27/07/2012 15:30
Poland and Italy highlight opening day of men's tournament at London 2012
2012 Olympic Games
London, Great Britain, July 27, 2012. Poland and Italy are set to
contribute the major highlight of the men’s volleyball tournament once
the competition gets started at Earls Court this coming Sunday. After
cruising through a marvelous campaign in the FIVB World League that
eventually culminated in the final round held in Sofia, Poland is seen
as one of the major contenders for the Olympic crown at stake here in
London and the local volleyball family definitely hopes for a remake of
the glorious days from Montreal 1976.
Even though he knows his guys are seen as the pre-favorites of
the Olympic tournament, coach Andrea Anastasi remains down-to-earth and
opts for a low profile attitude. “For the time being I am focused
exclusively on the first match against Italy and I pretend the same
approach also from my players” he says. His long-time friend and Italy’s
mentor Mauro Berruto insists on the special atmosphere surrounding the
Olympic tournament. “The joy for being here is simply unique. You can
really feel that magic that is the real quintessence of the Olympics. We
do want to perform well here in London because this is much more than
an ordinary volleyball tournament; we are here to represent our country
and we feel that responsibility”.
Australia and Argentina will be playing the third match on
schedule for Sunday at Earls Court and as everyone already knows, that
game will turn into a family affair opposing Australian coach Jon
Uriarte and his son Nicolas, one of Argentina’s up-and-coming stars.
“The local volleyball family in Australia is very excited since we
qualified for the Olympics and it is just great to be here for such a
young group of players. As for the game with Nicolas, there is no way to
express our feelings, especially since on Sunday we’ll be surrounded by
our family and friends to celebrate that special moment. I think this
is a nice story to tell for the sport in general, not exclusively for
volleyball, and we feel very lucky for being given the chance to live
this moment” says Jon Uriarte.
“We were assigned to a very strong group but our goal remains to
make it through Pool play and advance to the quarterfinals” adds
Argentina coach Javier Weber. “There are a lot of positives we can take
from the sparring match we played yesterday with the USA; I think this
was the best way for us to get ready for our opening match against
Australia” he continues, hoping to extend the tradition that sees
Argentina lead 2-0 in the head-to-heads with the guys from “Down Under”,
the last game dating back to the 2007 World Cup in Japan.
The competition in Pool A will actually start on Sunday morning
with the home guys of Great Britain playing Bulgaria. “We are here since
we represent the host nation of this Olympiad whereas all of my
colleagues have gone through a very demanding qualification process”
singles out Team GB coach Harry Brokking. “My players are evidently
excited to play in front of the local audience and our goal is to cause
some surprises and upsets, but first we have to play some good
volleyball”.
Bulgaria is quite notoriously missing its absolute superstar Matey
Kaziyski here in London but the group around coach Nayden Naydenov
remains a very strong competitor to reckon with. “We also share the
feelings of our opponents, being very proud for being here, and we want
to play our best to achieve the maximum result we can take from this
competition” says former international star Ljubo Ganev.
What about the iron group, Pool B? Russia, Brazil, the United
States have openly stated their intention to go for Olympic glory here
in London and the competition will be tough right from the start of the
prelims.
Germany’s coach Vital Heynen joked at today’s press conference as he was
the very last one taking the floor: “I hope that by the end of the
tournament I will be in a different position than at this table as I am
the last one in the row. We all know we have a few tough matches ahead
but we definitely want to enjoy this Olympic experience” says the
Belgian coach who, since he started mentoring the group this past April,
has contributed a series of outstanding results. Russia will be the
first opponent for Germany on Sunday, joining the Olympic scene at 11:30
and the always physically imposing players around Vladimir Alekno will
be trying to improve on their good record which sees Russia having won
17 out of 20 matches played with Germany in official FIVB events.
Team USA and Serbia will be playing the second match scheduled
for day 1 of Pool B on Sunday. “We are here with a very young team and
do not have any of the superstars that Serbia was known for in the past.
However, we still have our own dreams and our first goal is to make it
out of the preliminary phase” states coach Igor Kolakovic. The US
Americans are the gold medalists from the previous Olympics in Beijing
and Alan Knipe also shows his joy and pride for being part of this
Olympic adventure. “It really feels good to be here and even though we
know we have been drawn to a Pool that includes some of the best teams
in the world, we nevertheless feel we can go for a good performance here
at Earls Court”.
To round out Sunday’s program, the triple
world champions and 2008 silver medalists of Brazil will be playing
Tunisia. The “carioca” are coming off a pretty disappointing campaign in
the FIVB World League where they missed out on a medal for the first
time in many years and the group has been widely criticized by the media
as well as by the fans. “We have been working very hard for the past
three weeks to fix our problems and even though we will be confronted by
extremely strong squads, we still know we can produce good quality out
there on the court” points out Bernardo Rezende. Questioned about the
possible final standings of the group where Brazil may not end up atop
of the charts given the competition brought by Russia and USA, he adds:
“This is an Olympic event and your ranking in the prelims does not make
much difference as you anyway will be playing a very tough opponent in
the quarterfinals. Our primary goal is to make it out of Pool play and
then take on the next steps of the tournament”. As for Tunisia, the
darkhorse of the group will use this Olympic appearance also as a unique
opportunity to carry the hopes of the African volleyball family as
stated by their coach Fethi Mkaouar. “It is just great to be at the
Olympics and even though we know the terrific quality of the other
teams, we’ll do our best to defend the honor of Tunisian, African and
also Arab volleyball”.
The
Volleyball events of the 2012 Olympic Games are joined by 12 teams per
gender. The top four ranked coming out of the prelims will advance to
the knockout phase starting with the quarterfinals, proceeding with the
semis and culminating in the final matches
|