HIROSHIMA, Japan, November 25, 2006.-  World and Olympic champions Brazil romped to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-23) victory over the United States in Pool F of the FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship on Saturday.

 

The victory meant Brazil took their Pool F record to 3-1, their only defeat coming at the hands of France during Pool B play in Fukuoka. The Americans dropped to 1-3 and now face a tough task trying to quality for the top 12 and a place in the positional play-offs.

 

Gilberto “Giba” Godoy led Brazil with 23 points and Andre Nascimento had 13. David McKinzie and Riley Salmon scored 11 and 10 points respectively for USA.

 

"Brazil played very well,” said Hugh McMcCutcheon, the USA head coach. "Brazil is the kind of team who can do things that other teams can't do. We struggled to find some continuity and put some plays together.”

 

In another match of Pool F, Bulgaria brought their unbeaten first round form into the second phase with a comprehensive defeat of Cuba. The Europeans followed up their five opening round wins with a 25-22, 25-18, 25-20 victory over the Caribbeans, and sounded a warning to the rest of group that their impressive winning run is not over yet.

 

Bulgarians Matey Kaziyski and Boyan Yordanov had 11 and 10 points respectively and Michael Sanchez and Raydel Corrales also had 11 and 10 tallies.

 

"I am very satisfied with the way we played in today's match,” said Cuban coach Roberto Garcia. “We played a lot of young players, and they did very well. We are going to face strong teams every day, but we will do our best."

Meanwhile in Sendai, Serbia and Montenegro needed all their experience and quality to beat plucky Puerto Rico 3-1 (25-18, 25-23, 20-25, 25-23) in Pool E. The winners improved their win-loss record to 4-0 in the second round and dropped Puerto Rico to 1-3. 

Ivan Miljkovic led Serbia and Montenegro with 25 points and Puerto Rican Hector Soto led all the scorers with 30 points. Victor Rivera had 14 and Luis Rodriguez contributed 11 points. 

“We played a very good game but Serbia and Montenegro played a little better than we did,” said Carlos Cardona, the Puerto Rican coach. 

In the other match of Pool E involving a NORCECA team, Japan took a major step towards the third and final stage in Tokyo next week by beating Canada 3-1. 

In front of 7,659 spectators, Japan recovered from losing the first set to win the match 23-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-22 and improve their win-loss record in the second round to 3-1. Canada slid to 1-3. 

Takahiro Yamamoto led Japan with 20 points and Canadians Paul Duerden and Dallas Soonias had 11 and 10 respectively. 

“I think we played our worst match in this tournament,” said Glenn Hoag, the Canadian coach. “It was a very bad performance. We made a lot of technical errors. If we do that for the rest of the competition we will be going home early.”