Bulgaria defeated the tough team of Chinese Taipei with 3:2 (32-30, 21-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-10) in their second match of the home World Championship for men U17. If one word were to describe the advantage that tipped the scales in our favor - serve and block, with which we won one set (a total of 24 points from both elements). However, the turning point of the match was the first set, when our team managed to do the unthinkable and turn the result in their favor, after the opponent had a lead of 8 (eight) points.

A series of exchanged sets followed, and in the fourth, we could have closed the match, as we were leading towards the end, but our opponents managed to force the game into a tie-break.

It started well for us, as we took a 2-point lead early on. Two successful attacks from the opponent from the back row followed, along with two of our attack errors, and things turned in favor of Chinese Taipei (2:4).

Daniel Tanev, the son of Toni Zetova, who made a phenomenal debut for this national team, managed to reduce the deficit (3:4).

Two points followed from the best player in this match - Evan Georgiev, and the score was leveled (5:5).

Bulgaria was the first to reach the 8th point (8:5). After our attack error, our opponents closed the gap to two points at the end (12:10). Again, the ubiquitous Tanev stopped an attack and brought his teammates within two points of victory. After two errors by Chinese Taipei, the victory was a fact.

Five Bulgarians finished the match with a double-digit score: Evan Georgiev - 20 points (5 blocks and 3 aces), Alexander Dobrev - 17 (1 ace),

Daniel Tanev - 15 (3 blocks and 1 ace), Nikolay Mihovski - 14 (5 blocks and 2 aces) and Filip Marinski - 13 (1 ace).
The most prolific scorer in the match was Pin Yen Huang, who accumulated a colossal 40 points, but even that did not help his teammates.
Teodor Bogdanov made two changes to the starting six, bringing in Dimitar Dobrev as a libero receiver and giving confidence to Daniel Tanev.
On Monday, Bulgaria plays its third group match against Mexico, who lost to Spain in three sets. The match starts at 5:00 PM.

Photos: Nikolay Varadinov