Varna, Bulgaria, June 10, 2017 - Reigning Olympic champions
Brazil dominated reigning world champions
Poland thanks to a commanding performance by opposite spiker
Renan Buiatti who scored 18 points in Brazil's 3-1 victory (25-21, 25-20, 17-25, 25-19) on Saturday's action at the 2017 World League.
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Latest VideosFacebookTwitterInstagramMedia Guides The 27-year old was in a class of his own as he lead his teammates to their fourth straight 3-1 victory, following wins over Iran, Italy and Canada. He was all over the place in the two first sets but disappeared in the third, just like the rest of his side. The Juiz de Fora metronome resurfaced in the fourth set to guide Brazil to victory.
On the other side of the net, the defense shone most with Bartlomiej Lemanski (5) and Mateusz Bieniek (5) getting ten of the team's twelve blocks while Dawid Konarski claimed a team high 10 points.
Brazil kicked off their campaign for a first World League title since 2010 with a 3-2 defeat at the hands of... Poland. Revenge was thus in the heads of the South Americans as they headed to Bulgaria and it showed in their opening game in the second week when they eased passed Canada 3-1.
Poland, on the other hand, suffered a 3-2 defeat that put their chances of heading to Curitiba in question. And statistics could appease their fans as the Poles have now won five of their last seven major encounters with Brazil and three of their last five in the World League. On top of that, the European side has a gem in Dawid Konarski (69 points, 0.6 block by set).The first set was a stroll in the park for the Olympic gold medalists as Renan (7 points) and Ricardo Lucarelli Souza (4 points) were all on target. The South Americans took an early lead (5-2 then 8-4) and never seemed in any kind of danger despite Poland's five blocks (14-10). The Poles made too many mistake to worry a side that reached six of the last eight World League finals. A final surge by the Europeans only managed to reduce the magnitude of the defeat (25-21) that ended on another Renan spike.
Brazil remained in control in the second set, thanks to a strong start lead by Lucarelli (11-8). Lucas' second line spike was answered by a Maciej Muzaj (18-13) but the world N.1 got back on track after coach Renan Dal Zotto called a time out. This quick break helped Brazil regroup and the South Americans cruised to a 2-0 lead with Lucas once again in the driver's seat (25-20).
Ferdinando De Giorgi's men finally woke up, fighting tooth and nail to build a three-point lead (10-7) as their defense moved into action, managing their ninth block of the match while opposite Bartosz Kurek delivered spike after spike to guide his teammates (16-12). Bartlomiej Lemanski also added his name to the scoresheet as he was a real threat on the serve, guiding Poland to a comfortable third set win (25-17).The fourth was nip-and-tuck at the outset but Brazil got their noses in front before surging into a three-point lead (19-16). Poland fought tooth and nails but Brazil won one of the points of the night to swing the momentum back in their favour before bringing up five match points (24-19).
Matches on Sunday