Brazil defeats Poland in the Volleyball World League.
Bernardinho's team secures first place in Group A and qualification for the next phase of the tournament.
Brazil confirmed its first place in Group A of the Volleyball World League on Wednesday. In Katowice, Poland, the team coached by Bernardinho entered the court already qualified for the final phase and defeated the home team 3-1, with scores of 25/23, 25/18, 16/25 and 26/24. With this result, they recovered from their defeat to the United States last weekend.
Brazil and Poland will face each other again on Thursday, once more in Katowice, in their final match of the first phase of the World League. The teams will then begin preparing for the final phase in Gdansk, also in Poland.
The victory brought Brazil to 27 points in Group A, meaning they can no longer be overtaken by either Poland or the United States, who have 18 points each (the Americans have one game less). Eight teams will play in the final phase, but Poland is pre-qualified as the host country. Since the USA is likely to beat Puerto Rico in the last round, they should finish second in the group. This would eliminate the worst second-placed team, currently Bulgaria in Group B. Besides Brazil, Russia and Italy have also already qualified.
The standout player in Wednesday's match in Poland was opposite hitter Theo, who replaced Leandro Visotto, rested in this final round of the first phase. He scored 20 points, 17 from attacks and 3 from blocks. Sidão also shone, with 13 points, three of which were from serves.
Wallace, who was called up to replace Visotto in the group, only came in to switch positions with the setter and scored twice. He will not participate in the final phase. Dante, who debuted in the World League only in the last round, showed that he returned well, playing the entire match and scoring 12 attack points. On the Polish side, Kurek, well marked, scored 13 points.
The downside to Brazil's victory was the high number of points Poland conceded due to Brazilian errors: 31, compared to 29 conceded by Polish mistakes. The team also allowed 13 points from blocks, scoring only 11 themselves.