Bahrain’s dream campaign came to an abrupt end as the quarter-finalists were made known in the 2017 FIVB Boys’ U19 World Championship.
Bahrain bowed to South American giants Brazil in straight sets (14-25, 15-25, 18-25) in their Round of 16 clash played in front of a packed home crowd.
The Brazilians are now on to the last eight, where they are joined by some of the other top teams from around the world including Japan, the Czech Republic, France, Russia, Iran, Korea and Egypt.
The quarter-finals take place on Friday at Shaikh Isa Sports City in Riffa. Matches begin from 11am with playoff games for teams to be ranked 17th to 20th. The last eight kick off their round at 1pm. All are welcome to attend. Tickets are available at the gate and they cost 500 fils per person.
It was a disappointing conclusion to what started off to be a promising tournament for Bahrain, who scored three big wins in four preliminary round contests. But they could not carry their momentum in today’s knockout contest, and their rivals took advantage.
Looking like a totally different team from past days, the Bahrainis got off to a slow start and never recovered. They did go narrowly ahead in the beginning of the third set, but that is as far they could go and Brazil eventually pulled away for the win.
"Brazil respected our team so much by sending their strongest players on the court today,” said Bahrain head coach Yusuf Khalifa.
“They played with strong service and were very organised with their blocking. Of course, this is Brazil. They are never an easy team to play against. But I am happy to say that the positive learning for this team, plainly, is that they were able to play against Brazil.
“This way, we have the opportunity to look into our weaknesses and we can deliver better results in the future.”
Sayed Alabbar led Bahrain with 13 points. Yusuf Saif chipped in with 12 in the loss.
Japan and Iran stretched their respective winning streaks to five matches as they booked their tickets into the quarter-finals.
Japan were in a class of their own in a 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-21) win over Puerto Rico.
“Today, we had a very important match against Puerto Rico,” said Japan coach Hiroshi Honda. “I am very happy with how the players performed. Good motivation and good zattitude against pressure gave us good results.
“I am very happy with how the players performed. Good motivation and good attitude against pressure gave us good results.”
Iran were also big winners today. They had their own 3-0 win (25-18, 25-21, 25-13) against Turkey.
“Turkey is a very strong team,” said Iran head coach Reza Farjad. “We’d think they are one of the top contenders. I can say there are five or six teams here that are really playing in such a high level. Every team has a chance to win a medal. We just want to keep preparing and trying because we want to win.”
France defeated the USA 3-0 (25-21, 25-13, 25-20) in what was one of the most highly anticipated match-ups in the Round of 16.
“We took the time to observe the playing style of United States,” said France head coach Belmadi Slimane. “We were a bit afraid of their tall spikers, but we knew that if we could work hard on reception and service, then we can give them some difficulty in attack.
“Today, my players did a good job.”
Elsewhere, the Czech Republic defeated Argentina 3-1 (25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 25-21) to march through, while Russia beat China 3-1 (22-25, 25-12, 25-16, 25-13).
Korea blasted past Italy 3-0 (25-23, 22, 25-13) in their game, and Egypt were the last to book their slots following a hard-earned, five-set win against a battling Cuba 3-2 (25-19, 23-25, 18-25, 25-22, 15-10).
Meanwhile, two matches in the Playoff Round for Places 17 to 20, Mexico defeated Tunisia 3-2 (25-18, 25-21, 18-25, 22-25, 15-11) while Chile eased past Poland 3-1 (28-26, 13-25, 25-21, 25-18).
The Playoff battles continue on Friday with Chile taking on Mexico and Tunisia facing Poland.
The Semi-finals are on Saturday, August 26, and then the Gold and Bronze Medal matches will be on Sunday, August 27s. The classification games will also continue on until Saturday for the bottom-ranked squads.

Source:BNA