A true volleyball war took place in Poland. We could see real battles between young team of Poland and reigning Olympic champions USA.
In these two games we saw everything which makes this sport so unique: powerful spikes, stunning aces, counterattacks and emotions in every single action. The first match was a great debut of coach Andrea Anastasi who showed that only after couple of weeks with his new team he managed to create a good atmosphere and the spirit of the warrior. Bartosz Kurek and Zbigniew Bartman were fighting for every ball like it was a matter of life and death. Michał Ruciak showed excellent and deadly accurate serve while irritated and hyper-ambitious American top-stars William Priddy and Clayton Stanley were doing their best to show the power of their volleyball Empire.
Polish team, supported by the enthusiastic crown in Atlas Arena, Łódź was taking the opportunity of every little mistake of their rivals and didn’t show any respect to the winners from Beijing and without problems won in straight sets.
Americans took their revenge the day after and I could name that match as the Empire strikes back. Bartman was showing all his skills and will to fight but Polish team was a victim of Clayton Stanley and William Priddy killer instinct. They perfectly knew when, where and how to spike and team of coach Alan Knipe won the first two sets easily. The third set was a true volleyball masterpiece. Poland played as if they didn’t remember the result of the previous sets and USA was playing for life. Champions of Europe finally didn’t resist the fire and lost but losing 35-37 is no reason for shame. Both teams showed already some of their best skills and created an awesome show. All I can say about those two matches, if we had more volleyball games like this than volleyball would be the most popular team sport in the world!
In the first game between Puerto Rico and Brazil the legendary Giba and his teammates simply outclassed their rivals, didn’t allowing them to spread their wings. Puerto Rico was simply pushed by the canarinhos and didn’t resist the pressure committing 22 errors and in this way almost ‘giving’ the whole set to their competitors. In the second match hosts managed to play better, especially in serve but still it was not enough to overcome the titled rival. It’s very simple, if you want to win over Brazil, you have to leave your heart on the court and show all the best skills.
Guys of coach Bernardo Rezende didn’t play their best, it was easy to see they still need to improve a lot of things but what was the key to success it was the mentality of a winner and team-spirit. When Giba wasn’t having his best day in the second game, Joao Bravo took the leader role and leaded his team to another victory. After two easy victories Brazil became the leader of the pool A and as I know these guys, they’ll do their best to keep the rank so.
