The teams of Cuba and Canada will face each other this Wednesday without defeat to advance directly to group B in the semifinals of the Pan American Volleyball Men’s Under-21 Cup, which will be held at the Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum.

The hosts swept Nicaragua in straight sets (25-16, 25-20, 25-15) in a challenge where their superiority was mostly on the counter (13-1), although they were even better in attack (32-22) and in service (11-8).

Again its main man, the opposite Alejandro Miguel González, he was the top scorer for his team and the game adding 15 points, followed by cornerman Yusniel González (10), the other in double digits. On the contrary, José Blandon is the one who contributed the most with seven units.

Coach Jesús Cruz commented that “the boys were a little looser, they are gaining confidence, that was to be expected as the games progressed. We gave everyone back the participation because tomorrow we have to win and we want them to be ready when needed.”

He recalled that Canada always comes with a good team, “It is a country where a lot of volleyball is played with quality and levelThey have great players who almost always dominate the technical elements well, with them no matter what group they bring we will always have a close game for both teams”.

Cuban libero Álvaro Luis Ricardo said after the match against Nicaragua that “we can play a little better, we know the level we have. These rivals are not that strong and sometimes you adapt to their game. But I know we can do more and against Canada we have to do our best and we will look for victory”.

Visiting coach Jorge Mena felt that “Cuba is a powerful team, strongWe congratulate him, but we don’t give up, we have always been there because we came to compete, to give the best. He has a very good serve, he scored several points for us and that’s where the second set went.”

For its part, Canada won its second success by beating Haiti 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-14) and once again demonstrated an orderly game. With Cuba, he is the favorite to win one of the two tickets in contention for the 2023 World Cup.

The United States and Chile made their Group A debuts with respective victories over Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The two had problems with their air travel, and the match between them on Monday was postponed to Thursday.

The northerners won 3-2 (25-13, 24-26, 25-21, 22-25 and 15-12) in the only match which was extended to five sets, while the South Americans swept with scores of 25-17, 25-21 and 40-38.

(With information from Hit)