The Bulgarian national team took its fifth win in Pool A of FIVB World League, while beating USA with 3-1 ( 25-20; 18-25; 25-23; 25-21).
The players of Camillo Placi lost in the first match with 0-3, and surprisingly they haven’t look then well in some of their best components- attacks and block. Maybe mostly of the supporters and the volleyball specialists expected that the Bulgarian volleyball players couldn’t make it in the second match.
The U.S.captain- Matt Anderson warned after the first pressconference that nothing is sure and his team should be prepared for stronger Bulgaria in second match.
This is exactly what happened, but the guys of John Speraw seemed to not have been prepared. Tsvetan Sokolov&co looked very different, while being stronger in almost all the components of the play: serve, attacks, defence and block. The exception was only in the second set where the Americans took the advance from the very beginning of the set and didn’t allow to their opponents to change the result.
The most “dramatic” set was the third one, where the Bulgarians made a big point-difference of 6-7 points, but at the end made also some mistakes and the result was 24:23 (only one point in advance). This is the moment, where the captain should show why is he choosen for this position. And this is what exactly Todor Alexiev- the Bulgarian captain, has made. A very strong attack by his side and closing the set 25-23.
The U.S.team began well in the fourth set, but the players of Camillo Placi showed a good mental attitude and the first technical time out came by being 8:8, despite the fact that the Americans took the leadership with 2-3 points in the beginning. The play went point for point in the set, but at the end the Bulgarians made a 2-points- difference by 19:17 and then 21:17. Luckly to all the Bulgarian fans in the sports hall in Reno, Bulgaria closed the set and the match by 25:21.
By this win, the Bulgarians took the leadership in Pool A with 14 points. Brazil is on second position with 13 points; USA- third with 11 points; France- 10 points; big surprise- Poland – fifth with 5 points and last – the home country of the Finals – Argentina with 4 points.
Here we offer you the opinions of the head coaches of both teams and of their captains also.
John Speraw( U.S.coach) : “We knew that Bulgaria is better than showed in the first match.I think that the biggest difference in comparison to the first game was that the Bulgarians organized better their play and they made it through the difficult situations.”
Matt Anderson (U.S.captain): “When you’re beating a team with 3-0, you know that this team will return on the volleyball field even more willing the win in the second match. I think that the Bulgarians had a good plan for the game and made it in an excellent way.”
Camillo Placi (head coach of Bulgaria) : “Today’s match was more equivalent. Our serve was better, and the blocks were also working in a good way. The Americans tried to find their rhythm of play in the whole game. In comparison to yesterday, we were much better prepared on a mental level”.
Todor Alexiev (captain of Bulgaria) : “We had wonderful side out in the end of the sets and this gave us strenght in the important moments. We were much better prepared for the style of playing of USA and this has helped us a lot. We tried to make our play so that Tsvetan Sokolov plays on block against Matt Anderson, so that we could stop his high attacks. We did this thing of our plan and this led us to a good end result”.
Photo: FIVB
Click Here: cd universidad catolica
