Dirk Westphal of Germany spikes against Chinese Taipei block
Frankfurt am Main, Germany, July 1, 2016 – Germany is the first team that have reached the FIVB World League Group 3 final in Frankfurt/Main. The team of coach Vital Heynen took successfully revenge for the preliminary loss against Chinese Taipei and defeated the Asians in straight sets (25-16, 25-19, 25-22). Best scorer of the game was German outside-spiker Christian Fromm with 17 points.
Germany and Chinese Taipei met today for the second time at the World League following their match-up last Saturday. In Almaty (Kazakhstan), Chinese Taipei won 3-1 with Chen Chien-Chen and Daniel Malesch both scoring 23 points. Their only other competitive encounter this century came at the 2008 World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Düsseldorf, which Germany, then guided by coach Muculescu, won in straight sets. The German team eventually qualified for the Olympic Games in Beijing.
The story of game is quickly told. The hosts from Germany overpowered Chinese Taipei with a strong service right from the beginning of the first set. As a result of this the German Team took an 8-2 advantage till the first technical time-out. The score never changed and ended with a fake by German setter Lukas Kampa (25-16). It was a much closer start in the second set due to the better working defence system of the Asian Team (8-6). As the score table has shown a five point advantage for Germany (20-15), the game was interrupted to solve a problem with the scoresheet, but the team of coach Heynen never missed their focus and went up to a two points set lead (25-16).
1.500 spectators in the Fraport Arena in Frankfurt/Main saw a tight race till the end of the third set. Chinese Taipei improved the reception and delivered a fast show that caused some defence problems on the German side (10-12). The game changer was a better service of Germany after the second technical time-out. Again the score turned to tore the audience from their seats, followed with a strong attack from Dirk Westphal that forced a straight win for his team (25-22).