USA, Russia, China and Cuba qualify for semifinals at Montreux Volley Masters
Montreux, Switzerland, June 10, 2010. By the end of the third day of competition at the 2010 Montreux Volley Masters, the four teams that will compete in the semi-finals this Saturday are already known. In Group A Russia qualified after winning 3:0 against Germany. The United States are also automatically qualified, although they had a day off on Thursday. On the other hand, with still one day to go, Cuba and China will anyway share the first two positions in Group B.
On the first game on schedule for Thursday afternoon, the Netherlands played Poland. Eight months ago they had played each other twice at the 2009 European Championship in Lodz (Poland), where the Dutch eventually claimed a couple of wins. The second match even allowed them to qualify for the title match, depriving the Polish from taking part in “their” final against Italy. Like in Poland, the Netherlands once again found a way to take advantage over their opponents (3:1). Even if the girls of coach Jerzy Matlak dominated during most of the game, the difference was made by the experience of the “Oranje”, in particular with a stellar Manon Flier (25 points). The Dutch captain was well assisted by Debby Stam and Alice Blom, who ended up the match with 15 and 16 points respectively.
On the second match, Russia didn’t leave any opportunity to Germany. After being off on Tuesday, both the Russian and the German teams were playing their second match tonight. The “Mannschaft”, praiseworthy against the USA, knew that with Russia they were playing a difficult game and that they had to win in order to eventually qualify for the semi-finals. The Germans started strong in every set, following the tactical instructions of their coach, Giovanni Guidetti. The first set remained very balanced until the second technical time-out (16:15), but Goncharova and her teammates scored some decisive points and closed the game 25-21. The following set was almost a copy-paste from the first one, finishing on the exact same score. The Russian defensive game has notably improved from the past years; the players are moving much better despite their impressive height. The last set also finished 25-21. Coach Guidetti had predicted before the game: “If we respect our tactic, we’ll win 3:0; otherwise we’ll be defeated 3:0.” He was right!
At the end of the evening, the spectators present in Montreux assisted to the first match of the competition where both teams had to battle during five sets before knowing the final winner. Cuba and China offered a fantastic show, where the long suspense and the numerous spectacular points took several times the breath away to the many Swiss fans. At the very end, the Cubans overcame the Chinese 3:2. Although China decided to let their star Yimei Wang play, Cuba was able to find some extra energy in order to win this last decisive set. During that game, the young Cuban generation displayed all its capacities, in particular its powerful offense. Being only 18 years old, Giselle Silva was the best scorer with 21 points, mixing impressive and precise kills with extremely powerful serves. Despite their first defeat in this tournament, the Chinese, with their magical combinations, are nevertheless qualified for the semi-finals, along with Cuba.
nice play by Okuniewska 
Of course Guidetti says we are not there to win matches but to try things and see new players, but the same is true for the other teams and none of them is this bad. I really can't stand our outside hitters, today they couldn't even get past the Japanese block 
And even our best OHs Beier and Brinker are worse than the most OHs on other teams' benches 
I just wonder how Gamova and Lyuba will fit in there...Startseva and Duskryadchenko are doing a very good job for the team too 
I think this is the first time ever this happens. And Kosheleva best receiver of the tournament so far 
1-0 go girls 
Very nice. Okuniewska 15 pts 
