Guatemala debuts in AFECAVOL Cup beating Panama
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, December 6, 2014 - Defending champion
Guatemala beat Panama 3-1 (25-20, 21-25, 25-23, 25-18) in their
debut at the XVIII Men’s Central American Cup at Jorge Galeano
Gymnasium in Tegucigalpa.
Guatemala began the defense of their title with a good
performance, but gave Panama many opportunities to score. The
defending champions held a wide advantage in kills 50-33, while
Panama held the margin in blocking 16-14.
Guatemala’s Oscar Garcia led all scorers with 21 points, all in
kills; teammate Andy Leonardo contributed to the winning cause
with 10 points. On Panama’s side, outside hitters Oswald
Marshall and Domingo Avila topped with 16 and 12 points
respectively, middle blocker Jose Gonzalez added 11 points.
“Personally, I felt out of place and not too confident because
I’ve been playing beach volleyball, but I’ll get in rhythm soon
enough. We didn’t play too well and despite winning we wanted to
finish in three sets. Panama performed well,” the captain of
Guatemala Andy Leonardo said.
Panama’s captain Domingo Avila said: “Our team has strength and
youth, but we lack concentration, experience and practice; the
guys will be more confident because this is their first senior
competition”.
Cuban coach Reider Lucas for Guatemala: “I’m happy for the win,
we finished with four points, we would have preferred five but
we hope for the best, we won despite committing many errors.
Teams don’t show their capacity in the first matches in a
tournament. Andy is coming back to indoor volleyball and he, as
well as the other players, and need to stabilize their game
level, making consciousness of their responsibility in the
court. Panama performed very well, making mistakes at the end of
the sets”.
Coach Horacio Angulo of Panama expressed: “Players are having
problems with the psychological factor, this influences in key
decisions, putting pressure to their performance and forcing
them to commit unforced errors and losing the game.”
|