Captains of Pool D
“Our team is well prepared and we feel pretty good” said Russian team captain Sergey Makarov. “We have been waiting for this Championship to come and finally here we are. My teammates are fully aware of the challenges that are awaiting us. However, they are also ready to show their best and display their potential to go for yet gold after winning at the Olympics as well as the World League Finals. I wish all the best to all teams and would like to thank the local Organizing Committee for their warm hospitality”.
“Today we are all friends but tomorrow we’ll start a real fight” continued head coach Andrey Voronkov. “We will take up this challenge and try to progress match after match. We do not want to repeat the same mistakes we made in the World League or some of the last friendly games we have played. I do believe that the good atmosphere that we feel here will help us disclose the best of our sport and achieve our goals. The team is much focused and they know we have set the highest goals for this tournament”.
“We have received a very warm welcome here in Poland, we feel great and have gone through a very busy summer with some players added to the group” said Germany team captain Jochen Schöps. “We want to realize where we stand and show what we are capable of. We believe that we can achieve some good results. I agree with what the Russian coach said: today we are all friends, but tomorrow a tough competition will start”.
“I am pretty sure that the winner of this tournament is here with us today and this is going to be Russia” added his mentor Vital Heynen. “The second major competitor for gold is Italy. However, we recently beat them twice in Dessau so this means we also can perform well”.
“We are very glad for playing here especially for many fans will show up and follow the matches here in Gdynia” said Czech team captain Ondrej Hudecek. “We have gone through a very long and tough summer. Even though we are playing teams that all competed at the Olympics last year, I hope we can show a good performance here”.
“I am also very happy with the conditions we found here as Gdynia has a great venue where to host world-class Volleyball matches” added head coach Stewart Bernard. “As my friend from Germany said, maybe the eventual winner of the gold medal is sitting here with us. The results in this group may nevertheless be quite surprising. We are an outsider but willing to reach the highest goals”.
“We are also very happy for being here as we have worked very hard this summer” stressed Bulgaria team captain Todor Aleksiev. “We hope to show some great Volleyball and give our contribution to a great Volleyball show for all fans that will attend the EuroVolley”. “We finished fourth in the World League even though we had some players that were recently added to the roster” said Camillo Placi, the Italian-born mentor of Bulgaria. “We have good memories also from the Olympics and the 2011 World League Finals in Gdansk, but this is a totally different story. We obviously want to win a medal after many fourth places and in order to achieve this goal we need to stay focused on every single set and rally. This group is very tough and the first match may well influence the final standing”.
For more information about this competition click on European Championship 2013 M.
