TOKYO, Nov 24: Cuba powered past hosts Japan to move within a step of winning their first major title in 12 years at the World Grand Champions Cup men’s volleyball tournament Saturday.

The Cubans, having already beaten Sydney Olympic champions Yugoslavia and South American champions Brazil, lost the first set in front of a vociferous local crowd before scoring a 22-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-13 victory.

“We practiced with the Japanese several times before the tournament, so my players played calmly throughout the match today. We have still one more match to go, we’ll concentrate on winning tomorrow as well,” said Cuban coach Gilberto Herrera.

It was their fourth win out of four in the six-team round robin, which carries a top prize of 400,000 dollars.

Brazil, the winners of the World League this season, kept a mathematical chance of overtaking Cuba by beating Yugoslavia 26-24, 25-20, 25-22 for a 3-1 record ahead of South Korea and the European cyhampions.

Asian champions South Korea came back from a set down to beat winless Argentina 23-25, 27-25, 25-21, 25-12 for the same 2-2 record as Yugoslavia’s.

Cuba have a 12-3 set record against Brazil’s 11-4, while the Koreans are 7-7 and Yugoslavia 6-7.

On the final day Sunday, Cuba will play wild card entrants Argentina, the hosts of the world championships next year, while Asian champions South Korea will challenge Yugoslavia.

“We played several practice matches with Japan, so the Japanese had known how we would play and we had known how they play. But they concentrated really well in the first set, they are always good in receiving,” said Cuba’s Angel Dennis.

Dennis emerged as Cuba’s top scorer with a total of 20 points, 12 of them from his unstoppable attacks, five from blocking and three from service winners in the 95-minute match.

Japan at one point led 7-4 in the third set to delight the partisan 9,900-strong crowd, but that was all they could do as the Cuban spikers dominated the rest of the match with iron-fenced blocking and powerful, high attacks.

“The Cubans made some errors. That’s why we won the first set,” said Japan’s coach Mikiyasu Tanaka.

“We practiced hard to block and receive, but we could do nothing but just get used to their attacks from a high point. I was disappointed that I couldn’t give my players effective tactics,” added Tanaka.

Saturday’s results:

Cuba bt Japan 3-1 (22-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-13); South Korea bt Argentina 3-1 (23-25, 27-25, 25-21, 25-12); Brazil bt Yugoslavia 3-0 (26-24, 25-20, 25-22).—AFP