The Brazilian women’s team volleyball is for the 14th time in a row among the four best in the world of the League of Nations, maintaining a sequence that began when the tournament was called Grand Prix. This Wednesday (13), Brazil played a very tough game against Japan in Ankara (Turkey), suffering against the powerful defense of the Asian team, it only took off in the fourth set, but won by 3 sets to 1, partial 29/ 27, 28/26, 20/25 and 25/14.
If the selection had difficulties in turning balls in the attack, mainly in the middle of the net, with Julia Kudiess only making her first attack point in the last of the game, the blocking paid off. There were 16 points for Brazil on this basis, against only six of the Japanese.
After making a lot of mistakes in the first set, the team managed to concentrate and almost didn’t give points to the opponent in the last three partials, achieving a victory that had a lot of emotional component, despite the youth of the Brazilian team, which had four girls on the team. holder: Julia Kudiess (19 years old), Julia Bergmann (21), Kisy (22) and Natinha (25).
Qualified for the semifinals, Brazil will face on Saturday, probably at 9:00 am, whoever passes the duel between the United States and Serbia, which will play today at 12:30 pm. The Americans won the Olympic final in Tokyo against Brazil and had the best campaign in the classification phase.
The Americans are naturally favorites for the title in Ankara. The duel, if confirmed, can be seen as an early final, forced because Turkey, owner of the seventh best campaign in the qualifying phase, became the first seed for being hosting the games. On the other side of the bracket, the Turks play Thailand tomorrow. Italy, the only team, along with the USA, that beat Brazil in the classification phase, will take on China, also tomorrow.
Brazil suffers but wins
The game was tough from the first set. In large part, it was the fault of the Brazilian team itself. With Kisy, Julia Bergmann, Natinha and Julia Kudiess starting for the first time in a game of this importance and Gabi failing to turn balls, Brazil made a huge mistake in the first half.
There were 13 mistakes in the first set alone, points given for free to Japan, who barely had to worry about turning balls, dedicating efforts to defend well, as is the case with the Asian school, return the ball to Brazil, and wait for the mistake. Everything seemed lost in 21 to 14 for Japan, but in the serve of Gabi the Brazilian team got a fantastic sequence of seven points, tying the game. And then it went back and forth, with Brazil wasting four set points to close the first set at 29-27.
In the second set, Brazil’s errors decreased a lot, with the serve also becoming more tactical. Gabi, who is Macris’ safety ball, started putting more balls on the ground, and the Brazilian team opened three points. And then Japan arrived, tying at the same time as the first set, 21-21. In the exchange of points, Brazil even celebrated a 26-24 victory, but a Japanese challenge revised the referees’ marking, and the selection had a little more work until he turned 28 to 26.
With Carol and Julia Kudiess almost not triggered by Macris, Brazil was once again behind Japan on the scoreboard for practically the entire third set. The Brazilian team even tied at 20-20 when Zé Roberto bet on Rosamaria going in to serve. But then the mistakes took their toll.
First, from Gabi, on a serve reception that returned to the Japanese side. Then, the coach, who burned his two challenges in bids in which the referee got it right, and could not question an apparently wrong marking pro-Japan in the 24th point of the rivals. Inattentive, the Brazilian team took five points in a row and lost the set by 25-20.
After three sets having to try to get the score at the end, in the fourth set Brazil was finally dominant. Carol entered the game, receiving the confidence of Macris, and the blocking worked even better, especially with the central ones. The game ended when Rosamaria came in to serve. With her on the court, Brazil reached 24 points, killing the match with, finally, Julia Kudiess’ first point of attack.
Gabi ended the match as the main scorer for Brazil, with 23 points. Kisy (20) and Julia Bergmann (17) followed. Different from what he had been doing in the classification phase, Zé Roberto used the cast little. Rosamaria only joined to serve and the inversion with Roberta and Lorenne was used only occasionally.
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