Press conference after Brazil's second victory over Australia this weekend
Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, June 7, 2015 - Brazil ended their weekend with a second victory over FIVB Volleyball World League Pool A opponents Australia. The nine-time World League champions won 3-0 (31-29, 25-19, 25-19) with wing spiker Ricardo Lucarelli claiming a match-high 20 points. Thomas Edgar scored 13 and was the best scorer for the Volleyroos.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Australia captain Edgar said Team Australia will prize the experience of the two matches played by his team in Brazil.
“It’s been a very rich weekend for our team. Brazil is the benchmark for volleyball; they are where we want to be. Over a decade they have built such a great culture of winning. We want to be at the top level and be challenging the top level teams. We have a lot to learn and we want to keep developing in the World League,” he said.
Australia’s coach Roberto Santilli agreed with his captain: “We played the first set at the same level as we did on Friday. But then we made some silly mistakes. But we have so many young players and it is not suprising to make these errors. We were at the same level as Brazil, but they started to serve much better and their block started to work. But, for the bright side, the experience during this week was really rich. Some of the players thought that they could never play against Brazil, now they know they can. It was a big step for us.”
Brazil captain Murilo did not play this Sunday, but spoke about his team's performances in Group 1.
“I believe the United States are the team that is playing most consistently. They are keeping up a good standard of play. Besides them, Poland are also a very strong team. I did not have time to watch many of their matches, but the same team that were world champions last season are a very strong group. In our pool, I believe that perhaps Australia are still one level below, but all games are tough, especially when we get to the next stage.”
Brazil coach Roberley “Rubinho” Leonaldo liked the way his players performed on court: “I think our setting was good. Our reception went well, Raphael played a good game, Wallace worked well a bit far from the net, with the middle blockers in good shape too. This was a request from Bernardo [Rezende]. The blockers played well and the system as a whole worked great. The team’s profile on court was firm - we have consistently maintained the same high volume attack. The team managed to be effective. We played well and I believe that the balance of these four games in Brazil is very positive, especially in terms of the playing time given to our athletes.”