Mexico prevailed over Chile at U21 Pan American Cup

HAVANA, Cuba, October 5, 2022.- Mexico dominated Chile 3-1 (25-13, 15-25, 26-24, 25-21) and has two victories against one loss to keep their hopes in advancing to the next round of the Men’s U21 Pan American Cup, on the third day at Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum.

Pool A has yet to be decided because the match between United States and Chile will take place until Thursday, which couldn’t be held on Monday due to flight delays from both teams due to this city’s weather conditions.

Mexico and Chile concluded today with similar numbers, but with advantage for the winners in a match that lasted over an hour. The differences were in attacks 45-40, blocks 9-10 and from their own errors 27-31.

Leading Mexican scorer and of the match was outside hitter Leonardo Maldonado (17), followed by middle blocker Diego Esquivel (10). For Chile, with double digits was Antar Derpich (12) and outside hitters Josué Ruiz and Rafael Fuentes, both with 10 points.

Jorge Alberto Romero, Mexico’s head coach opinion “the game was going to be hard, Chile had nothing to lose, they aren’t looking to qualify for worlds, and we couldn’t take any chances, but the over confidence came when we won the first set easily, we thought the next were going to be the same and they weren’t. Chile has always been a hot team like Mexico, and it was difficult to control the same way to play like ours, nevertheless I am glad despite the complexity of the match because the boys reacted well to the instructions”.

Mexican outside hitter Ramón Eduardo González considered that “both teams are good, at the beginning it was easy, and we were too confident, they instead of giving up pressed harder, but we were able to work as a team and thanks to that we finished with the victory”.

Chilean head coach Ivan Villarreal said “we faced a completely different opponent, with level and that showed good aspects in their game. We had difficulties with their serves that on occasions we couldn’t control, but it was clear when we established our plan, we also executed it. That third set could have gone either way”.

“I esteem our capacity to manage many aspects of the game that Mexico made harder for us, standing that pressure is marvelous because we came to develop, gain experience and today we couldn’t win, but tomorrow against the United States we will have the same illusion to win, there is always a rematch”.