Havana, October 2 (RHC)-- The Cuban men's volleyball team rests this Monday and on Tuesday will go to a crucial match against the Czech Republic in the Rio de Janeiro Volleyball Pre-Olympic.

In their second match of the tournament, Jesús Cruz's students lost 1-3 to Germany in a Group A match.

With a cheerful and combinative game, the Cubans won the first set by 25-21, but later on they could not stop the Germans, led by veteran Gyorgy Grozer, and lost with easy scores of 14-25, 22-25 and 15-25.

Miguel Angel Lopez and Marlon Yant carried the offensive weight for the Caribbeans with 13 points each, while opposite Jesus Herrera did not have his best day and only contributed 8.

For the Europeans, Grozer stood out with 24 points, supported by center Anton Brehme with 13.

In the same group, Brazil beat the Czech Republic 3-2, Ukraine defeated Iran 3-0 and world champions Italy overcame Qatar 3-0.

Italy and Germany now top the table (2-0, 6 points), followed by Brazil (2-0, 5), Cuba and Ukraine (1-1, 3 points), Czech Republic (0-2, 1 point) and Iran (0-2, no points).

In Group C, Argentina suffered its first defeat in the Pre-Olympic on Sunday, losing 1-3 to Canada, and in the same group, Mexico lost 0-3 to the Netherlands, whose captain Nimir Abdel-Aziz led the way with 20 points.

Zone C closed with Poland's 3-0 win over Bulgaria and Belgium's four-set victory over China.

In section B, based in Tokyo, the United States achieved its second success by defeating Finland 3-0, Slovenia also reached two victories by beating Turkey 3-0, Serbia defeated Tunisia 3-0 and Egypt overcame Japan in five sets.

(With information from Prensa Latina)