins also for Canada, Argentina and France

Brazil is first men’s team to qualify for quarterfinals!
In Pool B, the defending champions made a turnaround against the USA on Day 4 of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics volleyball tournament, scored third win, and secured a spot in the quarterfinals with a four sets win.
It took some time for the winners to fit in today. After losing to the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in the previous game, they needed to win on a penultimate day so it wouldn’t have to play a decider for the classification for the quarterfinals in the last game of the preliminary phase, against France.
After succumbing in the opening set against the USA, Renan Dal Zotto’s team reacted in the continuation of the match and provisionally settled at second place in the pool with 8 points (3-1), but regardless of the result of other games until the end of this stage, Brazil can’t go below no.4 in the pool.
Ricardo Lucarelli was the top scorer of the winning side with 19 points, including 4 aces, while Lucas Saatkamp set up 4 blocks. The Anderson – DeFalco duo led the U.S. with 22 and 21 points, respectively.

After a rough start at Tokyo 2020, embodied in two defeats, Canada regains control of its destiny and is back into the quarterfinal battle. The North Americans improved to 2-2 in Pool A as they swept Venezuela, which was their second 3-0 win in a row.
Nicolas Hoag top-scored Canada’s game with 16 points, while Lucas Van Berkel contributed to a win with 4 blocks.

Poland joined Brazil in the quarterfinals by winning easily two sets despite they had to work hard for one to beat Japan. This win not only strengthened the world champion in the first place in Pool A but also secured its promotion to the quarterfinals.
Unlike the encounter with Venezuela, Vital Heynen decided not to experiment with backups, sending the strongest lineup to the court, but again without the captain Michał Kubiak. This was quite strange because he played the entire game against Venezuela and that, according to his statement after the match, his back injury due to which he missed the first two matches in the event is gone. Of course, this created an aura of mystery surrounding the outside hitter, and left room for speculations regarding his relations with Heynen.
Wilfredo León was the top scorer of Poland with 17 points, while Jakub Kochanowski also contributed with 4 winning blocks. Bartosz Kurek was on an unrecognizable level, making only 13% effectiveness in the attack (9/23) and committing 6 errors. Yuki Ishikawa scored 16 points for the hosts.

In Pool B, Tunisia was close to creating a sensation: It had 2-0 in sets against Argentina, but then the African side suddenly stopped, winning only two points at 17-17 in the third set. Thus, the Marcelo Méndez’s side turned the match around and kept the chance to qualify for the next stage of the tournament.
Bruno Lima made an amazing performance for the wknners with 27 points, while Agustín Loser set up 5 blocks and Facundo Conte’s reception was very good (94.7%; 18/19). Wassim Ben Tara scored 21 points for Tunisia, while Ahmed Kadhi had 4 blocks, and Saddem Hmissi made 77.3% reception (17/22).

Back to Pool A, also Italy qualified for the quarterfinals after Brazil and Poland. Arithmetic says that a 3-1 (30:28, 25:22, 21:25, 25:21) win over Iran secured them a progression: Gianlorenzo Blengini’s team can’t be bypassed by more than two teams in Pool in the last round, meaning that they can drop to the fourth place in the pool in the worst-case possibility. Osmany Juantorena was absolutely the best among the winners today with 20 points and 87% reception (20/23), while Meisam Salehi made 14 for Iran.

In Pool B, France achieved quite an unexpected win against the Russian Olympic Committee that brought it back to the contention for the quarterfinals.
Being cornered, they showed an amazing performance and beat the ROC in four sets to be completely back in the race for the quarterfinals.
Two days after the tie-break defeat against Argentina, France largely redeemed with today’s win. It was quite a feat of the team commanded by Laurent Tillie because the rivals had not lost in the tournament prior to this game. Now, France moved up from fifth to third place in the pool chart ahead of the last round in which it will face the titleholder Brazil (already qualified for the quarterfinals). Jean Patry made 20 points on the winning side, while Maksim Mikhaylov put down 15 on the other side of the net.

| Complete Schedule for men’s volleyball tournament:

Pool A: Japan, Poland, Italy, Canada, Iran, and Venezuela.
Pool B: Brazil, USA, Russia, Argentina, France, and Tunisia.

| July 25 – Day 1
Italy – Canada 3-2 (26:28, 18:25, 25:21, 25:18, 15:11)
Brazil – Tunisia 3-0 (25:22 25:20 25:15)
Russia – Argentina 3-1 (21:25 25:23 25:17 25:21)
Japan – Venezuela 3-0 (25:21 25:20 25:15)
Poland – Iran 2-3 (25:18, 22:25, 22:25, 25:22, 21:23)
USA – France 3-0 (25:18, 25:18, 25:22)

| July 27 – Day 2
Iran – Venezuela 3-0 (25:17, 25:20, 25:18)
USA – ROC 1-3 (23:25, 25:27, 25:21, 23:25)
Poland – Italy 3-0 (25:20, 26:24, 25:20)
France – Tunisia 3-0 (25:21, 25:11, 25:21)
Japan – Canada 3-1 (23:25, 25:23, 25:23, 25:20)
Brazil – Argentina 3-2 (19:25, 21:25, 25:16, 25:21, 16:14)

| July 29 – Day 3
Canada – Iran 3-0 (25:16, 25:20, 25:22)
USA – Tunisia 3-1 (25:14 23:25 26:14 25:23)
Argentina – France 3-2 (23:25, 25:17, 25:20, 15:25, 15:13)
Poland – Venezuela 3-1 (25:16, 25:13, 18:25, 25:15)
Japan – Italy 1-3 (20:25, 17:25, 25:23, 21:25)
Brazil – ROC 0-3 (22:25, 20:25, 20:25)

👉🏼 July 31 – Day 4
Canada – Venezuela 3-0 (25:13, 25:22, 25:12)
Brazil – USA 3-1 (30:32, 25:23, 25:21, 25:20)
Japan – Poland 0-3 (22:25, 21:25, 24:26)
Argentina – Tunisia 3-2 (23:25, 23:25, 25:19, 25:18, 15:8)
Italy – Iran 3-1 (30:28, 25:22, 21:25, 25:21)
ROC – France 1-3 (21:25, 25:20, 17:25, 20:25)

| August 2 – Day 5
Poland – Canada 3-0 (25:15, 25:21, 25:16)
Brazil – France 3-2 (25:22, 37:39, 25:17, 21:25, 20:18)
ROC – Tunisia 3-0 (25:20, 25:22, 25:16)
Italy – Venezuela 3-0 (25:22, 25:15, 25:17)
Japan – Iran 3-2 (25:21, 20:25, 29:31, 25:22, 15:13)
USA – Argentina 0-3 (21:25, 23:25, 23:25)

_______________

| QUARTERFINALS – August 3:
• Canada (4a) – ROC (1b) 0-3 (21:25, 28:30, 22:25)
• Japan (3a) – Brazil (2b) 0-3 (20:25, 22:25, 20:25)
• Italy (2a) – Argentina (3b) 2-3 (25:21, 23:25, 22:25, 25:14, 12:15)
• Poland (1a) – France (4b) 2-3 (25:21, 22:25, 25:21, 21:25, 9:15)

_______________

| SEMIFINALS – August 5, 2021:

• Brazil – ROC 1-3 (25:18, 21:25, 24:26, 23:25)
• France – Argentina 3-0 (25:22, 25:19, 25:22)

_______________

August 7: FINALS
• Bronze Medal Match: Argentina – Brazil 3-2 (25:23, 20:25, 20:25, 25:17 15:13)
• Gold Medal Match: France – Russian Olympic Committee 3-2 (25:23, 25:17, 21:25, 21:25, 15:12)

_______________