Almaty, Kazakhstan, June 23, 2016 – FIVB Volleyball World League week two will see Pool F3 hosts Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei, and Spain aim to join Germany at the Group 3 Finals in Frankfurt from July 1-3. Coaches and captains participated in the press conference at the Baluan Sholak Sports Palace Press Center on Thursday.
Rafail Gilyazutdinov, coach of Kazakhstan: “We welcome all the teams to Kazakhstan and we wish you all the best in the coming matches. We have to be mentally very strong in this round. If we show any sign of weakness then we will lose our games.”
Alexandr Stolnikov, captain of Kazakhstan: “We are looking forward to this round of matches and we wish everyone good luck.”
Ke-Chou Chen, coach of Chinese Taipei: “This is our first time to go to Kazakhstan. This team is also playing in the World League for the first time. I just hope my players enjoy every match this weekend.”
Chien-Chen Chen, captain of Chinese Taipei: “We are very happy to be here and we will do our best. Our team is ready to face the Kazakhstan team again. The last time we lost. This week we have an opportunity to win.”
Vital Heynen, coach of Germany: “Maybe the travel has made us tired but we will try to win. It will not be easy.”
Dirk Westphal, captain of Germany: “It is really important for us to play well in the three games we have here to get in shape for the Final Four. We hope we can be really successful this weekend. We are hosting the Final Four. We would like to go to Group 2 and then hopefully soon enough to the First Group. The World League is very important for all the players to improve their level and their performances and it is always better to compete against strong teams so we can learn the most.”
Fernando Muñoz, coach of Spain: “We are very happy to return to Kazakhstan to play in this group of World League. I hope we will play very well this weekend. We want to focus on our game tomorrow (against Chinese Taipei) and we want to do well. We have a good opportunity for the team to show the best of themselves in a high level of competition.”
Jorge Fernandez, captain of Spain: “We are happy to play here in Kazakhstan. Last week was a good one for us and I hope this week will be the same. It’s difficult to travel for long hours with the time difference as well. Now, we have a chance to recover and to train. Today we did well, and tomorrow we will do even better.”