The coaches of Dominican Republic, Serbia, Japan, Peru, Russia and Korea at the press conference for the second round of the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup in Sendai.
Sendai, Japan, August 29, 2015 – The coaches of Dominican Republic, Japan, Korea, Peru, Russia and Serbia gathered in a press conference for the second round of the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Cup, which will be held from August 30 to September 1 at the Sendai City Gymnasium.
The coaches shared their thoughts on the upcoming round and how they are preparing for the tough competition ahead.
“Our condition is very good,” Dominican Republic coach Marcos Kwiek said. “We have recovered from the first round in Tokyo. We have three important matches coming up and we are hoping we can still get the ticket to the Olympics.”
The Dominican Republic have a 3-2 win-loss card but achieved a memorable feat in the first round by challenging the hosts to a five-set thriller. The Dominicans somehow left a strong mark on Thursday when they levelled up on defence against the defence-oriented Japanese squad. For Peru, after winning their opening match against Algeria, the team encountered a losing slump but their Italian coach Mauro Marasciulo hopes to overcome this difficulty by the final round.
“It will be difficult for us in this round as we are missing two of our main players,” coach Marasciulo said. “We hope to play better in the next round against teams more at our level.”
Korea coach Lee Jungchul also shared the same predicament as coach Marasciulo as some members of his team do not have the experience yet to play against the best teams, but he is optimistic that they will go all out in the competition.
“We had some tough matches in Matsumoto,” said coach Lee. “It will be difficult for us again in Sendai. We have young players, but we always strive to play our best. European and Asian teams present different challenges. The European teams are tall and Asian teams are technically strong. We have prepared for both in that way.”
Four of the top six teams after the first round are in Sendai and will be tested as to which team will emerge on top as the competition gets tougher each round.
“I am satisfied with our play in the first round against two of the best teams in the world – China and USA,” Serbia coach Zoran Terzic said. “It will be difficult for us here as we play against three tough teams such as the Dominican Republic, Russia and Japan. We prepare differently when we play against Russia or Japan because they play high-level volleyball differently too.”
Russia topped the overall rankings after the first round with a 5-0 win record but the other teams will certainly aim to beat them.
“We always do our best for good results,” Russia coach Yury Marichev said. “We will try to show beautiful volleyball and make the people of Sendai happy.”
Japan landed in third spot after a tough first round, where they played in both five-set matches in Tokyo, but in Sendai, coach Masayoshi Manabe expressed a meaningful message to the people of the city.
“The condition of our team is good after the first round,” coach Manabe said. “Four years ago, we could not play here (in Sendai) because of the earthquake, so we will do our best this time to play well for the people of Sendai.”