US outside hitter Thomas Jaeschke makes a dig against Bulgaria
Dallas, USA, July 1, 2016 - USA managed to add another win to their tally in FIVB Volleyball World League 2016 Group 1. In front of the home crowd in Dallas, the Americans mastered a 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 27-25, 25-21) victory over Bulgaria.
John Speraw, coach of USA: "Bulgaria is typically a really good serving team, so we were just hoping to pass the ball and improve our offense. There were certainly times when we did that, but other times when we didn’t and it gave them really big runs, so I was pleased that we were poised enough to weather those runs and come back and win a couple of those sets. I knew Bulgaria were much better than their overall record, and they have some great young guys who are going to be great. I thought they would challenge us more than some people realize because of their current record."
Plamen Konstantinov, coach of Bulgaria: "It was a good match, but maybe the more experienced team won. At the closing point of the set, we always make more mistakes and in a match like this it’s the ones who make the fewer mistakes who win. I believe that we need more experience and look away, in front for the future."
David Lee, captain of USA: "I felt like playing at home. The energy wasn’t quite there and we should have been a little bit more fired up. We got down almost every set, and our coaches told us to fight through these moments, and if we stuck to our plan we would come out ahead in the end. I think the biggest difference was Reid Priddy. Our oldest veteran player is just stealing the show from our young guys. He’s 38 and playing like he’s 28. He was really impressive tonight and I felt like he was the man of the match."
Viktor Yosifov, captain of Bulgaria: "We started really well at the beginning of the sets, but then at the end we lost our concentration and that was decisive. We need to improve our game, we need to work more."