FIVB Press Release
Todays press release
The 7th day of competition at the FIVB Men’s World Cup 2007 still maintains the same standings as yesterday: Russia remains in first place followed by Brazil, after their 7th and 6th win in a row against African teams Egypt and Tunisia respectively. The big match of the day was played in Fukuoka by Japan and Puerto Rico. Carlos Cardonas’s team beat host Japan for the first time ever in an outstanding match in front of a 5,170 audience. In other action in Site A, Spain downed Argentina easily 3-0 and Russia beat Egypt also in straight sets. In site B, United States swept Korea 3-0 and Bulgaria was stronger than Australia 3-0.
The Norceca vice champion Puerto Rico avenged their loss to Japan in the World Championship last year with a straight-sets sweep of the World Cup hosts in the third match of the day at Marine Messe Fukuoka on Monday night. Puerto Rico won 25-23, 25-23, 25-21 to improve their win-loss record to 4-3, ropping Japan to 3-4 in the process with four matches to go. At the 2006 World Championship, Japan beat Puerto Rico 3-1, winning the fourth set 36-34 on their seventh match point after Puerto Rico had missed five set points of their own.
Head Coach Carlos Cardona said: “It was very important to play a good game tonight after losing yesterday. 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. We play Russia tomorrow and I expect it to be a very difficult game. The most important thing will be the performance of our spikers. Also, we must make as few mistakes as possible if we are to have a chance to win the match”.
