Loyalty, professionalism, ethics? What was asked of Wilfredo León? Finish killing his friend, his dying brother, or a part of himself? Who put him in that situation? His current coach, Nikola Grbic, or the Cuban Volleyball Federation when they “gave him” to the world? This Sunday, a long time later, it was precisely Cuba that received the sharp blow of the more than 130 kilometers per hour that his right arm drops when he serves the ball.
And each of the 16 times that León scored points at the Stožice Arena in Ljubljana, Slovenia, it seemed like he was venting about the years of misunderstandings and absurdities. But it only seemed. León, in reality, was doing his thing: being the best in the world when he is in shape.
Volleyball Nations League: an image with a lot of uncertainty
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The decisive story of the Antillean elimination, no matter how much there is talk about the match against the Poles, began to be written from day one of the last week in the match ball against Serbia. There the most concrete possibility of reaching the Olympic Games was lost. That was the all-or-nothing duel, as happened for Beijing 2008 and London 2012 against Germany, and for Tokyo 2020 against Canada.
But as Antonio Benítez Rojo writes, every repetition entails a difference and a postponement. Although he fell again tie break after winning the first two sets and it seemed again that the Creoles were better than their rivals, in front of them they had a rested team, which did not have to travel more than 24 hours to reach Slovenia after a journey that included trips from Ottawa to Toronto, from Toronto to Varadero, from Varadero to Havana to train three times, and then the Havana-Caracas-Istanbul-Ljubljana route. All in a period of six days.
This time luck was not defined in a pre-Olympic tournament, but in the Nations League (VNL), with a schedule that cannot be faced with 14 players who, in practice, are 10 or 9. In 3 weeks the weight fell in very few men, especially with the pressure that came from being behind in the ranking from the beginning. A set lost could mean debacle.
So it was. Cuba arrived at the last day with options to take a leap to cross the threshold after the final step. The notable thing is that they arrived with those options on the closing day, without the opposite starter from the previous VNL (the one that marked Cuba’s return to the elite, after years away), without the replacement in that position in the last pre-Olympic. (Miguel David Gutiérrez), and without a second auxiliary attacker on the level bench, since José Miguel Gutiérrez’s physical problems prevented him from competing and Julio Cesar Cárdenas was finally not called up, despite being registered.
As if that were not enough, we must not forget the deficiencies in the quarterback position, which has an inexperienced 23-year-old boy carrying all the responsibility, without a quality substitute, which led him to commit fouls in key moments of the games. matches. Furthermore, the libero found himself overwhelmed as the tournament progressed and rivals insisted on attacking him again and again. In conclusion, with so few troops he fights with a great disadvantage in this battle calmed by a net between each army.
The Cuban garrison, “The combo,” as they called themselves, had the total weight of the team’s offensive in the auxiliaries, Miguel Ángel López and Marlon Yant. And so many weights unbalance the final result. Both, great servers, ended up uncoordinated in their serves (although Yant finished fifth in the tournament with 14 aces) and with failures in counterattack actions at the key moment in decisive matches.
The veterans, already legends of Cuban volleyball, Robertlandy Simón and Michael “El Ruso” Sánchez, gave their all, but the years are less forgiving than Nimir, the implacable opposite of the Netherlands. For Simón, the frustration must have been greater, since he is the only player on the team who was in all 3 Olympic shipwrecks.
Simon’s rescue
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Cuba lacked the player clutch, or simply that a certain point was achieved at the right time. This is what happened against Serbia. In the initial formation, López came out as the opposite number for “El Ruso” and Osniel Mergarejo as the auxiliary attacker. This is how the first 2 won sets with many errors from the Balkans, who did not receive support from Luburic and Uros Kovacevic, both dull. Christian Thondike distributed well; The attack and block worked.
In the third set Ibovic entered as an auxiliary attacker for Serbia, Luburic began to emerge from his lethargy and the Antilleans fell into their usual slump. Falling apart: errors in complex 1 (receive-pass-attack), little support from the block, poor coordination in the counterattack and continuous failures from the service line, from where 23 serves were lost in 4 setsmore than half of the team’s 41 unforced errors in the entire match.
However, there was a moment of reconnection in the tie break, a ball saved by Thondike when it was about to fall into the stands and a subsequent block by Mergarejo tied the set at 12 in what seemed like the shock of the defibrillator in the broken Cuban heart. But the blackout returned in the next goal: in the K2 action, when Simón seemed the best passing option, López was chosen and he missed the point: 13-12 and the beginning of a Serbian series until 15-12.
A statistical comparison between Yonder García, the Cuban libero, and Jani Kovacic, his Serbian counterpart, shows a big difference between them. While the Creole had an effectiveness of 13.51% in receiving, with 5 errors, the Balkan did so for 48% without errors. Details that define matches.
Despite the blow against Serbia, the Cubans battled against the local team, Slovenia, finally first place in the VNL with 11 wins.
Simón was activated in the second set and with it the Creole net. After falling in the third set, Cuba was able to survive an epic fourth set decided by a foul on the net won by the video challenge. But the gasoline was not enough for another tie break. Thus came the balm of young Bulgaria without its leader Nikolov. With “El Ruso” Sánchez as the main weapon it was possible to sweep away the Europeans. Then everything collapsed in front of Poland, as could be predicted.
He battled Cuba and gave everything (the best and the worst) he had. They finished in ninth place in the general table with 17 points and a balance of 5 wins and 7 losses. The match lost against the Netherlands 3-1 in the second week was vital for the ranking and for the classification among the best 8 of the strong tournament, which will have electrifying crosses in the quarterfinals: Slovenia (1) vs. Argentina (8), Poland (2) vs. Brazil (7), Italy (3) vs. France (6) and Japan (4) vs. Canada (5).
It remains for the Cuban leadership to have a larger group of players. Call all the high-level athletes who have not been naturalized by another country and think about rotating all the talent you still have in the year’s events. We will see what squad can be formed for the next VNL and the Philippine World Championship. No more tiring trips for now…
Finally, in the women’s VNL, Italy, led by the legendary Argentine coach Julio Velasco, was crowned champion by defeating Japan, and launched a bid for the Olympics. The squad recovered Paola Egonu, Monica de Gennaro and Carolina Bosseti, 3 mainstays who had given them the European title and who had separated from the team due to problems with the previous coach.
Cuban nationalized Turkish Melissa Vargas, in the quarterfinal game against Poland, achieved 39 points, a personal record for her in these competitions, but her team lost in 5 sets. Vargas, along with Yoandy Leal in the Brazilian team and Wilfredo León in the Polish team, will be the representatives of the Cuban nation in the upcoming event under the five rings. A piece of Cuba can still make the leap in Paris.
