This match was the 1st week and 1st game of the whole WGP held in late August 1996. All teams had finished their Olympic journey and Cuba was the champion while China was the 1st runner-up.
Post-Match Commentary :
Cuban squad without Luis and Carvajal, the best spiker and blocker in the early 90s, for rest and retirement. As planned, #5 Gato (24yo, 1.78m) finally be the lineup who played as the 3rd spiker in the team for the past 2 years.
China used #5 Wu Yongmei (21yo, 1.85m) middle replaced #6 Wang Yi (23yo, 1.89m) in lineup and rest of the players were the same as Olympic. For the 1st set, Cuba led China 13-8 but things went so differently in the latter of the set. Cuba team was never play seriously in WGP or warm up matches !
With the situation of versatile player #11 Sun Yue (23yo, 1.86m) who attack success rate greater than 50% and ‘careless' Cubans, it's a straight 3:0 victory by China. #1 Ruiz (18yo, 1.76m) was up on court replaced #5 Gato (24yo, 1.78m) and this made her begin the lineup player soon in the team. And this is the last game China won Cuba during 96-00 cycle in WGP.