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• 02 / 14 / 2010

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The fourth place of our men's volleyball team at the 20th World League, the second place in the Champions Cup, the qualification to the World Cup and the recognition as best Cuban sports team in 2009, were the happiest news for Cuban volleyball followers.

On the opposite side, women’s volleyball team only achieved the ticket to the World Cup in the last twelve months. They continue out of the Grand Prix and had bad results in Russian and Chinese invitation tournaments.

Both volleyball teams are two sides of the same coin. Men’s volleyball shows nowadays a persevering, upward work among men, led by a trainer staff headed by Orlando Samuels, who dominates the know how to form a team of champions, like that of 1991.

Improvements in reception, pass, and defense have been decisive in the current results of men, while stopped the amount of players defecting at a rate impossible to stabilize a regular lineup for more than one year like the one we have today, with
Roberlandy Simon, Michael Sanchez, Hierrezuelo, Wilfredo Leon and Yoandri Leal.

In the case of women—it is always a more difficult work— the renewal of the team after the 4th place in the Olympic Games Beijing 2008, the change in technical direction in 2009, the World Cup ticket reach in Havana were laudable successes, but
not enough in the last couple of years.

Moreover, it must be added that the leadership in the team is almost null. There are no players able to be references like Mamita Perez, Josefina Capote, Mireya Luis, Regla Torres, and Yumilka Ruiz. The team suffers this reality, although there is talent and quality enough.

Perhaps the most disturbing performance of the women's team was in late 2009, in the event of North, Central American and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA), where Cuba could not reach the qualification to the World Cup and that bronze medal was the worse result of a Cuban team in nearly two decades of participation in such kind of events.

The losses hurt a lot, but the amount of mistakes made by the players was inconceivable, something not seen since long ago in our national teams. Nancy Carrillo, Yanelis Santos and Wilma Salas were the ones shinning in the group, while the two victories against the Americans raised our hopes that the potential is still there and may soon return.

We hope that 2010 will bring positive answers to these questions. Can we return to the podium in a World League?

Will our boys reach the medal Cuba has dreamt in the upcoming world championship? Will the women’s volleyball team return to the elite?

Is it possible to recover lost grounds in technical-tactical terms in the case of women?

Let’s matters take their course. Cuban volleyball has intelligence, heart. It only remains to work harder.

Source: Cubasí