The U.S. Jr. National Team had our gold medal dreams dashed by Argentina today.  The boys are bummed but there is a lot to learn from today's match.

First of all, Argentina is a class act.  They do "more with less" than any other federation.  They are never the most physical team but they might be the best with their poise and defense!  I have known Coach Juan Manuel Cichello for years and he always has his team ready to win on the big stage. Today, Argentina absolutely beat us down in transition. They dug 20 more balls than we did and chiseled our outside hand time and again on big transition swings.

Here are some interesting stats from playing a finalist:

We hit .180 on our perfect passes. This shows exactly how ARG plays the game! We passed ok:  68% perfect, but Argentina just plays great defense and makes you work too hard! We actually had more kills than Argentina on 161 attempts, but 14 more errors was the difference.

Argentina is extremely efficient. They only had 145 attempts so they score by putting pressure on opponents. In fact, Argnetina scored 30% of their points off of our errors.

Despite the strange stats, we had our chances! We had a swing in set two to go up 2-0 but, that's right, Argentina made several spectacular digs to push a w in overtime. 

The boys didn't have their best match today but we learned how to play more efficiently. Steve Irvin had a nice match coming off the bench and making some positive contributions from the service line and at the net.

Now we battle Serbia for the bronze medal. The boys are tired but we have one more magic match left!  Serbia has the top point scorer in the tourney but we have the #2 scorer in Taylor Sander and a solid and balanced attack run by Micah Christenson. The team that plays most like Argentina today will win Bronze.

We will stay for the final of Argentina vs. Russia and hopefully join those two on the podium tomorrow night.  Tonight Russia had 32 blocks vs Serbia in their four set win. it was a clinic! However I don't think Russia can do that vs. Argentina with their great transition vision and range. Russia is very good but I pick Argentina in 5. USA beats Serbia in 4?!

The boys will be fueled and rested for their 11th match in 14 days on this trip. 

Go USA!!  We wear Red for our bronze medal match.

Boa Noite

Shawn Patchell

USA JNT Head of Delegation