Cuba defeats Argentina in five-set Pan Am Cup Golden win

COLIMA, Mexico, June 21, 2019. - Cuba defeated Argentina in five-set thriller 3-2 (19-25, 25-21, 25-20, 21-25, 15-9) winning the Gold Medal of the fourteenth Men’s Pan American Cup at the Multifunctional Auditorium of Colima, Mexico.  

With the triumph, Cuba wins their third Men’s Pan American title, in 2014 defeating United States and in 2016 also in five sets over Argentina. Cuba and Argentina are used to playing in five sets; they also met in their first performance here with Cuba also winning in five.

It was a spectacular blocking party for Cuba, outnumbering Argentina by remarkable 20-6 advantage, while recovering from a strong beginning on Argentina’s side of the net. Cuba also led in kills 53-50. Both teams scored on 4 serving points and Argentina finishing with fewer unforced error (31-37).

Cuban Miguel Angel Lopez finished with a 22 match-high including 17 kills and 3 aces; Marlon Yang and Roamy Alonso contributed with 13 points apiece and Osniel Mergarejo added 10 points. Alonso, along with Livan Taboada included 5 powerful blocks. Nicolas Lazo led Argentina with 16 points, joined by German Johansen with 11 points, while Joaquin Gallego and Nicolas Bruno tallied 10 points each.

Argentina carried out a strong opening set taking Cuban blockers by surprise jumping to a five point lead (9-4) and maintaining it (16-11) using a balancing attacking between Nicolas Lazo, Joaquin Gallego and Bruno Nicolas.

In set two and three Cuba’s blocking system led by Livan Taboada, Roamy Alonso and Javier Concepcion took Cuba on top allowing a more effective attacking offense between Miguel Angel Lopez, Marlon Yang and Osniel Mergarejo. Cuba’s spectacular defense stopped Argentina’s structured offense on numerous occasions moving into a 2-1 lead.

Argentina forced the fifth set pounding against Cuba’s towering blocks breaking coming out of a 13-13 tie to finish with a comfortable 25-21 four set victory. Cuba’s dominant display was unstoppable in the fifth, with Marlon Yang pushing to a 13-7 lead and final 15-9.

Comments:

Nicolás Vives, coach Cuba: “My team played very well, in fact, I believe they could have done it better. Argentina is a strong opponent, with excellent players. We’re happy with the victory, thanks to our concentration and the desire to win, recovering balls that helped us a lot. We must be sturdier in critical moments. This is a very young team, with an average of 21 years old; they played very well before going to the Pan American Games”.

Fabián Muraco, coach Argentina: “The winners were the best performers, they took risks serving and attacking with great potential and we couldn’t respond. We gave a remarkable performance, trying to serve well in the two sets we won. We came with some adjustments, a setter who joined the team the last minute, an injured libero that couldn’t’ perform the entire tournament, a difficult pool, it was demanding and my games finished a spectacular tournament”.