2006 Men’s World Championship – Portugal
Thrilling start as Portugal and Estonia triumph first up (FIVB)
05/20/2005
Vila
de Conde, Portugal, May 20, 2005 – Favourites Portugal
and first round winner’s Estonia both completed
outstanding straight sets victories on the opening day
of the 2006 Men’s World Championship second round
tournament – Europe Pool G in Vila de Conde beating
Austria (25-22, 26-24, 25-17) and Latvia (32-30, 25-23,
25-16) respectively on Friday.
In front of nearly 2,000 passionate fans, Portugal,
ranked 18 in the world, completed an emotional victory
in the second match of the day to set the early
benchmark in their quest to claim one of the two
third-round tickets on offer at this tournament.
Portugal could not have wished for a better start, to
the tournament and to the match. When Eurico Peixoto
served six times in a row to open a 6-0 lead it set the
tone for the match right from the opening whistle. Pic: Estonia's Janis Sirelpuu (12) and captain Argo
Meresaar form an excellent block against Latvia as their
World Championship dream continues with their fourth
victory from as many matches To Austria’s credit they showed great character
against a side ranked 22 places higher than them to
fight back and give the World League outfit a run for
their money. On this performance, Austria are definitely
not out of contention in advancing to the third round,
which is on offer to the two top place getters.
Once again though it was Portugal’s inspirational
captain Joao Jose who led his side through the hard
yards in the middle of the match and through to safety.
Although the spiking wizard only scored seven points
(Hugo Gaspar and Andre Lopez top scored with 17 and 14
respectively) it was more his motivational and
organizational skills which served Portugal well today.
Another similar team effort against Estonia on Saturday
and Portugal will confirm their place in the next round.
Meanwhile, Estonia‘s World Championship dream continued
with an excellent victory over Latvia to maintain their
unbeaten run in the tournament. Estonia won a first
round tournament on their home soil earlier this month,
winning all three matches, to advance to the current
tournament and today’s victory marks four on the trot.
However, despite their excellent run of form Estonia’s
captain and coach weren’t happy with the display and,
much to their credit, they’re hoping for better things
against Portugal on Saturday.
“The first match was very difficult but I'm not very
satisfied with our team,” Estonia coach Avo Keel said.
“Our main problem was in the reception and service.”
“I would have been very sad if we hadn't won this
match,” captain Argo Meresaar said. “I hope tomorrow and
in the day after we can play some better Volleyball.”
Saturday sees Portugal play Estonia at 16.45 (local
time) and Austria play Latvia at 19.00.
