From left to right: World League Group 3 Finals coaches Ke-Chou Chen (Chinese Taipei), Andrea Giani (Slovenia), Vital Heynen (Germany) and Sotirios Drikos (Greece)
Frankfurt am Main, Germany, June 29, 2016 - Two days before the start of the FIVB World League Group 3 Finals in Frankfurt, the coaches Vital Heynen (Germany), Andrea Giani (Slovenia), Ke-Chou Chen (Chinese Taipei) and Sotirios Drikos (Greece) underlined their aims for an unsurpassable volleyball event.
The pre-event press conference was the kick-off for four exciting games that the teams from Germany, Slovenia, Greece and Chinese Taipei want to deliver from Friday to Saturday to decide the new Group 3 winners. The tournament champions will also claim a ticket for World League Group 2 next year.
“We are the smartest team here and Slovenia and Greece play each other,” Germany coach Heynen said with a cheerful smile, and then added more seriously: “We want to reach the final. A good service will be the key to success against Chinese Taipei. I think Slovenia are the favourites in Frankfurt but everything is possible in one game.”
Chinese Taipei coach Ke-Chou Chen was pleased to be in Frankfurt: “It is the biggest success in our history. My players should enjoy the games and will try to give everything.”
Greece coach Sotirios Drikos said: “We are satisfied that we have reached the finals. The qualification was not easy due to the number of injured players we had. In my opinion, Germany and Slovenia are the favourites but I don’t want to be too pessimistic; there is still a chance we can win.”
Slovenia coach Andrea Giani said: “It is the first time that Slovenia is playing the World League, so we are satisfied that we have reached the finals. Of course we want to advance to the final game but Greece are a good opponent. Although I have a lot of World League experience, it doesn’t help my players to deal with all the critical situations. We have prepared well in the past, which has helped us to celebrate big successes, but I´m not happy with the amount of time we had to get in shape for the World League.”