The World Women’s Volleyball Championship lowered its curtains this Sunday in Bangkok, Thailand, where the legendary Mireya Luis put the brooch of gold at the closing when delivering the champions trophy to the Italian, who with his triumph emulated a deed only achieved more than two decades ago by the spectacular brunettes of the Caribbean.
The European expanded their fantastic victorious wake after a pitched battle against Türkiye. In five sets (23-25, 25-13, 24-26, 25-19 and 8-15) the duel for the crown was decided in favor of the girls of Argentine coach Julio Velasco, who again got the maximum of his main stars.
The Italians managed to endure the thrust of their rivals, engaged in twisting the story, always paddling against the powerful hand of Melissa Vargas. The Cuban, who for some time has become the offensive horcón of the Turks, led the Ottoman team in the first end of its history in these tournaments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W2xMaprdoe
The transalpins did not find the key to stop the gale of the Cienfueguera, whip with each attack (28), but also puncture from the service line (4). To that deployment added a point per block to round a contribution of 33 cartons, which not even the dreaded Paola Egonu (22) was able to emulate on the other side of the net.
From there, as the collective statistics reflect, the Turks will exceed their rivals in attack (68-59) and serve (7-5), and only yielded in the blockages (10-14), while both squads made 20 non-forced mistakes.
With the fall of the curtain there were some certainties, such as that the Italians are marking time in this sport. With their victory in the defining duel they reached 35 consecutive victories in the last 15 months, which can translate into the conquest of the last two versions of the League of Nations (VNL), the Olympic Games of Paris 2024 and their second universal crown.
“This victory is very emotional for us. After winning the world championship, the Olympic Games and two VNL, I think this team will be remembered as a legend in the future, like many others. I am very proud of them. They won two very difficult games in the last two days, they give their best every day in training and really deserve everything they have achieved,” said coach Julio Velasco.
Now Italy is the first female team that simultaneously owns the scepters of the Olympic Games and the World Championship, since Cuba got it in the 90s of the last century. The spectacular Morenas del Caribe won three consecutive summer crowns in Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000, but also conquered the titles of the orb in the Editions of Brazil 1994 and Japan 1998.
Melissa at Dream Team
For Melissa, this World Cup was another great moment of her sports career, because many times the Turkish team was thrown on the shoulder to drag it to a territory so far unexplored, so all stars were deserved in the cast as the best opposite.
For multiple specialists who followed the final live, Vargas deserved to be the most valuable player in the tournament even if he ended up falling in the final, but in the end that award was taken by the Italian passer Alessia Orro. The rest of the Dream Team was integrated by the Mayu Ishikawa (Japan) and Gabi Guimarães (Brazil) assistants, the experienced monica libero of Gennaro (Italy) and the Anna Danesi (Italy) and Eda Erdem (Turkey) centrals.
No one doubts that Melissa is on their way to becoming one of the biggest players in history in this sport, to share space with other Cuban players such as Torres Rule or the Great Mireya Luis, with whom she met during this World Cup.
La Camagüeyana, now one of the main directives of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), told Oncuba During the last Olympic event of Paris to see Melisa play “he reminds me of what I was doing.”
For the brilliant former attacker, a reference in the Cuban teams that conquered three crowns under the five hoops, the fact that he does not now defend the colors of the island cannot erase “that its origin is the Cuban School of Volleyball and its lineage is that of a Morena of the Caribbean” in allusion to the nickname that the members of those successful generations molded and conducted by Eugenio George were won.
Brazil gets the face out of Latin America
The Brazilian team put the Latin American seal on the podium of the most recent Women’s World Cup in Volleyball after winning a tense pulse to Japan (3-2) in the discussion of bronze medals.
Cuba, with a cast that remains under reconstruction after leaving the world elite, made a discreet performance in the contest without overcoming the group stage.
After 14 years, Cuba wins again in a female volleyball World Cup
However, as a positive balance the victory (3-1) was taken over the representative of Slovakia, something that has not happened in these leaders for 14 years.
That fact, plus the incorporation of Brazilian Luizomar Moura as the new technician of the National Team thanks to an agreement with the FIBV, have given some doses of hope to the followers of this sport on the island, who long for that time when their teams shone in the universal concert.
