Canada improves to 2-0 and Puerto Rico suffered a painful loss

 

SENDAI, Japan, November 18, 2006.- Canada improved its record to 2-0 after a 3-1 victory over South Korea in Pool D of the 2006 FIVB Men’s World Championship.

 

The Canucks recovered from a set down to secure their second win 26-28, 25-23, 25-16, 25-23 and consign the Koreans to another defeat.

 

Paul Duerden led Canada with 23 points, Fred Winters and Pascal Cardinal added 18 points apiece and Murray Grapentine contributed 10 points.

 

Canadian coach Glenn Hoag: “Both teams played well today. The Korean team has a strong defense and to fight against a team like that we needed to have patience. It was a very close match and you couldn’t really see any difference.”

 

Meanwhile in Saitama, Puerto Rico suffered a painful loss to Egypt in five sets after being ahead 2-0 during the second day of action in Pool A.

 

The Egyptians formed a circle and danced in delight after coming back to beat Puerto Rico 27-29, 19-25, 25-21, 25-20, 15-12 for their first win and a 1-1 record. Puerto Rico dropped to 1-1 after beating Argentina in five sets the previous day.

Hector Soto led five Puerto Ricans in double figures with 27 points and Jose Rivera had 18. Rene Estevez contributed 15 tallies and Victor Rivera and Luis Rodriguez added 13 and 11 respectively. 

Carlos Cardona, the Puerto Rican coach: “We won the first and second sets but we could not keep our concentration. That is very important for us now. Egypt played well but we had 38 errors.” 

In Pool C in Nagano , USA suffered its second loss in as many days, this time falling to Bulgaria 3-0 after an epic first set. The score was 30-28, 25-22, 25-21. Americans Reid Priddy and James Polster each had 13 points. 

USA coach Hugh McCutcheon: "We were better today than we were yesterday. There are lots of little plays where we had a lack of communication. I hope we can dig ourselves out of this hole."

In Pool B in Fukuoka, Germany won their second straight match with a stunning 3-0 victory over favored Cuba.

 

The Germans triumphed 25-14, 25-23, 25-20 against a Cuban team who lacked cohesion and, at times, the will to fight.

 

Roberto Garcia, Cuba head coach: "I'd like to congratulate Germany . Yesterday against Brazil we played as good as our ability let us. But today, we were very different. We didn't have concentration and our tactics didn't work.”