Cuba - volleyball power - shocking defeat at world tournament

As one of the leading powers in men's volleyball, Cuba surprisingly lost to Portugal in the first match of Group D of the 2025 World Championship.

Cuba's poor start at the 2025 Men's Volleyball World Championship - Photo: FIVB

The 2025 World Men’s Volleyball Championship in the Philippines has been a mixed bag of surprises in its first two days of competition. One of them was Cuba’s 3-1 defeat to Portugal in Group D, which also included the title contenders, the United States.

Cuba has been a leading power in men's volleyball for decades. They have been runners-up at the World Championships twice, won the World Cup once and have always produced top stars.

Cuba have been in poor form over the past two years, dropping them to 11th in the world when entering this year's tournament. However, Cuba is still rated much higher than Portugal - ranked 24th in the world.

Cuba had a good start in this match when they won the first set 25-20. In the second set, they lost narrowly 22-25.

The next two games really shocked the fans. The Portuguese blocker played extremely well in these two games, scoring a total of 6 points directly from blocking.

In the end, Portugal beat Cuba 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-19).

This is considered a big win, especially when the opponent is in the group of championship candidates.

This defeat makes Cuba's chances of advancing extremely slim, because in group D there is also a very strong representative, the US (ranked 5th in the world).

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HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/cuba-quyen-luc-lang-bong-chuyen-thua-soc-o-giai-the-gioi-20250913173430488.htm