Guatemala one step away from the title by beating Panama

Managua Nicaragua. October 22, 2022.- Guatemala remains undefeated in five outings and was one step away from the title by beating Panama 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-12) at the XIX AFECAVOL Men's Under-21 Central American Championship .

Pressured especially in the second set, in which Panama managed to equalize the actions at point 19, Guatemala managed to remain calm and with effective blocking in the center of the net, took out the set and allowed them to go to victory.

The top scorer for Guatemala was José Pablo Pérez with 16 points, Francisco Gamboa and Javier Lucero finished with 10. David de León was the best for Panama with 12 points and Emanuel Pérez with 11.

Guatemala was better in attack 38-29, in serves 6-1 and in blocking they were even 5-5, but Panama committed 26 errors, to 18 of their opponents.

Adolfo Ariel Rivas, setter of Guatemala: “I am very happy to have won this match, now we just have to get our act together tomorrow to be champion. Today we played well, I trust my team a lot and things went well. Defense is very important for my work, everything is a collective aspect, because the attack needs the rest and we have all been doing a good job”.

Reider Lucas, coach of Guatemala: “We haven't met our goal yet, we are still in competition, nothing has been defined, we have the last game tomorrow against El Salvador. Our goal was to fight every game and that's what we've tried to do. The boys have known how to take advantage of the games, which is the most important thing, despite the drop in concentration and mood”.

This Sunday, El Salvador meets Guatemala at 2:00 p.m. and Panama meets Costa Rica at 4:00 p.m.

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