VNL 2023: Brazil defeat Argentina at tie break - first win for France, Poland back to the top!

Friday (in Europe!) of VNL 2023 games started in Pool 1 in Ottawa, Canada, with a brave Brazil who prevail in a dramatic South American Derby against Argentina with a great contribution from bench players, 3-2 (19:25, 25:19, 23:25, 25:23, 15:13).
For Brazil this second victory in the competition to remain undefeated after two matches.
The winners comeback was the result of a true team effort who used 12 of their 14 available players and had five of them registering a double digit performance: olympic champion outside hitter Ricardo Lucarelli led them with 17 points including two blocks, followed by opposite Alan de Souza, 13, before leaving the court in the third set.
His substitute, Abouba Dramé Neto, champions of France with Tours, also contributed with 11, the same as outside hitter Henrique Honorato, who just like him started the match on the bench, while Middle blocker Otávio Pinto scored ten points.
On the other side of the net, opposite Bruno Lima scored 20 points including two winning blocks, while outside hitter Luciano Palonsky had 16 points and middle blocker Agustin Loser 13.

“Playing against Argentina is always something special for us,” said team captain and setter Bruno Rezende, who also came in during the match.
“It’s always nice to play matches with so many emotions involved and to win it with a great comeback like this. That’s our spirit. We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare and are not playing at our best, but we can always compete if we put everything on the court. We were a little passive in the beginning, I think when we became more aggressive, the match changed a little bit. We got a lot of players come in and help today and we truly have 14 players here who are capable of making a difference. Everyone is important.”

In Nagoya, Japan, France celebrated first victory and they did it against China, defeating them by 1-3 (20:25, 25:23, 16:25, 17:25) with 4 players in double digit: top scorer Carle with 18, Tillie and Faure with 17 each, and Bultor with 12. To make the difference, however, were the performance from the service line: 9 aces from the Olympic champions to 1 of the Asian side.

On the same Pool, hard-fought and nice the match between currently Nations League leaders Poland and Bulgaria, won by the players around Nikola Grbic at tie break (25:27 25:19 22:25 25:22 15:11).
Plamen Konstantinov’s guys confirmed their progresses, surrendering only after five sets after the 1-0 and 2-1 lead against a strong rival.
In a very balanced game, the difference has been made in blocking, 9 points from this element for the winners, against only 3 of Bulgaria.

__________________

🏐| 2023 VOLLEYBALL NATIONS LEAGUE

— June 09, 2023 —

Pool 1 – Week 1 – Ottawa 🇨🇦
👉🏼 20:00 (Local Time) | Argentina – Brazil 2-3 (25:19, 19:25, 25:23, 23:25, 13:15)
• 11:00 (Local Time) | The Netherlands – Germany 3-0 (25:20, 33:31, 25:21)
• 16:30 (Local Time) | Italy – Cuba 3-1 (25:20, 25:19, 20:25, 25:18)

Pool 2 – Week 1 – Nagoya 🇯🇵

👉🏼 13:10 (Local Time) | China – France 1-3 (20:25, 25:23, 16:25, 17:25)

👉🏼 16:10 (Local Time) | Poland – Bulgaria 3-2 (25:27, 25:19, 22:25, 25:22, 15:11)

• 19:40 (Local Time) | Japan – Serbia 3-1 (22:25, 25:21, 25:23, 25:20)

__________________

🏐| STANDINGS (updated on this day):
1. Poland 7
2. USA 6
3. Brazil 5
4. Bulgaria 5
5. Argentina 4
6. Japan 3
7. Serbia 3
8. France 3
9. The Netherlands 3
10. Slovenia 3
11. Canada 2
12. China 2
13. Cuba 1
14. Iran 1
15. Germany 0
16. Italy 0
__________________