23-Nov, start time: 18:00, end time: 19:27 - Attendance: 8,900

JPN	0	20	18	23	-	-	61
VEN	3	25	25	25	-	-	75

Match Description:

Venezuela Inflict Third Defeat on Hosts Japan
Venezuela posted their second victory of the men's 2003 World Cup when they silenced the sell-out crowd at Site B in Fukuoka with a 3-0 victory over hosts Japan.

The 25-20, 25-18, 25-23 victory improved the young Venezuelan team's win-loss record to 2-4 while Japan's chances of claiming one of the three Olympic qualifying places on offer look to have all but disappeared with what was their third defeat in six games.

Japan made the worst possible start as their receivers struggled against the South Americans' powerful serve and impressive spiking, and before long found themselves trailing 10-3.

The athleticism of the Venezuelans was clearly troubling the host country and although they fought back to 20-17, an ankle injury to Takahiro Yamamoto, the tournament's leading scorer after five matches, halted their momentum as they went a set down.

The quick and accurate sets of Rodman Valera had been productive for Venezuela in the opening set and they continued to reap their rewards in the second as the South Americans took an 10-5 lead. Captain and MIP Ernardo Gomez was in superb form again and ably supported by Thomas Ereu and Ivan Marquez.

Two big blocks from Nobuhiro Ito and the return of Yamamoto appeared to galvanize the Japanese but too many service errors prevented them from producing an extended period of pressure on their opponents as they fell two sets behind.

The third set was a much tighter affair as Japan's blockers found their angles and Yamamoto found his range. But the Venezuelans kept their composure well to see out the match.

Comments:

CAMBERO Miguel (VEN Head Coach)
" I'm satisfied with the result of today's game. Japan is a good team with a solid defense. Although this is our first participation in the World Cup, we were able to beat Japan which has a long volleyball history. We were able to maintain concentration from the first set and to score point by point steadily, which I believe led us to a good outcome."

EREU Thomas (VEN Player)
" We had prepared well for today's match, and we are happy to be able to win before a capacity partisan home crowd. Japan is a tough team which puts up a solid defense, and because I believe that we are evenly matched, it is no surprise whoever was the winner. Today's performance was the best among our six games so far."

TANAKA Mikiyasu (JPN Head Coach)
" I think our opponents played much better than our expectation and prior analysis, including serve reception and digging, in particular. We need to change our mood and tune up for tomorrow's match without dwelling on today's loss, We are liable to fall into a bad pattern with several injured players in this kind of long-stretched tournament, and I'm afraid we are on the brink of falling into a bad run of form."

KATO Yoichi (JPN Captain)
" Because the opponent's linchpin played well, I thought we would be evenly matched. If we had performed better, we could have won this game."

Official Result:

Match statistics (P-2) - PDF