30-Nov, start time: 12:30, end time: 14:16 - Attendance: 5,450

USA	3	25	20	26	28	-	99
FRA	1	19	25	24	26	-	94

Match Description:

USA finish fourth..again
In the battle for fourth place, USA beat France in four sets in the opening match on Sunday to finish just outside the World Cup medals for a third successive time.

In seven World Cups USA have now claimed gold, bronze, four fourth-place finishes and a 10th, while France's fifth follows an 11th place finish in 1965.

With both sides having had confirmation that they were out of medal contention on Saturday, today's match was just for pride. Both teams now have to play Continental Olympic qualification tournaments in the New Year to claim their Athens ticket. It was no surprise then that France rested Frantz Granvorka, Mathias Patin and Philippe Barca-Cysique and the injured Oliver Kieffer.

Both sides gradually warmed up and it wasn't until Sebastien Frangolacci spiked wide, that one team held a genuine lead with USA up 15-12. Substitute Donald Suxho then came on to pull off a fantastic serve to make it 20-15 with his first touch. By this stage USA's tails were up and comfortably secured the first set when Stephane Antiga, who is in contention for the $50,000 top spiker award, ironically spiked out.

Neither team was in top gear come the second set and with mistakes ruling the match it was a case of France making fewer when they opened a 16-12 lead. More fancy footwork from libero Hubert Henno couldn't quite save a point but gave France a boost towards claiming the second set, which eventually arrived when Barca-Cysique spiked home.

While Laurent Capet was France's main attacking weapon, USA took an early third set lead at 16-11 through some great blocking from Riley Salmon and Ryan Miller. More injury woes for France when Dominique Daquin limped off holding his knee at 22-17 but this brought on Granvorka. Minutes later it was 23-21 when USA then watched France tie the set 24-24 before Brook Billings finally claimed the set for the Americans.

Although Daquin recovered from his injury to play the fourth set USA led throughout to seal the match when Capet spiked out.

Comments:

BEAL, Douglas (USA Head Coach)
" We are happy to finish the tournament in the 4th place. Before the match we talked many times the importance of having the game against one of the best teams in the world. We played hard and tried to win. It was a good to win against a good team like France. Today we did better than some other matches."

BALL, Lloy (USA Captain)
" I am glad to finish the long tournament, which was very tiring. We had something to play for today, both France and USA because it was a good opportunity to play against a team we don't play together often. I am happy to go home with the victory but we still have a long way to go."

BLAIN, Philippe (FRA Head Coach)
" To play against a strong US national players was very good opportunity. USA team was very well organized today."

ANTIGA, Stephane (FRA Player)
" Today's match was the first game after failing to get the ticket for Athens. We wanted to win and finish the tournament in the fourth place, but USA played well so it was very difficult for us. As a result, we have to play to go to the Athens Olympic Games in the European Continental qualification which will be held January."

Official Result:

Match statistics (P-2) - PDF