The Argentine men’s volleyball team It is one of the three teams that achieved a medal in the last edition of the Olympic Gamess in Tokyo. Now, with less than two months left until the start of Paris 2024the team led by Marce Méndez is still in search of a direct ticket to go defend that power in the capital of France.
This Saturday, during one of the matches of a new week in the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) that takes place in Ottawa, Canada, the Albiceleste achieved a key victory against Serbia, one of the teams that is also seeking the Olympic ticket. It was for a tight 3-2 with partials of 28-26, 25-18, 18-25, 22-25 and 15-13 after being two sets up on the scoreboard.
Precisely, in the middle of the third set, an image occurred that went viral among fans of volleyball and Olympic sports waiting for what will be the biggest event of the year in Paris. During the fourth quarter, with a 2-1 advantage on the scoreboard and an unfavorable 14-12, the one who tried to harangue his teammates was the Argentine point guard.
Luciano De Ceccoone of the stars of the national team and considered one of the best point guards in the world, was clear with the rest of the team at a time when he saw how the Serbian players had taken control of the game, “We’re leaving, huh. Then we’re going to cry, we’re going to watch the Olympics on TV, guys.”expressed slap in a high tone in front of the attentive gazes of Facundo Conte, Luciano Palonsky and several more players for a period of time requested by the Argentine coach.
The talk was positive, because the team raised the level and fought to close the game. Despite losing said set (25-22), they were also able to overcome a difficult start to the tie-break and took the win. Why was it so valuable to win against the Europeans?
Serbia is one of the teams that, like Argentina, seeks qualification for the Olympic Games. There are seven teams on the list (France, Germany, Brazil, USA, Japan, Poland and Canada) and there are four places left that will be defined through the ranking of the international federation (FIVB), since the other will be destined for the African continent. .
Although Méndez’s team started this season with good chances, they have to get the necessary points and the 3-2 victory against the Serbians came against a direct rival for one of the places. Until today, when there is still the last weekend, The Albiceleste has 306.73 points and is third on that list behind Italy (366.57) and Slovenia (332.58)but ahead of Cuba (250.63) and Serbia (243.57). The Netherlands were further behind. In this way, they should give poor results for the light blue and white team and triumphs for the Serbians to lose the Olympic quota.
How will the ticket to Paris 2024 be defined for Argentina? This Sunday from 3:30 p.m. (Argentine time) they will face France. After a week of rest, the team will travel to Slovenia where they will play the last four qualifying matches to seal their ticket to the Olympic Games.
The schedule will be as follows: they will play against local team Slovenia on Tuesday the 18th (3:30 p.m.) and then they will face off against Turkey (Thursday the 20th at 8:00 a.m.). At the same time they will face Poland (Friday the 21st) and Bulgaria (Saturday the 22nd).
