November 25, 2006, Sendai, Japan: Third-ranked Russia were in a no-nonsense mood in their first match in Pool E on Saturday, crushing Argentina in straight sets.
The Russians, runners up in the 2002 world championships, stormed to a 25-18, 25-20, 25-14 victory to improve their second-round tally to 3-1, while the South Americans dropped to 0-4.
Russia were slow to get going in the first set, with the Argentine players causing problems both from deep-lying positions and at the net.
Leandro Concina delicately tipped the ball over Pavel Abramov for the Argentines for one of the most stylish points of the opening exchanges and his team went into the first TTO 8-6 ahead.
The Russians slowly found their rhythm, though, and as usual it was a case once again of captain Semen Poltavsky leading by example.
Once he started to play, so did his teammates.
He hammered a huge diagonal spike to bring the team's level at 10-10 and Russia soon surged ahead.
Captains Marcos Milinkovic of Argentina and Poltavsky traded punishing serves but it was Russia who capitalized most when receiving, and a snapped spike from Abramov took them into the second TTO four ahead.
Poltavsky fired them further ahead with another piledriver from the right and it was enough for Argentina coach Jon Uriarte to call a time out. It didn't do much good.
Poltavsky was seeing a lot of the ball on the right and he just wasn't missing with his spikes. The Russians quickly surged 20-12 ahead.
An ace service from Alexander Kosarev put them further ahead and the Argentines were in disarray. Alexey Kazakov brought up set point, 24-18, and the 217-cm blocker swatted the ball into open court for the first set.
Another Abramov sliced spike took Russia into the first TTO of the second set with an 8-5 lead and in comfortable control of the match.
Russia began pulling away courtesy of a quickfire spike from Kuleshov among others, but Argentina kept pressing and a similar effort from Alejandro Spajic gave the Argentines a little hope.
It didn't last for long, though, and the second TTO came with a four-point gap between the two teams.
Spajic was busy at the net for the South Americans and kept finding holes in the Russian court in which to spike, but the Russians kept their distance, with a Siberian sledgehammer from Poltavsky putting the score at 20-13.
The rally of the match drew gasps from the crowd as the ball flew back and forth over the net, with Serguei Grankine's amazing reactions helping him swat the ball to Argentina only for him to see all his good work go to waste as the South Americans won the point.
Poltavsky elevated his game with a number of stunning spikes and he took Russia to the brink of the second set almost single-handedly. A wayward serve from Nicolas Efron brought set point and clever dink from Grankine put Russia two sets ahead.
Poltavsky continued in his unforgiving mood at the start of the third set, with two enormous serves proving too much for the Russians who were unable to cope with the missile flying over the net.
It was enough for Uriarte to call a time out, but things didn't improve as Russia went into the first TTO four ahead.
Milinkovic, Argentina's most impressive player in the first round, was struggling to make any sort of impression up against the Russian blockers.
Poor serving from the Argentines wasn't helping their cause and neither was the consistently excellent spiking from Kuleshov, who lashed one in as Russia moved into the second TTO five in front.
The gap quickly grew to 10 points, 22-12, and it was a case of how big the gap in the final set would be.
The answer to that was 11 as Russia closed out the game with some more scintillating spiking, match point won by the brilliant Poltavsky.
Russia play Puerto Rico in their next match, while Argentina face Serbia-Montenegro.
