2024-06-08 00:44:50
Textual content: Raul del Pino
Foto: RL Hevia
A lot has been mentioned and written in regards to the efficiency of the Cuban males’s volleyball staff within the first week of the Nations League. Excessive expectations had been positioned on the staff whose most important goal within the competitors is so as to add the best variety of factors on the earth rating that enables it to entry the Olympic ticket on the finish of the qualifying part.
And the outcomes of the primary match exactly exceeded these excessive expectations, to the purpose that the bar is now at a better stage and the 1000’s of Cuban volleyball followers, shaken from the lethargy during which they had been mired, now not solely dream of better ambition, however they comply with the video games with a calculator of their hand.
Though there was a bittersweet style on the palate after that match during which the formidable Japan couldn’t be completed off, it’s unattainable for anybody to not be happy with the earnings that Jesús Cruz’s pupils obtained from their first 4 video games within the occasion . Not even essentially the most enthusiastic of consultants would have ventured such a outcome. Three 3-1 victories in opposition to Brazil, Germany and Iran and a really tight five-set defeat in opposition to the Japanese that permit them to relaxation in third place within the occasion.
The Cuban solid established a factors report for every week within the VLN. He started the event with 236.96 in eleventh place within the FIVB rankings and completed the stage in ninth with a rating of 261.17, within the Olympic qualification zone. And if we add to that the decline of Serbia, till now its best rival in pursuit of the place in Paris, which began ninth with 253.22 and completed two seats under with 238.51, the ultimate achieve of the Antilleans was simply over 40 items with relating to the Balkans.
However with the identical obvious ease that the Serbs succumbed and the Cubans emerged, on the subsequent cease within the competitors the roles will be reversed. And volleyball, or at the very least this VNL that’s decisive for Olympic qualification, is now not about merely profitable or shedding. Every match has its personal metrics rigorously created by numerous algorithms that decide the achieve or lack of factors for every staff.
That’s the reason Cuba, for instance, by beating Japan may achieve from 9 to 14 factors, relying on the outcome, a return fairly completely different from that of the defeat. That is why falling into tie break In comparison with the third within the rating, it solely made him lose a scant 0.08 items. Victory with those self same partials would have given him, nevertheless, 9.92.
Second key week
For the second week the calculations will proceed to be this surgical and every conflict will signify its personal universe, all the time wanting askance at what the direct rivals are doing. As a lot because the teaching workers and the gamers attempt to focus solely on what occurs across the internet, it’s unattainable to not take note of all of the mathematical variables so as to add or waste integers within the rating.
Thus, Cuba’s subsequent match will likely be on June 5 in opposition to Canada, host of group 4 of the occasion within the subsequent stage. With the People at dwelling and the Parisian ticket of their pocket since final yr’s pre-Olympic, the Caribbean can enhance their income between eight and three items relying on the ultimate rating in the event that they win. Nonetheless, a defeat would value them extra, because the Canadians seem in twelfth place within the rating and it’s all the time potential to succumb in opposition to opponents who’re decrease.
After that duel, and based mostly on the outcome, the FIVB robots will put together new calculations for Cuba’s subsequent presentation on the sixth in opposition to the Netherlands, one other of its direct opponents for the classification and which ended the primary week within the thirteenth place by including nearly a dozen strains (222.14). In opposition to this staff, Cuba would want as comfy a victory as potential, whereas a setback would bleed them fairly a bit.
Following that very same logic, the final two opponents of the following spherical will arrive on June 7 and eight, on this case two armed groups to take, comparable to Italy and France, second and seventh on the common listing, in that order. The constructive factor right here is that profitable will all the time give a very good earnings and failing would restrict the injury to a minimal. It’s also a plus that each have Paris of their pocket (the Italians usually are not categorized but however by rating it’s a matter of time), so it’s doubtless that they’ll rotate their finest gamers, as occurred within the first week with some opponents from Cuba.
On the identical time, we must regulate Serbia, which can open with the Netherlands in one other conflict between direct contenders for the French capital. If the Balkans skilled a sophisticated and opposed debut, within the subsequent part they might see their Olympic dream fully buried. The US, Argentina or Canada, its different opponents, can maintain that.
The time of definition
The third week of the VNL, to be held between June 18 and 24, nonetheless seems too distant to hold out an goal evaluation based mostly on all of the variables and possibilities at play. Nonetheless, by that date, all groups will need to have their finest gamers and nobody will give something away. The Cubans will land in Slovenia and may have an important first recreation in opposition to Serbia itself on the twentieth, to which they might arrive with their ticket fairly assured, or it could become a heartbreaking match between each. Later, they’ll face the host staff, at present fifth within the rating and one other nearly assured of Paris; Bulgaria (20), essentially the most inexpensive of all maybe; and they’re going to shut on the twenty third in opposition to the almighty Poland, present monarch of the VNL and chief of the rankings.
At this defining second, there are good possibilities that the Antillean staff will as soon as once more have its star reverse Jesús Herrera, affected by an harm that made him miss the primary matches, in addition to the assistant José Miguel Gutiérrez, who could possibly be prepared from the second week, and would tackle an essential function supporting staff stars Marlon Yant and Miguel Ángel López.
This pair, together with captain Roberlandy Simón, has carried the Cuban assault in pursuit of a really tough dream however one which, seeing them play each day, appears nearer. It is rather gratifying for these of us who grew up with Cuban volleyball rubbing shoulders with world powers, to expertise this rebirth stuffed with hope so a few years later, though within the new actuality we should watch the matches additionally serious about arithmetic.