This Wednesday, Cuba missed a golden opportunity to fuel its hopes of competing in the men's volleyball program of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, falling 2-3 to its counterpart Serbia in a match corresponding to the third and final week of the Nations League.
After taking the first two sets and filling all their followers with euphoria, the Antillean team completely deflated and the Balkans gained an unwavering confidence to seal a historic comeback, with scores of 22-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-21, and 15-12.
Without a doubt, the result becomes a cold shower for the troop led by coach Jesús Cruz, as now the Serbians, direct rivals in the fight for the last Olympic spot, climbed to the ninth position in the world ranking and exhibit 256.50 points, while the Cubans dropped to 12th place, with 245.69.
In the clash in question, both teams showed parity in attack (52-52), with Cuba being superior in net play (10-6), but yielding in service (3-9). However, the real difference was in unforced errors (41-34), the biggest weakness of the island's team throughout the competition.
Individually, the losers celebrated the efforts of Miguel Ángel López, author of 21 points, Marlon Yant (16), and Osniel Mergarejo (9), while the winners applauded Drazen Luburic (21) and Miran Kujundzic (15).
In this way, the options for Cubans rely on achieving positive results in the matches against Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Poland, although they already depend on the results of the Serbians in their last appearances.
So far, the teams that have secured their spots for Paris 2024 are France, as the host; Germany, Brazil, Japan, the United States, Poland, and Canada. The remaining spots will come from the universal ranking.
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