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Canada no pushover in World League loss to top volleyball nation Brazil
BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL -- For awhile during today's World League match in Belo Horizonte, you might have had trouble determining which of the two teams was actually ranked as the No. 1 volleyball country in the world. Although Brazil prevailed in four sets (25-14, 20-25, 25-22, 25-18), the 12th-rated Canadian indoor men's team scored a big moral victory as it had the mighty Brazilians against the ropes for a good portion of the contest.
Canada was led in scoring by two of its younger up-and-coming players, who faced the Brazilian starting lineup that has won all the recent major international competitions. That was just an added bonus for Team Canada head coach Glenn Hoag.
"For a set and a half, we were able to play our game, impose our system, play smart and play with energy, so we just need to stretch out that period of time," he said. "And the fact that our younger players are performing is a certainly a good thing."
Left-side Fred Winters, 24, scored 14 points for Canada, as did 23-year-old Mark Dodds, who saw his first considerable World League action today, playing out of position to fill in for injured right-sides Paul Duerden and Alexandre Gaumont Casias.
"That's an experience that'll be with me for the rest of my life," Dodds said. "I've never been involved in an atmosphere like that. I mean, 18,000 fans, playing against the No. 1 team in the world --
What's what you dream about."
The 17,628 fans who packed the Ginasio Poliesportivo Felipe Henriot were eager for more of what they had seen in their nation's straight-sets victory over Canada yesterday. And in the first set, they got exactly what they wanted as Brazil's biggest stars (minus Giba) took to the court for the first time in World League 2007 and demonstrated why volleyball is the country's No. 1 sport (since soccer is considered a religion).
The Brazilians' impenetrable block-defence and tremendous hitting paced them to a 15-7 lead, with four of those seven Canadian points coming from Brazil's service faults. It looked like the only way Canada would stand a chance was if the floor surface magically transformed to an ice rink. Brazil cruised on to a 25-14 win.
But then something changed. For the first time in two days, cheers from the Canadian side of the court were audible amidst the sea of defeaning yellow and green supporters. Setter Scott Koskie entered the match and had success finding Winters and Dodds for spikes, as well as Dan Lewis.
Middles Murray Grapentine and Steve Brinkman came up with several key blocks, while Brazil showed some rust on its side. Up 19-18, Canada closed with a 6-1 run to secure its first set victory in the past seven tries.
"Everything came together. Everyone on the court was just gelling, having fun and executing well," Dodds said. "That was awesome. We were playing really well, we saw some uncharacteristic mistakes from Brazil, and we kind of almost managed to take the crowd out of it."
The third set continued in the same fashion early on as Canada maintained the edge on the scoreboard. Koskie, the shortest player on either squad, rejected Nalbert Bitencourt for a block kill to give his team a 16-14 lead heading into the second technical timeout.
But that was as close as the little guys would come to knocking the giants off their perch. Dante Guimaraes Amaral had a couple big hits as part of his game-high 22 kills, but Brazil's final point of the 25-22 win was more representative of the set as a Brazilian quick hit clipped the tape and narrowly fell on the Canadian side of the net.
"We made too many execution errors," Hoag said. "Not many unforced errors, but just little things, and against that team..."
The fourth set wasn't a disaster by any means for Canada, but it looked more like the first frame than the middle two. Brazil's defence was able to cope with a lot of what Canada had to throw at it while powerful serving caused trouble for Canadian passers. The 25-18 final set victory gave the Brazilian fans the rest of the day to celebrate after the 10 a.m. start.
"They play the game as close to perfection as anyone in the world, so it's difficult to slow them down and stop them," Dodds noted.
Brazil remains undefeated in Pool A at 8-0 while 1-7 Canada has lost seven in a row. But Dodds thought that the good showing against Brazil was a positive step for the group.
"Things have been going bad for so long, just to play that well against Brazil, I think that's a boost of confidence," he said. "The guys, in the dressing room after the match -- even though it was a loss -- heads were a little bit higher and I think we can build on that for the rest of World League."
Brazil and Canada will meet again back on Canadian soil on June 22 and 23 at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ont. Friday's match will be broadcast live at 7:30 p.m. on CBC Country Canada and Saturday's contest will be featured on CBC Sports Weekend from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET.
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Canada's roster for World League vs Brazil:
Setters: Mike Munday (Winnipeg, MB), Scott Koskie (Winnipeg, MB)
Left-sides: Louis-Pierre Mainville (Notre-Dame-de-l'ële-Perrot, QC), Dan Lewis (Oakville, ON), Mark Dodds (Lucky Lake, SK), Fred Winters (Vancouver, BC), Nicholas Cundy (Edmonton, AB)
Middles: Murray Grapentine (Wetaskiwin, AB), Brett Youngberg (Surrey, BC), Steve Brinkman (Bowmanville, ON)
Right-sides: Alexandre Gaumont Casias (Marieville, QC)
Libero: Chris Wolfenden (Peterborough, ON)
Canada's World League results/schedule (all times local):
Canada 3, Finland 1 (18-25, 25-20, 28-26, 25-18)
Finland 3, Canada 1 (19-25, 25-22, 26-24, 25-19)
Korea 3, Canada 1 (26-24, 26-24, 20-25, 25-23)
Korea 3, Canada 0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-19)
Finland 3, Canada 0 (25-23, 25-15, 25-18)
Finland 3, Canada 1 (26-24, 24-26, 25-18, 25-23)
Brazil 3, Canada 0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-13)
Brazil 3, Canada 1 (25-14, 20-25, 25-22, 25-18)
June 22 - Canada vs Brazil - Mississauga, 7:30 p.m.
June 23 - Canada vs Brazil - Mississauga, 2 p.m.
June 29 - Canada vs Korea - Winnipeg, 7:30 p.m.
June 30 - Canada vs Korea - Winnipeg, 2:30 p.m.
Pool A standings:
1. Brazil (8-0)
2. Finland (5-3)
3. Korea (2-6)
4. Canada (1-7)
For more information:
Dan Plouffe
Team Canada media attachŽ
World League 2007
+55-31-3429-4001 Rm. 1536
media@volleyball.ca
Greg Smith
Communications Director
Volleyball Canada
613-748-5681 ext. 224
gsmith@volleyball.ca
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