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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, December 30, 2015 - USA
claimed a direct ticket to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games by
winning the FIVB Men’s World Cup for the first time in 30 years.
USA finished with a 10-1 win-record following their 3-1 victory
over Argentina.
The American side clinched the title on the last day of the
competition in Tokyo, Japan when they defeated Argentina 3-1
(25-20, 25-21, 17-25, 25-20) on September 23. Silver medalists
Italy will join USA and Brazil after a 3-1 (26-24, 22-25, 25-22,
25-19) over world champions Poland.
In the final match, Maxwell Holt scored 18 points and had the
honor of landing the championship point. Argentina’s Facundo
Conte topped all scorers with 22 points.
Cuban-born Osmany Juantorena scored 25 points for Italy.
The United States’ Matthew Anderson received the Most Valuable
Player (MVP) award. He led USA as the top scorer with 172
points,
Anderson was joined by teammates Micah Christenson and Erik
Shoji, who took the Best Setter and Best Libero honors,
respectively, then Italy’s wingmen Osmany Juantorena and Ivan
Zaytsev got the 1st Best Outside Spiker and Best Opposite awards
for leading their team’s second place finish.
The other players who made it into the 2015 Men’s World Cup
Dream Team were 2nd Best Outside Spiker Yuki Ishikawa of Japan,
1st Best Middle Blocker Sebastian Sole of Argentina, and 2nd
Best Middle Blocker Seyed Mohammad of Iran. |
