Poland and Serbia claimed easy victories in straight sets. Germany started the world championship rather disappointing. Big surprise: Serbia lost today with Canada.
Poland started their participation in world championship with an easy victory over Canada. Team of coach Daniel Castellani begun a game a little bit too nervous but soon after managed to control their emotions and showed a really good volleyball. Poland, a reigning champions of Europe and silver medalists from the previous world championship, are expected to bring some medal from Italy and they confirmed this might happen. A mix of young, talented players like Bartosz Kurek and Piotr Nowakowski and experienced high-class players like Paweł Zagumny and Piotr Gruszka was working well against ambitious Canadians. Guys of coach Glenn Hoag didn’t feel any respect for their renowned competitors and fought for every single point in the first two sets and were impressive in defense. However in the last, third set Poland was apparently a better team in every way of art of volleyball and crushed their rivals by winning (25-13). It was just the first but very important step for Piotr Gruszka and his teammates on the way to medal. Germany and Serbia will soon verify the dreams of Polish team and we might expect some interesting games. What is more, 4000 of Polish fans arrived in Trieste to support their team which might give some psychological advantage to the guys of coach Daniel Castellani.
Poland-Canada 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-13)
Team squads:
Poland: Nowakowski, Możdżonek, Zagumny, Winiarski, Kurek, Gruszka, Ignaczak (libero) and Wlazły Łomacz, Czarnowski
Canada: Mainville, Howatson, Siman, Winters, Van Lankvelt, Schmidt, Lewis (libero) and Schneider, Soonas, Kamiński
Serbia had no problem to beat Germany in straight sets. The match was expected to be a tough and interesting game however team of coach Igor Kolakovic was visibly better than Germans in every single way. Nikola Grbic and Ivan Miljkovic who got back to the national team after some break showed their amazing skills. Miljkovic and Bojan Janic were deadly dangerous to their competitors and were the top-scorers. Germans who were said to be one of the dark horses of the world championship had serious problems in both attack and defense and even the star of Gyorgy Grozer didn’t shine as usual. In the last set of the match guys of coach Raul Lozano lost their concentration and committed way too many errors which resulted in the very bad performance and knock-out by Serbia (13-25). Miljkovic and his teammates proved that they are one of the favorites to win the crown however the most important game for them at this stage of the tournament will be the match against Poland, also one of the strongest teams playing in Italy.
Germany-Serbia 0-3 (21-25, 21-25, 13-25)
Team squads:
Germany: Schwarz (5), Bohme (4), Kromm (11), Gunthor (2), Steuerwald, Grozer (14), Tille (libero) oraz Tischer (1), Andrae (4), Kaliberda, Bauer and Schops
Serbia: Kovacevic (9), Janic (16), Grbic (2), Miljkovic (13), Stankovic (7), Podrascanin (9), Rosic (libero) and Terzic