The German head coach Vital Heynen kept his promise and brought all the stars in Portugal with the intention to secure three wins, which would more or less guarantee tickets to the Final Six tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria, at the beginning of July.
The European Capital Of Culture for 2012 Guimaraes, situated in the Portuguese district Braga, hosted the likes of Argentina, Bulgaria, Germany and the “sailors” in the third week of actions in Pool D.
While the Bundesteam was focused on staying on top of the ranking both before and after the weekend in Guimaraes, the local team was still in quest of their first win in the 2012 World League. Their head coach Flavio Gulinelli carried on giving a chance to his young players by barely making any changes in the squad he had picked up for the Frankfurt am Main and Almirante Brown tournaments previously, with the exception that the experienced outside hitter Flavio Cruz was appearing for the first time this summer with the national jersey. In the Bulgarian camp there were few surprises as the newly appointed head coach Nayden Naydenov travelled with the same players who arrived in Guimaraes from Argentina. However, there was news about team rosters and it came from the “gauchos”. Javier Weber gave some rest to the key players Luciano De Cecco, Rodrigo Quiroga, Facundo Conte, Federico Pereyra, Pablo Crer, Sebastian Sole and the libero Alexis Gonzalez. With a whole new team full of future stars and sons of former volleyball legends, such as Ivan Castellani and Nicolas Uriarte, to name a few, Argentina was hoping to keep the pressure on the favourites.
Despite the relatively low attendance in the sports hall, partially due to the football fever going on in Portugal right now, Friday offered two entertaining games. In the opener the two young teams of Bulgaria and Argentina battled in five sets and alternated ups and downs. In the end the 29 points of the World League second highest scorer in 2012 Tsvetan Sokolov and the serves of Todor Skrimov determined the winner and gave Bulgaria two points. In the other game Germany proved too strong for Portugal and demolished the “sailors” in three straight sets.
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Guimaraes, Day 1:
Bulgaria – Argentina 3-2 (22-25, 25-11, 26-24, 17-25, 15-11)
Germany – Portugal 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-21)
Fast straight victories marked the start of the weekend. Gyorgy Grozer appeared in the German squad again after a short absence and his presence this time was immediately felt as he was the top scorer of the match with 19 points. Argentina, on the other side, could not oppose in any way to the current Pool D leader, the efforts of Pablo Bengolea, who enjoyed his international debut in Guimaraes, and his 11 points were too little even for a consolidation set. Germany extended their dominance over Argentina for a third weekend in a row and remained full of concentration before the vital clash against Bulgaria on Sunday.
Guimaraes, Day 2:
Germany – Argentina 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-18)
Bulgaria – Portugal 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-22)
In the pinnacle of the weekend Vital Heynen used all his weapons to break the Bulgarian curse, which execrated his “mannschaft” in the last month. Jochen Schoeps started on the opposite position instead of the “bomber” Grozer, but the latter entered the court several times as well. The Bulgarians lacked some diversity in tactics, mainly in blocking, and looked tired compared to their predatory opponents. This was immediately used by Schoeps, whose clever attacks caused a lot of problems for the Bulgarian receivers. It was only in the third set when Tsvetan Sokolov erupted and led his teammates to a fourth part, which, however, was the last one in the game as Germany closed it by 25-22. Sokolov equalized the 2012 World League record of Gavin Schmitt (Canada) and Mikko Oivanen (Finland) with his 33 points according to the official statistics, but Germany took all the points and almost earned their right to play in the Final Six tournament, eagerly trying to reach the country’s best-ever finish in the tournament’s history.
After the days spent away from the volleyball court and the disappointing start in Guimaraes, Flavio Cruz, Portugal’s captain this week, reminded of his best actions as he contributed 12 points in the second game of the day. The versatile outside hitter Alexandre Ferreira and the opposite Valdir Sequeira also enjoyed a good evening against the young Argentinians, but Portugal failed again to win at least their first point in the tournament. Argentina played better than their hosts and led by Cristian Poglajen, who shows Weber that he has his place in the forthcoming London Olympics, took all the points by a 3-1 win.
Guimaraes, Day 3:
Germany – Bulgaria 3-1 (25-20, 28-26, 22-25, 25-22)
Argentina – Portugal 3-1 (25-18, 25-18, 24-26, 25-21)
Current ranking:
Germany 22, Bulgaria 16, Argentina 16, Portugal 0
Pictures: FIVB