Dutch coach Gido Vermeulen was delighted by his team
Almere, Netherlands, 13 June, 2015 – Netherlands coach Gido Vermeulen was delighted to see his side bounce back from defeat against Belgium to beat Finland 3-0 (25-20, 25-14. 25-18) in the World League on Saturday.
“The 3-0 loss against Belgium was hurtful," said Vermeulen. "Today we reacted in the best way possible, by playing a great game. Our service-block strategy worked out excellent today, and also in sideout we had no problems.
"The connection between setter Nimir Abdelaziz and opposite Kay van Dijk is very strong at the moment. As a team we played volleyball which is worth looking at. Hopefully we can repeat this performance tomorrow.”
Netherlands captain Nimir Abdelaziz added: “We trained very hard this week to take revenge for the loss last week against Belgium. Today we played very strong. We kept pressure on Finland the whole match, and gave them no chance. If we’re playing this well, we can be unstoppable. It is up to us to maintain this level of play in the following matches.”
Finland coach Tuomas Sammelvuo said: “Today The Netherlands was clearly better in service, block and defence. We were facing big blocks, and we were not able to come up with the proper solutions. Holland was just better in every part of the game. Tomorrow I want to see determination from my players to perform better.”
Finnish captain Antti Siltala said: “We were struggling with every part of our game today. Besides that we were not passionate enough to fight back into the match. I have to say The Netherlands played a great match, especially in service, block and defence. Tomorrow we’ll have to show much more aggression in our actions. Hopefully we can change our game.”