Hamamatsu, Japan, November 29, 2011 - Brazil came into Tuesday’s match against Serbia with a 5-2 record in 2011 FIVB Men's World Cup play, having been handed their second loss on Monday to a spirited Cuba team. They were surprised with another defeat at the hands of a spirited Serbian squad, who beat them 3-1 (27-25, 20-25, 25-20, 25-21). Brazil’s road to London now gets much tougher, as third place in the tournament is just a little closer for Italy and Cuba who are tied for fourth.
Leading Serbia on the day was their captain Ivan Miljkovic with 22 points. Winning the most impressive player award was Milos Nikic, who had a stellar performance with 21 points. Brazil were led by their captain Gilberto Godoy Filho (Giba) with 15 points.
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Serbia took the lead early with an ace by Marco Podrascanin helping his side to 7-4. In comparison, Brazil struggled with their serving, committing a flurry of errors in the first. But Leandro Vissotto Neves was attacking well and managed to keep his team within one at 13-12. Serbia jumped ahead by four on a Nikola Kovacevic score, but Brazil’s Murilo Endres and Theo helped their side power back within one again at 23-22. Serbia's Miljkovic was too much late however (despite tallying eight in the set), posting a hard spike to give Serbia their third set point after Brazil bit on the decoy, and they took the set from there 27-25.
The Brazilians rebounded in the second with a hard Giba spike putting them up 6-2. Vissotto was attacking well, adding four points including a soft floater at the net to push to 17-12. Miljkovic brought his side back within three with a wonderful ace to make it 23-20, but it was too late at that point as Brazil closed it 25-20, evening the match at a set a piece.
Murilo starded out attacking well in the third for Brazil, but was countered by Serbia’s Nikic who was firing away on the wing. Nikic would post a block on Vissotto as well to put Serbia up 11-9. As Brazil again struggled with serving in the second, they nevertheless stuck close, managing to equalize at 16-16. But from there Serbia brought more Nikic, as he has three key spikes (of eight points in the set) in the clutch while Dragan Stankovich brought a block on Giba to take the set 25-20.
Miljkovic gave Serbia an 8-4 lead to start the fourth, but Brazil’s Wallace de Souza came off the bench with four great attacks to cut the lead to 14-12. But a Nikic ace helped put Serbia ahead by five, and that was a lead they wouldn’t relinquish as a Miljkovic spike made it 22-19, and he brought another to close it 25-22, taking the match 3-1.
Serbia captain Ivan Miljkovic: Brazil is always interesting for us. All the games are very important, but for sure this is an important victory for us, even though we don’t have big chances to qualify. But it will help us improve our games and change our approach moving forward.
On the third round in Hamamatsu: The first two games we played with a young team and they put up good resistance. I think they learned a lot. We were fresher than Brazil today, and some of our starters were well rested. But yes, this is an important victory for us.
Serbia coach Igor Kolakovic: It is our best game in this tournament. I said yesterday we don’t get a chance to play Brazil a lot, let alone beat them. We are very satisfied with this win set.
On Nikic’s strong performance: In the last European Championships he was one of our best players. But during this tournament he had some knee pain. He missed two games versus Russia and Italy, but today he was impressive. He was motivated because we were playing against Brazil. For us it's a big game every time we play against Brazil.
Brazil captain Gilberto Godoy Filho (Giba): We had so many mistakes today. And for us in such big a match, we really wanted to win. Serbia played very good in their attack, No. 10 [Milos Nikic] and Miljkovic played well, and with us not blocking or defending [well] is difficult, making too many mistakes.
Brazil coach Bernardo Rezende: I think what our captain said was right. We had so many mistakes. There were many breaks we didn’t [capitalize on]. Serbia played their first good match in the competition and they deserved to win. We had some tension, but its my responsibility to build the group to strongly resist this kind of situation.
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