The Argentine National Team volleyball fell this Sunday with France by 3-2 (25-18, 25-17, 22-25, 28-26 and 15-9) for Group 4 of the Volleyball Nations League that is being played this week in Ottawa, Canada. The team led by Marcelo Méndez, which was coming off a very good victory against Serbia, raced the Olympic champions from behind and took the match to a tiebreak, where they finally succumbed.
It was a defeat that continues to leave the national team on the sidelines of the eight best in the tournament – who will go to the grand final in Poland from June 27 – but that does not have too much cost with a view to the great objective that is qualification. for the Paris 2024 Games.
Facundo Contewith 22 points, was Argentina’s top scorer, followed by Bruno Lima (16) and by Ezequiel Palacios y Martin Ramos (both with 8). On the French side the best were Trevor Clevenot y Yacine Louatiwho finished with 19.
The 2-3 loss made Argentina lose just 4.36 points in the world ranking, which will define the five remaining places for the Olympic Games. One will be for the best African – for the moment, Egypt – and for the other four, Italy, Slovenia, Argentina, Cuba, Serbia and the Netherlands are currently in the fight. France – Germany, Brazil, the United States, Japan, Poland and Canada – have already guaranteed their place as the host.
The good thing is that those led by Méndez have a very good margin over the Cubans and Serbs. And that means they have a large part of the classification assured. For that, they must continue adding in the next matches, which for the national team will be in the stage that will be played in Slovenia.
The debut for Argentina in Group 5 will be against the local team, on June 18, followed by Turkey, on 6/19, Poland, on 6/21, and Bulgaria, on 6/22.