Another FIVB World League weekend lies ahead of us. And all the volleyball fans are expecting great battles between the best teams in the world.

 

Of course, most of us follow the situation in Pool A, which is the “strongest one”. Let’s take a look over what is happening in Reno – a gambling town, where home country USA will meet on the court Bulgaria.

The teams of USA and Bulgaria will most probably play in front of a half-empty sports hall. As already said, Reno is best known for its gamble possibilities, not for its volleyball. So, people there are not used to enjoy the game and our sources are reported to say that the sports hall will be visited mostly by young volleyball players, who by this time of the year are having their own tournaments in the state of Nevada (National Junior Championship).

Nevertheless, we are all sure that USA and Bulgaria will present us good style and high quality of the game in many components.

Is there an underdog in these games or everything is possible?

Bulgaria have already achieved four consecutive wins – two against France ( 3-2 and 3-0) and two against Argentina ( 3-0 and 3-1). The other team which is still unbeaten in FIVB World League is the team of Brazil. At the same time, USA faced some problems in their opening game against Argentina, while losing 1-3. On the very next day (08.06) the players of John Speraw-the U.S. coach, beat Argentina with the same result 3-1. USA had no problems with France on their second volleyball weekend and took the wins in both games with 3-0 and 3-2.

The head coach of USA – John Speraw is expecting a very tough game. Speraw did not forget to emphasize on the fact that the Bulgarians are in a very good physical shape.

The big star of the USA team – Matt Anderson, already have warned his team after the last training that Bulgaria is an excellent and a very good playing team, where the team spirit is on a very high level. Matt thinks that the games against the Bulgarian Lions will be very hard and the wins will be very prestigious.

What is the mood in the Bulgarian team?

The Bulgarians are ready to struggle for the win. The good news for the head coach Camillo Placi is that Todor Skrimov is already in a good sports shape. The Italian specialist will most probably trust in Skrimov and Todor will start as a titular in both games.

Placi won’t be changing the main scheme as it goes for the titular team – it is expected that Bulgaria will use its best players for titulars – Tsvetan Sokolov, Viktor Yosifov, Georgi Bratoev, Svetoslav Gotsev, captain Todor Alexiev and libero Teodor Salparov.

The Bulgarians also have another stimulus for wanting the win. The leader of the Bulgarian group- the well known ex-volleyball star- Liubo Ganev, promised to the boys that they will visit Las Vegas when they’re having their free day, if they make it against the Americans, reported the Bulgarian newspaper “Trud”.

“Yes, there are some casinos in Reno, but the greatest ones are in Las Vegas. If the boys beat USA, we will go to the city. It’s only 600kms away.” …

Well, it all depends on the Bulgarians now if they want to smell the spirit of the gambling.

And we ? We- supporters and journalists, will be expecting the big games between two big teams. For sure, the volleyball show in Reno is about to begin soon.