Coaches
Brazil coach, Leonardo Carvalho: “Our expectations here are very high like any team from Brazil in the World Championships. We had a long run preparation for 2 years as we played more than 60 friendly matches throughout those 24 months. We had concentrated preparation in the last 4 months to reach our best physical, technical, mental and psychological conditions ahead of the competition. We know well that the way to the title is very hard, so we decided to play each match as decisive with our full power. We had in this team 7 players who continued from the Youth team who played in the World championship 2 years ago in Argentina although we came ninth that time. Our objective is to win the gold but at least now we have to think about the quarterfinals.
Canada coach, Dave Preston: “We are working hard as much as possible because some of my players experience their first international championship. We have been training since June. We had a chance to play friendly match against Mexico and Russia, but that is not enough to gain experience. Some of my players didn’t play at a big level till now, and I want to learn a lot about them to continue their national carriers. I’m thinking that teams in Izmir are very strong and can be favorites for the medals. Pool C looks very balanced. The only team I don’t have information about is Rwanda but I know that they are really excited to be here. I’m sure Izmir will see great volleyball during the championship”.
France coach, Stephan Faure: “The main problem for our team is that we had very late preparations only at the beginning of August because of the financial problems of our federation, but any how we had good players who can perform well. Our objectives now are to qualify to the second round (Round of 16) and then we had to re think about the knock out stage. We played friendly against China only in our preparation programmer, but to we have to start fighting from the first match to achieve our goals.
Italy coach, Marco Bonitta: “We are coming here to play our best and finish at the best possible position. We had a concentrated preparations since 2 months during which we played Brazil twice in their homelands. We were drawn in a very tough pool with Russia, Brazil, France and Venezuela and our objectives are to compete for the first position in the pool. We will depend here on the team work of our players not on certain stars.
Pool Izmir WCH
Russia coach, Mikhail Nikolaev: “I took over the responsibility on July 21 as I replaced Andre Tolochko after the latter had health problems. We need to proof our consistency as the best performing team at this age category and win at least a medal, but the gold is still a big objective for all Russian teams, specially we need to follow the footsteps of the youth team who just won the U19 World Championship in Mexico early last month.”
Rwanda coach, Paul Bitok: “We started real preparations on June 26 following several camps throughout the season. After we clinched the bronze medal at the African Nations Championship in Tunisia the Rwandan federation started to put everything in order for good presentation at the elite level. We were the first team to arrive to Turkey for this competition on August 7 and thus we had enough time to acclimatize the weather and all the conditions here. We played a lot of matches with the Rwandan senior team as well as some clubs there. We hope to represent Rwanda in the best way in our first ever qualification to the finals.
Serbia coach, Sinisa Reljic: “We started preparations since Junes we trained in Slovenia for 2 weeks. We played in the Balkan Championship and won the tournament against Turkey in the final. After that championship we went back to Serbia and played 4 games against Russia. We had a productive time for preparation”. In the youth category we were the world champion. We have good players. Our players are experienced both at both local and international levels. All my team plays in the super league in Serbia. our objective is to qualify for the semi-finals. It’s important to finish the pool stage at the first position. The teams are very tough here. USA, Canada and Russia are really good and well organized teams. However I believe we have more quality. We have the ability to win the games in our group”.
Tunisia coach, Munir Gara: “Usually we are seeking a big start to gain confidence and this time we are looking forwards to clash Canada to gain motivations towards good position in Pool C. Our preparation was quiet good as we played in a friendly tournament in Kelibia, Tunisia which featured Russia, Argentina, and India beside the three age category Tunisian team U19, 21 and 23 where we qualified to the final against the heavy favorites for the world championship title Russia. We played also three matches against Estonia where we won them all. Tunisia arrived to Izmir on August 14, where they had another chance to prepare with some Turkish club friendlies. Our main objective here is to secure a second round ticket, but we need to win more matches, which help us in the rest of the competition through meeting weaker teams in the knock out stage.
USA coach, Peter Hanson : “Our objective is to be at the medal podium at the end of the competition, something not achieved in US history at this age category. We had difficult time during our preparation having less than three weeks to prepare for this competition due to the tight schedule of the local competitions as well as the cancelation of a friendly tour in Costa Rica. However we had a local training camp where we prepared well for that event. We had new players after the last generation finished at the fourth position two years ago in Brazil, so we need to improve here. We are happy to be here between the top teams all over the world, but any how we need to be on the podium this time.”
Venezuela coach Roberto Garcia: “Our pool D is very strong as I know it is very difficult to combat world level teams like Brazil, Russia, Italy and France. We had a local preparation in Venezuela since 6 months but we didn’t have enough friendly matches. Our main goal here is to play high level volleyball and I think we are able to do that.”
To read more similar news from this competition click Junior World Championship 2013 M
