USA put themselves in a difficult situation, according to the captain David Lee
Krakow, Poland, July 14, 2016 – Good serving and effective counter-attacks were the key elements for Italy's succes over USA 3-1 (25-22, 27-25, 26-28, 25-21) keeping them in the fight for the semifinals of the World League Final Six in Krakow.
John Speraw, coach of USA: We are disappointed, Italy played a lot better than when we met in Rome. I expected it, because they are a great team. We looked like a team that has not played for last few weeks. We weren't sharp. There were too many opportunities we had when we should have passed or set the ball better when we had a chance to do it. When Zaytsev and Juantorena swing on a high ball we were helpless. We had chances to take the ball, but we didn’t take care of it.
Gianlorenzo Blengini, coach of Italy: First of all we are very happy with the result, especially after a not so great match against Brazil, when we played without confidence. Result is always important, and so was our reaction today. We were better in serve and attack. Maybe in not in all aspects of attack we were good, but in counter attack we did really well and clinched the points there. We need to work on another elements, but today’s result was really positive.
David Lee, captain of USA: We put ourselves in a difficult situation. We are disappointed, we didn’t start well, the first 16 points were really weak. I think we had a chance to win second and fourth set, but we lost where we could take easy points. We need to fix it before tomorrow and now we need a 3-1 or 3-0 victory in the match against Brazil, the best team in our group at this moment.
Emanuele Birarelli, captain of Italy: We are happy with this victory, we were much better than yesterday and it’s very important for us after the game against Brazil. We had more energy than yesterday and celebrated after every point. It was visible that we wanted to win.
Aaron Russell, USA: Italian team served really strong today that caused us some problems in reception. Additionally they were able to bring our passes of the net what helped them to block a lot of balls. They blocked pretty well and they also played efficient in defence. I think in the end we weren’t as focused as we should have been and we made too many mistakes.