Havana.- selection The Cuban men arrive in Canada to make their 2023 Volleyball Nations League debut. It will be against the hosts next Wednesday at 8 pm.
After two profitable matches against the Argentine team, the bronze medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games began his itinerary for Bogota, Colombia, on Saturday morning, continuing on flights to Toronto and Ottawa, where he arrived at dawn this Sunday .
The preparatory match ended with a victory for each side. In the preliminary matchup, the Caribbeans were swept with partial scores of 25–23, 25–20 and 25–22, but on Friday, Argentina struck back with consecutive partial scores of 25–20, 25–23 and 25–19. Did.
Technical director Nicolas Vives accomplished his goal of leading his squad to the ground. First with the starting formation, in which opposite left winger Jesús Herrera and cornerbacks Miguel Angel López and Osniel Mergarejo stood out.
In the closing contest, striker-receiver Marlon Yant, who had made only a fleeting start in the previous game, contributed 12 points with a moderate efficiency in spikes (48%). The match was led mostly by the substitutes.
Cuba lacks key figures such as centre-back Roberto Simón, Livan Soria and Romy Alonso. However, Javier Concepcion and Israel Masso did not disappoint, nor did 2.12m tall youngster Andriel Pedroso.
The Light-Blues, who only exchanged opposite Bruno Lima for Pablo Kukurtsev in the second outing, displayed better attack and defense functions, making 19 of 35 unforced errors from our home side. Cuba out-blocked him (11-6).
Now the Vives students will have three days to prepare for their debut in the prestigious competition, with their second match against the Netherlands scheduled for 8 June at 11am. They will take on Italy and Brazil in that order on Friday and Saturday at 4:30 pm.
This is Cuba’s first appearance in the tournament’s history. It will face 12 challenges in the group stage, four in each scenario: Ottawa, France (June 20–25) and Anaheim (July 4–9).
The League of Nations will be an excellent preparatory competition with a view to the Olympic qualifiers for Paris 2024, scheduled from 30 September to 8 October this year.
To those already mentioned, cornerback José Miguel Gutierrez, opposite his brother Miguel David, has been added to the cast; Adrian Goede, Livan Taboda and Christian Thondaike, and liberos Yonder Garcia and Alain Gorguet homered.
Other coaches Yosvani Muñoz, Doctor Ramsay Raymond, physiotherapist Pedro Roque and Jorge Sousa complete the group as national commissioner and head of delegation.
(Tags for translation) JIT
