IN Portugal’s comeback to the FIVB Volleyball World Championship after 23 years, Nuno Marques shone bright with 19 points to lead the World No. 29 team’s upset of the 10th-ranked Cuba, 20-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-19, on Saturday at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
The 22-year-old Marques, who wasn’t even born yet when Portugal last played in the 2002 World Championship in Argentina, rose to the occasion to avert a first-set loss and get the better of the Cubans in the remainder of the game to win their first Pool D game after an hour and 53 minutes.
“It means a lot because it’s one of the best competitions in the world,” said Marques, who had 15 kills from his 23 attack attempts, two aces, and two blocks.
“It’s the big stage, everyone wants to play, and we’re also included in those people who want to play here, and we want to continue playing and trying to win, of course.” Jose Pinto and Filip Cveticanin were also instrumental with 14 points each, combining for seven of the team’s 11 kill blocks to join Team USA, which swept Colombia, 25-20, 25-21, 25-14, earlier to share the early Pool D lead.
Portugal and USA clash for a second win and the entry to the round of 16 on Monday night at 9 p.m.
“I’m really happy with the performance not just mine but for all the team. But of course, it’s good to have good games and I hope to continue like that. All my teammates performed realy good and we want to continue like that,” said Marques.
“It was the spirit of the team. The way we played together, the way we changed the way we were playing in the first set, I think we were trying to do some different things in our game, and after that, we just played the way we played in practice, and we can play really well, and we showed that.”
After a tough first set loss, Portugal survived a tight second set tied at 21-all, with Cveticanin and Miguel Tavares nailing the clutch hits to equalize the game to one set apiece.
The Portuguese dominated the next two sets, as Pinto’s kill mounted a 20-15 spread in the fourth set before Marques and Cveticanin put on the finishing touches.
Marques believes being the first team to arrive in Manila 10 days ago helped them adjust ahead of their return to the world stage.
“It was a really big trip, so it was physically hard to recover. These almost two weeks made the difference to feel ready for the competition, and now we are feeling fresh,” he said.
Marlon Yant led Cuba with 19 points off 15 spikes, two aces, and two blocks. Jose Masso had 12 points, while captain Miguel Lopez added 11. Cuba hopes to keep its round-of-16 hopes alive against Colombia on Monday at 10 a.m.
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