2016 Review: Sada Cruzeiro simply cannot get enough of winning

Lausanne, Switzerland, January 2, 2017 – It was October 23 when Sada Cruzeiro were crowned FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship winners for the second time in a row and the third time in the last four years. Just six days later, the top team in the world claimed Brazil’s Supercopa, defeating Brazil Kirin 3-1 (18-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-20). And there was more: the first seven matches of the Brazilian Superliga produced seven wins for Sada Cruzeiro, taking the team straight to the top of the table.“We just spend every day working to win whatever competition we are in. This is who we are,” said coach Marcelo Mendez. Since 2010, the team in blue has won an incredible 24 trophies. “Before us, the best result by a Brazilian team was runner-up at the Club World Championship,” Méndez said. “No Brazilian club has come close to this team and we have gone down in volleyball history, which makes us very happy. What we’ve done is amazing, but we haven’t run out of steam yet. It’s harder to stay at the top than to get there.”Sada Cruzeiro are now the second most successful team in the history of the FIVB Men’s Club World Championships, behind Italy’s Trentino, who have won four trophies. However, the Brazilians have set their sights on becoming the most successful team. As such, the defence of their title in 2017 is one of the goals for this remarkable team. “This is the story of a team that works incredibly hard every day to win,” said Mendez, looking back at this year’s edition of the tournament, that features the top volleyball clubs on the planet. “We work to get where we are, to get on the podium and to have fun. Ahead of the game against Zenit Kazan, we spoke about leaving everything out there and we did. We played the perfect game.”The performances backed this statement up, as the successful team outplayed the opposition in each of its five matches at the 12th FIVB Men’s Club World …

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