Andrea Anastasi
Many people, including the players themselves, think it was the best match of the Polish team this season. During a special meeting with the media on Wednesday morning, the members of the national team could not hide their disappointment.
“Yes, it was our best match this season, so this loss is even more painful,” said receiver Michal Winiarski. “We wanted to show good Volleyball and I think this game could have been a turning point for us. We knew that we hadn’t played a single match on the level that we had wanted and expected. Yesterday we finally felt that it could be it. It’s a pity, because we had our chances in this match, we could have been the ones celebrating and preparing to the quarterfinal with Germany.”
There were people complaining about some decisions of the referees, not only during this match, but throughout the Pool round. The Polish team does not want to find excuses for the loss, though.
“I will not blame the referees for our final result,” commented the captain of the team, Marcin Mozdzonek. “Our play was not well balanced, it was swinging. But from my observations we were not the only ones having such symptoms. Volleyball these days is on such level that sometimes one player walking into the serving position can change the course of the whole set or even of the match.”
“I think the biggest difference last night was Tsvetan Sokolov,” suggested head coach Andrea Anastasi. “He is one of the best opposites in the world right now and in the third set he started playing very aggressively. It was not an easy season for us, for me. I had to rebuild the team and make some difficult decisions. I take full responsibility for everything that happened.”
Read our coverage page at European Championship 2013 M.
