Ruse, Bulgaria, September 17, 2018 – Brazil is back on the winning way at the 2018 FIVB World Championship! The South Americans overpowered Canada 3-1 (25-22, 19-25, 25-23, 25-18) in front of over 2500 spectators in “Arena Monbat” and are back in the game, chasing the first place in Pool B!
This is the first loss for Canada at the tournament which brought them down to the second place in the standing.
Canada started the match pretty well and had 2-point advantage (12-10) but with good serve and block, Brazil managed to win the opening set by 25-22. Wallace was on fire with 9 points for the current Olympic champions.
In the beginning of the second set the first referee of the match Jaafar Ebrahim Ali cooled the emotions down with two yellow cards for Lipe and the Canadian setter Jay Blankenau, who started to argue near the net. A few minutes later the North Americans were 3 points ahead by 10-7. John Gordon Perrin made it 15-13 with a powerful ace, Blankenau did the same with a clever float serve, and Canadians increased their advantage to 4 points (19-15). With perfect side-out the North Americans saved the lead and were back in the game after 25-19!
In the third set Brazilians showed great character and fighting spirit in the difficult situations, but the Canadians answered with a perfect work in defense and block (19-19). The battle was equal until the end, when Mauricio Souza was unstoppable from the middle and Brazil was one set ahead after 25-23.
Renal Dal Zotto’s players continued to control the game and took a 3-point advantage at the second technical time-out (16-13) in the fourth set. In the minutes until the end Brazilians showed great actions in defense, Wallace stole the show with an amazing spike and a monster block in a row, which led them to 22-16. John Gordon Perrin did a mistake in attack and Brazil achieved their third win in Pool B after 25-18.
Wallace finished as a top scorer for the winners with 24 points! For Canada John Gordon Perrin scored 18.
This is the fourth consecutive Brazilian victory versus Canada in the World Championship history! The South Americans won the previous 3 encounters against this opponent in straight sets - 1994 (Athens), 1998 (Hiroshima) and 2014 (Katowice).