Manama, Bahrain, July 18, 2019 – Korea endured the challenge of a hard-hitting Cuban squad, with the Asian side winning 3-1 (27-25, 17-25, 25-22, 27-25) in Pool B of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship on Thursday in Bahrain’s Isa Sport City.
Korea coach Lee Kyungsuk: “Cuba is a very strong team but today seems our lucky day. It was a good day for us. I try to build their confidence each time so their abilities can also develop. I think that was also the main point for today’s win.”
Korea captain Im Donghyeok: “They (Cuba) are much taller than us, but I see they have their own weaknesses. We also have our own but we don’t think about those. We focused on their weaknesses."
"As team captain and in my playing position, I have the responsibility to score points. My team really supported me so I did my job.”
Cuba coach Jesus Angel Cruz: “We made many faults and towards the end of the set, we had problems in attack. We could not figure out how to close out. We can play much better. We have two more matches and we have to fight better.”
Cuba captain Julio Alberto Gomez: “We had the most difficulty in our receive, and we could not pass the ball to work within our play.”