Press in Katowice
Iran’s coach, the Serbian Slodoban Kovač was the most emphatic of all them when assessing the possibilities of his team advancing to the Final-Four group.
“We are here not because we are lucky but because we are good and have been playing good for the last four months,” Kovač said. “We’ve played well for the whole tournament and we want to continue playing good volleyball.”
“For the last four months we have been training hard and playing and winning against very good teams in Tehran and outside of Tehran,” he added. “We won matches against teams like Italy and Brazil and finished fourth at this year’s World League.”
Iranian captain Mir Saeid Marouflakrani, chosen as the setter of this year’s World League All Star, took a moment to point out the importance of volleyball as the number one sport in his country comparing it to the situation in Poland.
“We have a good program of volleyball and people follow the matches and the performances of our national teams when we are away,” he said. “It all started in 2007 when we won the gold medal at the FIVB Youth World Championship in Mexico. So volleyball is really important in Iran.”
“It was important for us to get the last one point that brought us here as a first place team,” France’s coach Laurent Tillie said. “We had to fight for that point and at the same time also give a little rest to some tired players. But we are here now for two very difficult matches against Germany and Iran and then we’ll see what happens.”
French captain Benjamin Toniutti agreed with his coach while admitting that finishing first came as a kind of surprise for him.“We were competing in a very hard group in the first round and felt happy about finishing first,” Toniutti said. “Then we finished first also in the second round and now we want to continue playing good volleyball. It will be a big game tomorrow against Germany.”
The team of Germany have been playing all their matches in Katowice so their players are accustomed to the gym’s conditions and the fans and also….sleeping on the same bed every night.
“We are so used to be here that we must welcome the other two teams,” the Belgian Vital Heynen, who coaches Germany, kidded to begin with his statements.
“I am really surprised to be sitting here because we had all our bags packed and ready to move to Lodz and play against Poland. But it is good to stay here and play France and Iran.”
“I am happy to stay in Katowice,” Germany’s captain Jochen Schops said. “It is nice to move around to other cities but we like Katowice. Next matches will be tough but I hope both will be interesting.”
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