Krakow, Poland, July 4, 2015 – Poland lost to USA 1-3 (20-25, 21-25, 25-22, 23-25) in their last match of the World League’s Intercontinental Round. This only means that there will be no change at the top of Pool B, as both sides have already qualified to the Final Six in Rio.
Michał Kubiak, team captain of Poland: We didn’t want this match to look like this, but it seems that after yesterday’s game we have lost some steam and even though we told ourselves that we want to win, our thoughts were already in Rio. We did fight, but the game, especially in the first two sets, was not going as we wished. It is a pity that in the fourth set we couldn’t win despite having quite an advantage in points. It isn’t the first time this happens during this World League, so it is definitely something to work on. See you in Rio! I hope you will watch our games and support us.
David Lee, team captain of USA: We are happy to be victorious going into the World League finals, especially for the fact that we used some players, who hadn’t played for the past few weeks. We have guys who are hungry to compete and they showed how good they are.
Stephane Antiga, head coach of Poland: Every loss is of course difficult. I just want to say that I really wanted to win. Every time we play in Poland, every one of us wants to win. The atmosphere is so fantastic that everyone wants to show that they deserve to be here. Just like USA, our team looked a bit different today, as we decided to try new things, different variations of the game. USA gave us a lot of trouble with their very good performance on the left side of the attack – both their receivers played very well. I can only congratulate my colleague right here.
John Speraw, head coach of USA: Like coach Antiga mentioned, both teams qualified for Rio, so this was an opportunity to try some new things. We had an opportunity to play a number of players, who haven’t played a single point in this World League, but they have been contributing every day in the practice – they’ve been working incredibly hard. I’m very happy and proud of them and their play tonight. In particular, I’my happy with how Kawika Shoji ran the offense, how Thomas Jaeschke played – I thought he had an excellent level match and obviously Paul Lotman came off the bench and played well to help us finish.