Argentina triumph for bronze at Boys' U19 Worlds

Tunis, Tunisia, August 30, 2019 - Argentina outplayed Egypt 3-1 (25-19, 25-19, 23-25, 25-17) to grab the bronze medal of the 2019 FIVB Boys' U19 World Championship here on Friday, persevering when the African side made an attempt at a comeback in their own quest for a historic momement for African volleyball.


Wild celebrations by the Argentina players and staff after taking bronze at the 2019 FIVB U19 World Championship in Tunis.

Argentina started gradually building up an opening set lead just before the second Technical Timeout and continued to widen the gap before Tomas Capogrosso served an ace on Eyad Mohamed for set point.

In an exactly similar fashion in the second set, Argentina broke clear after the second Technical Time and this time for match point Pablo Urchevich served hard on Eyad forcing Abdelrahman Elhossiny Jr to make an error in his attempt to set the ball from way out by the advertising panels.

But things turned in the third. At first it seemed like a half-hearted attempt by Egypt to prolong the game by keeping up with Argentina, but at 23-22 the 'Pharaohs' made a 3-0 run reaching set point with a block by Omar 'Sherif' Deigham on Manuel Armoa, followed by a strike down the line from the left by Elhossiny Jr to convert it.

Argentina were having none of that, however, and turned the fourth set into a replica of the first two, breaking away midway through and widening the gap to reach match point with as many as eight to spare, before Wilson Acosta hit one down the line from the right to send his side into wild celebrations.

Argentina coach Pablo Rico stuck with his starting lineup throughout the game, without just two very brief substitutions. Wilson Acosta emerged top scorer of the game with 24 points, just three over Egypt's high of 21 from Elhossiny Jr., as Argentina took advantage of Egypt's 22 unforced errors, while limiting their own to just 14.


Anas Mohamed of Egypt comes up against the Argentina block of Armoa Morel and Agustin Gallardo in the bronze medal match of the 2019 FIVB Boys' U19 World Championship in Tunis.

It was Argentina's third medal in the history of the competition, following a bronze in 2009 at Jesolo and a silver in 2015 at home in Resistencia.

Egypt failed to claim their first ever medal (indeed the first ever medal for any African team), but managed to tie their previous all-time best of fourth from the 2001 edition at home in Cairo.

Quick links - Volleyball:
FIVB.com - Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship - Tunisia 2019
FIVB.com - Volleyball
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