Cuba falls and Serbia advances in the fight for an Olympic ticket

The Cuban volleyball team fell to Holland in the Nations League, victim of a devastating Nimir, and in this way they left, for the moment, the Olympic qualification position in favor of Serbia, which now overtakes them in the ranking.

The Europeans counted on Nimir in a luxurious night of 38 points, who was practically unstoppable in the attack, to win the match three sets to one and deal a blow to the island’s aspirations to qualify for Paris 2024 via the world ranking .

Cuba took the field with the obligation to win so as not to fall behind Serbia in the rankings and remain in the Olympic qualification zone, since a defeat meant losing more points than the amount it had ahead of its pursuers.

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The first set was even until the end, but once again, when the island team was ahead on the scoreboard, they gave up the advantage and the Netherlands took the victory 26-24.

The tulips had a Nimir Abdel-Aziz in a state of pure combustion who scored 8 points, all in attack, to command the offensive weight, something that would be constant throughout the challenge.

The second set began with an advantage for Holland, who seemed to have the game in their hands, but Cuba began to function better on the net and the actions became even, with Michael Sánchez taking more prominence in the attack.

However, the Cuban offensive presented serious problems with the contribution of the auxiliaries and relied on El Ruso, almost the only safe card that the team could find to harm its rivals.

The island managed to gain distance in the final points of the set, once again, with El Ruso in great form and after taking advantage of some errors by the Dutch.

Finally, they took the set with a score of 25-21, after showing signs of improving their blocking and thanks to the offense of veteran Sánchez, who became almost infallible.

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For the third set, Holland took an early advantage supported by Nimir (about 20 points at that point), a poor Cuban defense and, again, due to a insignificant contribution from the Caribbean auxiliaries in attack.

The Europeans continued to increase their advantage as the set progressed and were five points ahead, something that suggested that everything was decided at that point, as the Antillean team could not find a way to overcome the disadvantage.

With a better attack, an almost unstoppable Nimir and a serve that put the Cubans in check throughout the set, Holland maintained the difference and sealed its victory comfortably 25-20.

Down 2-1 in the sets, Cuba reached the fourth to try to come back and send the match to the fifth, a complicated task from what had been seen up to that point.

But, Holland came out to finish the match, once again with Nimir in exceptional mode with his sharp serve, and they quickly took a wide lead against a Cuban team completely unfocused and without response. Finally, they took the victory 25-22, despite a late reaction from the Cubans.

The Antilleans were victims of Nimir, who crowned a party with 38 points, of which five were with his serve, three with the block and the rest with the attack.

With this result, Cuba lost 9.66 points in the ranking and, for the moment, falls behind Serbia in the fight for Olympic qualification, since before starting the game only less than five points separated them.

Now, Serbia has 247.59 units and appears in ninth place, while Cuba has 242.53 and is eleventh in the universal list.

The Cuban team must greatly improve its game for the remaining games, since it has seen a team without answers and with only one player with the ability to lead -Michael Sánchez-, who in the absence of Robertlandy Simón tried to pull the team.

Marlon Yant (16 points), El Ruso Sánchez (15) and Concepción (11), were the main figures for the Caribbean.

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Image courtesy of Collage