Betim, Brazil, October 30, 2015 - With a 21-point output of Wilfredo León Venero, European champions Zenit Kazan from Russia advanced to FIVB Men’s Club World Championship final match in Betim after seeing off Argentina’s UPCN San Juan 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-20).
Cuban spiker performed superbly on all aspects of the game, with a tournament-high of 5 service aces as his highest point but also with 14 spikes and 2 blocks. Teammate Maxim Mikhaylov gave Zenit Kazan another 11 points, one less than UPCN’s best scorer - Nikolay Uchikov from Bulgaria.
Although Zenit Kazan left UPCN speechless at the start (8-3), the South American champions slowly but steadily found their tempo, giving way to an exciting game. Kazan seized the set anyway with Anderson and León as a deadly duo, and when UPCN dominated on the second, the latter became unstoppable from the service line and pushed his team to a 2-0 lead.
The third set was called to be leveled too, but just on the beginning because Zenit Kazan had León with them. The Cuban star piled up spike after spike to break the Argentinian spirit (12-8), then chained two aces in a row and confirmed himself as the man of the match. Another ace by León and a wrong UPCN serve gave the gold medal ticket to Zenit Kazan.