The organizing team of Bulgaria started off with a convincing victory over Portugal in the first match of the 3rd Round Tournament in Varna which serves as the final qualifier for the 2010 FIVB Men’s World Championship. The hosts sailed through in three straight sets (25-22, 25-16, 26-24) to take an early lead in the standings.
The first set was relatively even-sided, but after the first technical break Bulgaria took a small lead and did not let go until the end with fantastic attacks from star player Matey Kaziyski, but also with many serving errors. In the second set, Kaziyski started to get more support in attack from Vladimir Nikolov and Todor Aleksiev, as well as from the Bulgarian much-improved serving and blocking. Portugal’s very good defense was not enough to stay in contention and the set closed with a crushing 25-16. The visiting team trailed behind the Southern Europeans at both technical breaks in the third set, but was able to come back from three points down to tie at 22, 23 and 24 only to lose the following two rallies and, thus, the set and the match. Matey Kaziyski topped the best scorers’ chart with 18 points. Valdir Sequeira became Portugal’s most prolific player with 15 points. At the post-game press conference both head coach Juan Diaz and captain Joao Jose stated that it was the more experienced team that finally won the match. “It was difficult in the beginning - we were a little bit nervous. In the third set Portugal improved their play and it was difficult for us to attack, especially in side-out. We made several mistakes, but fortunately we won. For tomorrow I hope that our serve will work better, because without good serving it will be very difficult against stronger opponents,” Bulgaria’s head coach Silvano Prandi said. The Lions’ new captain Vladimir Nikolov was pleased to see that the months of heavy training under Prandi started to give some results and positive feedbacks.
In the second match of the day, the Czech Republic beat Holland 3-1 (23-25, 25-13, 25-23, 25-21). The Dutch team prevailed in the first set, despite some excellent digging demonstrated by the Czechs. Although Peter Blangé’s men were up in the score throughout the set, the ending was dramatic after the Central Europeans tied at 23. Some excellent attacking and especially blocking from Zdenek Hanik’s team made the second set completely one-sided and the Czechs walked over the Dutch with a stunning 25-13. Thanks to David Konecny’s superb attacking in the third set, his team managed to leave their opponents behind through most of the game. This time the Dutch kept the intrigue by tying at 23, but after a fierce ace by captain Ondrej Hudecek, it went the Czechs’ way this time. The fourth set was also kept in equilibrium until the very end when the Czechs persevered to seal this important victory. Czech spiker David Konecny was practically unstoppable for the Dutch block and contributed 25 points to the win, thus becoming the game’s top scorer. Peter Platenik added 19 for the Czechs and Robert Horstink accounted for 15 points on the Dutch side. “Today we played as a real team, we made fewer mistakes and fought harder,” Czech player Peter Platenik stated after the match. “The Dutch team is really good and we were afraid we might lose, but our mentality was very strong during the match” “We played o.k. in the first set; the second was very bad for us. Then the game actually started. The Czech Republic was more determined in the critical points in sets 3 and 4,” Dutch coach Blangé said. “We lost one match, but the tournament is still running and we know what we have to do”.
The first set was relatively even-sided, but after the first technical break Bulgaria took a small lead and did not let go until the end with fantastic attacks from star player Matey Kaziyski, but also with many serving errors. In the second set, Kaziyski started to get more support in attack from Vladimir Nikolov and Todor Aleksiev, as well as from the Bulgarian much-improved serving and blocking. Portugal’s very good defense was not enough to stay in contention and the set closed with a crushing 25-16. The visiting team trailed behind the Southern Europeans at both technical breaks in the third set, but was able to come back from three points down to tie at 22, 23 and 24 only to lose the following two rallies and, thus, the set and the match. Matey Kaziyski topped the best scorers’ chart with 18 points. Valdir Sequeira became Portugal’s most prolific player with 15 points. At the post-game press conference both head coach Juan Diaz and captain Joao Jose stated that it was the more experienced team that finally won the match. “It was difficult in the beginning - we were a little bit nervous. In the third set Portugal improved their play and it was difficult for us to attack, especially in side-out. We made several mistakes, but fortunately we won. For tomorrow I hope that our serve will work better, because without good serving it will be very difficult against stronger opponents,” Bulgaria’s head coach Silvano Prandi said. The Lions’ new captain Vladimir Nikolov was pleased to see that the months of heavy training under Prandi started to give some results and positive feedbacks.
In the second match of the day, the Czech Republic beat Holland 3-1 (23-25, 25-13, 25-23, 25-21). The Dutch team prevailed in the first set, despite some excellent digging demonstrated by the Czechs. Although Peter Blangé’s men were up in the score throughout the set, the ending was dramatic after the Central Europeans tied at 23. Some excellent attacking and especially blocking from Zdenek Hanik’s team made the second set completely one-sided and the Czechs walked over the Dutch with a stunning 25-13. Thanks to David Konecny’s superb attacking in the third set, his team managed to leave their opponents behind through most of the game. This time the Dutch kept the intrigue by tying at 23, but after a fierce ace by captain Ondrej Hudecek, it went the Czechs’ way this time. The fourth set was also kept in equilibrium until the very end when the Czechs persevered to seal this important victory. Czech spiker David Konecny was practically unstoppable for the Dutch block and contributed 25 points to the win, thus becoming the game’s top scorer. Peter Platenik added 19 for the Czechs and Robert Horstink accounted for 15 points on the Dutch side. “Today we played as a real team, we made fewer mistakes and fought harder,” Czech player Peter Platenik stated after the match. “The Dutch team is really good and we were afraid we might lose, but our mentality was very strong during the match” “We played o.k. in the first set; the second was very bad for us. Then the game actually started. The Czech Republic was more determined in the critical points in sets 3 and 4,” Dutch coach Blangé said. “We lost one match, but the tournament is still running and we know what we have to do”.
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