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China beat by Italy 3-0 at World Champions Cup
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2005-11-23 10:58
"We are here to play game after game, set after set, ball after ball, and only after the last match against Japan will we see the situation. The Italian team is a new team, but I know where the power of my team is, and I believe in my players."
Andre Heller of Brazil(L) spikes the ball past US Ryan Millar during the 2005 World Grand Champion Cup men's volleyball in Nagano. |
Powerhouses Brazil came from behind to beat the United States 3-1 in the opening match of the men's volleyball World Grand Champions Cup, two days after they lifted the women's title.
The Brazilian men, who have never finished out of the top two in the three previous Cup editions, won by 25-27, 25-22, 25-19, 26-24.
Hosts and Asian champions Japan outlasted Egypt in a 110-minute full-set thriller by 25-16, 23-25, 14-25, 25-23, 15-5.
"We learned a lot from America's tactics and serves," said Brazil head coach Bernardo Rezende. "We had a lot of service misses, but it is not because the players are too tired from their busy schedule but because this was the first game."
He added his players had difficulty in handling the balls, which are different from those used in the Italian league where most of them play.
Brazil finished runners-up to Italy in the 1993 men's Champions Cup and won the gold medals in 1997. In 2001, they finished second to Cuba.
Cuba lost to the United States in the qualifying round this year in the zone for North and Central America and the Caribbean.
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