Comeback Kings Cuba make another victim in Belgrade

Cuba men’s national team will head into the weekend with a lot to celebrate as the Caribbean secured their third-straight comeback victory in the second week of the Volleyball Nations League 2025 in Belgrade on Friday.

Playing for a third-straight day in the Belgrade Arena, the Cubans showed no signs of fatigue and had the energy to erase a first-set loss and beat the Netherlands 3-1 (21-25, 25-18, 25-21, 30-28), repeating what they had done against Germany on Wednesday and Serbia on Thursday and getting their third-straight comeback victory is as many days.

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With nine points collected this week alone and 12 overall (four wins, three losses), the Caribbean now appear in fifth place in the VNL 2025 standings. The Dutch, who won just one of their first seven matches in this week’s edition of the tournament, are 16^th, with three points.

“It was very hard,” middle blocker David Fiel reacted. “The first two matches were very stressful, both mentally and physically. But we came in determined to get a win today. It didn’t matter how we did it, the most important thing today was to get the victory. We have a very good team and everyone can help, as they did today.”

The Cubans got the victory in the same way they typically do, as their overpowered their opponents both at the net, leading the Dutch in kills (64 to 57) and blocks (13 to six), and the service line, getting three aces to the Netherlands’ two, and created the cushion needed to compensate for their higher number of errors (27 to 21).

The VNL 2025 top scorer, outside hitter Marlon Yant again came up big for the Cubans, leading the team with a match-high 21 points (20 kills, one block). Opposite Jose Masso (17), outside hitter Jose Gutierrez (15) and middle blocker Roamy Alonso (14) also had solid performances for the winning side.

On the Dutch side, opposite Silvester Meijs and outside hitter Tom Koops led the team with 15 points apiece, while 34-year-old outside hitter Ramon Martinez-Gion delivered 13 in his debut with his country’s national team.

“We’re trying to fight for every point here this week and hopefully some matches will go our way,” Martinez-Gion said. “Today it was very close and we were a little bit unlucky not getting at least a fifth set. But we have more matches coming soon and our focus is on that.”

VNL 2025 – Match Schedule & Results

Earlier on Friday in Belgrade, Iran defeated Argentina 3-1 (25-21, 22-25, 25-22, 25-22). Saturday’s schedule in the Serbian capital will have Germany and Iran playing the first match, at 16:30 local time (14:30 GMT), and Serbia and Argentina battling at 20:00 (18:00 GMT).

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