The coaches and captains of Australia, Belgium, Italy and USA during the press conference in Rome
Rome, Italy, June 23, 2016 - The coaches and captains of Australia, Belgium, Italy, and USA spoke about the matches they are due to play in FIVB Volleyball World League Pool E1 at a press conference in Rome. The matches will be played at PalaLottomatica from Friday to Sunday, June 24 to 26.
Grigory Sukochev, captain of Australia: “We are very happy to stay here in Rome for this second weekend; we expect a great audience and a good result for us. Our impressions are similar to those of the last weekend, because we are playing against the best volleyball teams in the world and we hope to improve our results”.
Roberto Santilli, coach of Australia: “I’m so glad to stay here in Rome that yesterday I brought the guys to Trastavere to have dinner and I think they enjoyed it. We are considered a “Cinderella” in this competition because we couldn’t present our best team but anyway we try to do our best with valid Under-23 athletes; we are often the youngest team in the competitions but we are used to it. One day we will be able to line up a more competitive team.”
Sam Deroo, captain of Belgium: “We will play our first match against USA and it will be a difficult match because we have already played with them and lost and we know what the problems are. It will be a hard match against Italy too that we will face in the weekend, our hope is to play always better.”
Dominique Baeyens, coach of Belgium: “I am happy to be in Italy because we worked hard over the last years to build one of the most competitive teams in World League. The opponents are very strong but our objective is to win, improving our results.”
Gianlorenzo Blengini, coach of Italy: “Thank you to the organizers and welcome to the teams we’ll be meeting on the court this weekend. It is always a great thrill for us to play in Italy. You never get used to the emotion of representing your own country in your country. The team just recently reunited, and it’s coming from a very hard phase. Therefore every one of these matches will be a chance to move forward and aim for our goal: the Olympic Games. It is so important to improve our game while managing to preserve those of our players that still need to solve a few issues. We still need to fix a couple of things regarding the team dynamics.”
Emanuele Birarelli, captain of Italy: “Playing in Rome is always so special. Having the chance to play in Foro Italico was really amazing, and so will be this year. It is very important to us to qualify for the Final Six. The goal is to win all the matches of this tournament, trusting in the support of our fans here at home. Our physical shape will be optimal in the next weeks, but this is the best training for the Olympics we can get."
David Lee, captain of USA: “It’s a great pleasure to be in Rome. Yesterday we spent the day as tourists in the city as we visited the Trevi fountain. Now we are focused on reaching the Final Six. We’ll concentrate on these matches and on overcoming the obstacles that await us.”
Speraw John, coach of USA: “I’m very happy to stay in Rome. It’s an important technical challenge for the players who have been engaged all season. The objective is to let the team play, to make it a close group, match after match.”