Rodrigo Quiroga and Javier Filardi of Argentina will take on Canada again this week
Mar del Plata, Argentina, August 7, 2014 - Argentina lost to Canada on Tuesday in their first friendly match ahead of the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship Poland 2014. The visitors won in five sets 3-2 (25-18, 25-21, 23-25, 21-25, 15-11) at the Mar del Plata Sport Centre.
The top scorers were Gavin Schmitt with 28 points for the visiting team and Rodrigo Quiroga with 18 for Argentina.
The scores of the first two sets showed parity up to 10-10, when, on both occasions, Canadian opposite Schmitt took charge of operations, serving and spiking to take the sets 25-18 and 25-21, scoring 13 points in the process. On the other side of the net, Sebastian Solé scored seven points for Argentina.
In the third set, scoring went to 8-10, with Canada performing well. Argentina's Luciano De Cecco and Demián González replaced Nicolás Uriarte and Santiago Darraidou, and Lucas Ocampo came on instead of Javier Filardi, however, levelling the set at 16-16 for Argentina, before the home team claimed the set.
Argentina had a one point advantage ahead of the first technical timeout in the fourth set, but then built up a five point lead 15-10 to win the set and force a tie-breaker. In the fifth and last set, Argentina paid a high price for several non-forced errors, giving Canada a four point advantage, which eventually led the visitors to a 15-11 win.
The friendlies between Argentina and Canada will go on all week until next Monday, when Argentina travel to Brazil for a second series of friendlies. A third but shorter series will see Argentina take on Russia before the beginning of the World Championship in Poland.