Gido Vermeulen, Zoran Terzic, Karch Kiraly and Saidani Aimad Eddine at the Press Conference in Belgrade
Pool F provides an interesting combination of competitors which include hosts Serbia, the Netherlands, defending champions the USA and World Grand Prix debutantes, Algeria.
Serbia will be looking to maintain their winning form from last weekend having won their matches against the Dominican Republic, the Czech Republic and Puerto Rico. Along with Brazil, China, Japan and Italy, Pool F hosts Serbia have pulled ahead of the competition with three matches in the bag in the competition so far.
Zoran Terzic, coach of Serbia was pleased with the performance of the team so far saying, “We have a really strong group of teams here. After initial three victories, our aspirations have grown, and with three more wins here in Belgrade we will be very close to the Final Tournament. I hope we will have greater support from the stands, because this would help our players give their maximum”.
The United States on the hand will be hoping not to have a repeat of last week’s results which saw Brazil break their longest ever winning streak in the competition.
Karch Kiraly, coach of the USA said, “We have a very nice group of athletes with us, and many with less experience. This is a great year for our athletes to gain some quality experience in the middle of every four-year Olympic cycle. We had a series of three really strong opponents last weekend, great battles, and we are expecting the same this weekend. We are really enjoying so far. I have never been to Serbia before, and we are really excited about the quality of volleyball here, and the support. It seems that it is a very popular sport here. It should be a great weekend”.
And as the only nation waiting for a first win in the competition, Algeria will be looking to score some points this weekend. As Saimani Aidad Eiddine, coach of Algeria said, “For Algeria, this is the first time in the FIVB World Grand Prix. We know it will be very hard, because you need experience to face such a good teams. We have very young players and this will be a great school for them”.
The Netherlands started their World Grand Prix campaign with a straight sets win against Cuba, which was followed up with consecutive 3-1 defeats against newcomers Bulgaria and former champions China.
Gido Vermeulen, coach of the Netherlands said, “We are building a new team, with lots of new players. We are excited to play against the European Champions and the USA, currently number one in the world, in this tournament. Also, we have never played Algeria, so this would be nice too. It will be interesting to see how much can we do against these giants of volleyball.”
To read more news from this competition click World Grand Prix 2013.
Check out profiles of Serbia, Algeria, USA and Netherland.
