Current South American champion, Praia Clube debuts at the Club World Cup
Current South American women's volleyball champion, Dentil Praia Clube will start this Thursday (16th) the participation in the Club World Cup, held in Ankara (Turkey). The Minas Gerais players will debut against the host Fenerbahçe (Turkey) at 12:30 pm (Brasilia time), in a duel valid for Group A.
In addition to the Turks, Praia will face Conegliano (Italy) on Friday (17), at 9 am. The Italians, current world champions, have been undefeated for two years and started the Worlds beating Fenerbahçe by three sets to zero, with partials of 12/25, 25/23 and 25/23. The first two placed in the group advance to the semifinals.
The first Brazilian club to hit the court at the World Cup was Itambé Minas, champion of the last Superliga and vice South American, which debuted by defeating Altay (Kazakhstan) by three to zero (25/21, 25/22 and 25/18) . The striker Neri Ozsoy - who is born in Bulgaria and naturalized Turkish - stood out with 14 points, one more than the central Thaísa.
Minas' next appointment will be this Friday (17), in front of Vakifbank (Turkey), at 12:30 pm. The Brazilians can enter the court already classified if the Turks defeat Altay on Thursday, and all that remains is to define the first two places in Group B.
It is the third time in a row that Minas Gerais clubs represent Brazilian volleyball at the World Cup. In the last edition, in 2019, the teams said goodbye without a victory and fell in the first phase. In the previous year, Minas reached the final, losing to Vakifbank, while Praia finished in fourth place.
Brazil has occupied the top of the podium at the Women's World three times, with Sadia (1991), Leite Moça/Sorocaba (1994) and Osasco (2012, under the name Sollys/Osasco). The latter is the only one of the three clubs that is still active in the country.
An eventual title of Minas or Praia can result in a brazilian (or Minas) volleyball double in the most important interclub competition of the modality. Last Saturday (11), Sada Cruzeiro was world champion among men for the fourth time, by defeating Civitanova (Italy) in the final by three sets to zero (25/17, 25/22 and 25/23). The competition was held in Betim (MG).
Text translated using artificial intelligence.
