Cuba loses to Brazil and finishes winless at the U19 Volleyball World Cup

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 29 (ACN) Cuban men's team lost 0-3 to Brazil today and bowed out of Group D of the U19 Volleyball World Championship, held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, without a victory.

After falling to South Korea 0-3, the United States 1-3, Finland 0-3, and Colombia 2-3, in that order, Cubans were edged out Tuesday by the favorites, Brazil, with close scores of 18-25, 25-27, and 23-25.

According to the International Federation's website www.fivb.com, the Caribbean team's main difficulty was the number of points conceded due to their own errors: 32 points to their opponents' 16.

The official team statistics for the match show that Cubans were better in attacks, 41 to 33, and serving (5-3), while the South Americans did better in blocking (9-4).

Individually, Cuban Alessandro Gonzalez stood out, leading the match with 20 points, 18 on attacks, one on blocks, and one on serving, followed by Brazilian Lucas Rigui Carvalho (12/10-2-0) and his teammate, Samuel Alejandro Rodriguez (10/9-0-1), all three players with double figures.

In the other Group D matches, Finland and the United States defeated Colombia and South Korea 3-1.

With these results, the Finns led the Group D standings with five wins and 14 points, followed by South Korea (3-10), Brazil (3-9), the United States (2-5), Colombia (1-3), and Cuba (0-1), respectively.

Now, the Caribbean team will continue competing, but will be looking for one of the 17th to 24th places.

Their first opponent will be Algeria, fifth in Group B, with one win and three points.

Group A was topped by Pakistan (4-13), Belgium (4-11), Argentina (4-11), Uzbekistan (2-6), Turkey (1-4), and Puerto Rico (0-0), while Group B was led by Bulgaria (4-12), France (4-12), China (4-11), Japan (2-7), Algeria (1-3), and Canada (0-0).

Italy (4-13) dominated segment C, ahead of Spain (4-11), Iran (3-9), Poland (3-9), Egypt (1-3) and Tunisia (0-0).