Argentina set to defend Pan Am Games title against Cuba

LIMA, Peru, August 3, 2019.-      Argentina won their semifinal match to Chile 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 28-26, 25-17) and is set to defend their Pan American Games title against Cuba on Sunday at the Multisport Complex El Callao in Lima, Peru.

Argentina has reached the Pan American Games title match on other two occasions, winning them both (1995, 2015), aiming to win twice in a row after battling strong against a resilient Chilean squad.

Chile will meet Brazil in their first ever Pan American Games medal match.

Over four thousand spectators witnessed Argentina’s semifinal victory, overcoming Chile with 65-57 advantage in kills, 3-1 margin in aces and finished with fewer errors (23-30). Chile outblocked Argentina 8-3.

Argentina’s top hitter and the only one with double-figures was captain Nicolas Bruno who scored 16 points all on kills. Chilean outside hitter Vicente Parraguirre scored a match-high of 20 points all on kills; middle blocker Gabriel Araya contributed with 14 points including four blocks, while opposite player Tomas Parraguirre and captain Dusan Bonasic registered 12 points apiece.

Comments:

Horacio Dileo, Head coach of Argentina: “It was a really difficult match; I congratulate Chile for their fantastic job, they have improved a lot during the past years with Daniel Nejamkin. We got a little confused, we were able to solve out things improving our attitude when things weren’t going our way, and we were able to clear our minds to finish winning”.

Nicolás Bruno, captain of Argentina: “It was very hard, they complicated things for us, we weren’t able to do our kind of game with effective kills. Chile played very well, with little errors, they pounded hard with their counterattack and taking us to their territory. We were strong headed going a point at a time mostly in sets one and three”.

Daniel Nejamkin, Head coach of Chile: “We played three sets at great level; I believe if we could have been more convinced we would have won the third set and maybe change the course of the game. We lost our head in the fourth set”.