The Argentine National Team fell this Thursday after a great game against Brazilfor the second date of Group 2 of the Volleyball Nations League (VNL). It was a 3-2 defeat (25-13, 20-25, 19-25 and 25-23 and 15-11) at the Maracanazinho in Rio de Janeiro and we are still unable to add any joy thinking about the great goal of the year that is qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Bruno Lima, with 20 points, and Manuel Vicentín and Luciano Palonsky, with 18, were the best on the national team. However, all the good they did was not enough to stop the power of the Brazilians, who supported their victory in Darlan, who also finished with 20 points, and Lucarelli, with 16.
Argentina, which had just lost its debut against Japan (1-3), needed a victory to start getting its Olympic berth on track. Likewise, the road is long, since the national team still has 10 games ahead in the VNL, whose finals will be played from June 27 in Poland.
The next games in Rio de Janeiro will be against Germany – on Saturday, May 25 – and Iran – on Sunday, May 26. But later they will go to Ottawa, Canada, to play against the local team, the United States, Serbia and France and later they will close against Slovenia, Turkey, Poland and Bulgaria in Ljubljana.
Argentina’s priority, beyond the intention of being among the top eight to reach the definition of the competition, is to add victories and avoid defeats to avoid falling in the world ranking, which will be the key that Luciano De Cecco and company to go to Paris. Currently, the National Team is 7th in the classification and is in, but anything can still happen.
The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) ranking will grant five tickets. One will be for the best African – for the moment, Egypt – and the other four are currently in the fight: Italy, Slovenia, Argentina, Serbia, Cuba and the Netherlands. France – Germany, Brazil, the United States, Japan, Poland and Canada – have already guaranteed their place as the host.