Italy - Cuba (World Cup 1989)

actually we defeated the italians one more time in 98 in the WL final 4 round robin and thats all, cuba was the best 2nd team, our mental and tecnicall game its not enough to work with that strenght that we only have

This match is kind of a milestone for the Italian volleyball: it was the last time Italy was defeated by Cuba in a big international tournament. Cuba had always been Italy’s thorn in the flesh until then with the Azzurri unable to defeat the Cubans until the WCH final in 1990. Velasco has often talked about this match and the so-called "Cuban taboo" when journalists and fans asked him about the Worlds final in 1990 and what had changed between that match and the previous ones; he said he told his players that there are no invincible teams, each match is a different story, and once you are on the court if you think your opponents are invincible just because you've always lost by them, then you'll never win! So the first step towards the victory is to have winning and successful mentality. That World Championship final ended 3-1 for the Azzurri and from that moment on they reversed the situation by becoming Cuba’s bete noire.

Italy looks embarrassingly bad here!