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HAVANA, October 2nd, 2022.- Two
tickets for the FIVB U21 Men's World
Championship will be up for grabs at the
age-group Pan American Cup that begins on Monday
at the Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum.
During the preliminary inquiries
each team delegate was informed that these two
spots will be granted to the best two teams of
NORCECA since only Chile from the South American
Confederation is participating and as per
regulations, four teams of each confederation
must be participating to compete for one of the
spots.
In the meantime, seven out of
eight coaches gave their opinion regarding their
goals during this tournament. United States was
not able to arrive on time due to flight delays
and it was determined that their match against
Chile will be played on Thursday, October 6th}
On Monday, Dominican Republic
faces Mexico in group A, and in group B,
Nicaraga-Canada and Cuba-Haiti.
Ben Josephson, Canada:
“We worked hard, we are eager to play. We have
worked and prepared to qualify for Worlds. My
players are college students, but I keep an eye
on them and see them play as a team in college.
I think that our main opponents are Cuba and the
United States. We played two days ago with the
locals and won in five sets”.
Jesús Cruz, Cuba:
“The preparation has been with ups and down, but
we have been able to train and concentrate a
group of athletes in this category, some went to
the U19 World Championship, others have no
competitive experience. That is why we took
advantage of the friendly games against Canada
and the Dominican Republic. That always helps a
lot and more at these ages. Training is not the
same as playing infront of a crowd, referees, at
the venue and other tensions that competition
brings. But we train to win, so we not only
aspire to World Championship quota, but also to
win the cup”.
Iván Villarreal, Chile:
“The first objective of our base
teams is to give them a significant amount of
competition that allows us to carry them through
their development so that they can be part of
the main squad. This group is a mix of the
under-19 who participated in the Pan American
Cup in Guatemala in May and players from the
under-21. Our idea is to train them and have
previous events prior to attend next year’s U23
Championship. At the South American U21 we
finished third, behind Brazil and Argentina
(classified), and we are at the waiting room for
the World Championship”.
Junior Siecle, Haití:
“It is our first Norceca event in which we have
participated, but the objective has not changed,
they want to do a good job, have a good
tournament and to fight for a place in the World
Championship. We have various weapons, and they
are strengthened by the preparation we have
done, but since we don't know our rivals, we
have high expectations of knowing how they will
develop”.
José Dante Manon, Dominican
Republic:
“We have a very young team, but I
think we are ready for the qualification. We
recognize that we will have strong rivals like
the United States, Canada and Cuba, who has a
tall and tremendously powerful team; that we
were able to witness during friendly matches.
Our strength is the attack, it will be our main
weapon and we are going to try to develop it and
show our cheerful game”.
Jorge Alberto Romero, Mexico:
“We come from a three-week
preparation at the National Training Center in
Mexico City, and we are going to fight for the
classification, looking for one of the two
Norceca’s Worlds tickets. There are players who
played in the U19 World Championship in Egypt;
however, it is a recently assembled young team,
but with a lot of talent. With all rivals we
must have push, since none of them will be weak,
but I think that the United States, Canada and
Cuba are the teams with most options”.
Jorge Mena, Nicaragua:
“The main objective is to compete, to do the
best. Also, that it serves as preparation for
the U21 Central American Championship to be held
in our country from the 16th to the 24th of this
month. We are the current champions, but we have
rivals like Guatemala and Costa Rica, and any of
the three can win. This Cup helps you raise the
level a little more to face them. The first time
we have a fairly high team and due to its age,
it can still improve. We are working to have a
good team in the future that later can become
the base of the senior team”.
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