Guatemala overtook Nicaragua and will discuss fifth place

HAVANA, Cuba, August 31, 2018. - Guatemala entered the field with high inspiration and overtook Nicaragua 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-16) to win the right to discuss the fifth place of the Norceca Sub-21 Men's Volleyball Tournament, which today marks its penultimate day at the Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum.

The winners relied on a greater offense (44-35) and the benefit of 27 unforced errors of their opponents to take the success, whose biggest contributor was the opposite Edgar Maldonado (17), followed by the corner Jonatan Paz (10).

For its Central American neighbors again the slender Jonny Zeledón took the lead vocals of his cast and was the only one to get double digits when adding 17 units, but a swallow does not make summer.

Luis Fernando Castañeda, technical director of Guatemala, pointed out that "the boys had a great attitude since they got up, we worked on that during training, Nicaragua had always defeated us in these categories, like in the U-19, but this generation of players had not been able to beat, instead we did it in a Norceca. Now to fight for the fifth against whoever wins between Haiti and Barbados."

Its captain Diego Ralon considered that "the main thing in the triumph today was our attitude, the previous matches were very complicated, we slowed down and did not raise our heads.The rest day yesterday allowed us to analyze things well, so tomorrow we will be the same in search of securing the fifth place, sometimes it is not the best players but with a high morale everything is possible ".

Osmani Hernández, coach of Nicaragua, said "I think my boys were demoralized when in the first set I understood there was instability with the refereeing, really he does his job, but they did not recover after losing 22-25.We are discouraged because we came with the goal of securing the fifth place and we will discuss tomorrow the seventh."

Zeledón, the captain, stated that "this game was unexpected, we committed too many lapses and we lost concentration, and Guatemala was superior and the spirit was fundamental for that team, which took very good advantage of all our mistakes to counterattack and we did not finish the actions of attack, when we did it they lifted the ball, it was a complete fiasco, and the rivals were more effective and technical ".