Coaches and captains participate the pre-match press conference in Kunshan
Kunshan, China, June 15, 2017- A press conference was held in Kunshan Tonino Lamborghini City Centre Hotel on Thursday, as hosts China, Australia, Japan and Turkey prepare for action in FIVB Volleyball World League Pool G2.
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Latest VideosFacebookTwitterInstagramMedia Guides“We have prepared well so far. The team's confidence is really good. It is not easy, but we have to try to advance into the final,” said Japan captain Hideomi Fukatsu.
“I am satisfied with last week's three games,” Japan head coach Yuichi Nakagaichi said. “This weekend is important for us if we want to go to the finals, and also for Australia. It will be a tough weekend, because our players are a little bit tired. I hope we can win, but winning is not our final goal - our goal is getting better, and preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.”
Turkey captain Arslan Eksi said: “We have six games, the first three at home we played well, but in Japan we have so many problems. We are OK now in China, we have good conditions and will try our best. We will play China in the first game here - it is not easy for us, but we will try to win three games here and then we have to wait on the other teams' results.”
Turkey coach Joshko Milenkoski said: “I am happy to be here. We got a good position after the first week, but in Japan we lost our position. We will try to go to Australia. We have injuries in our team, some of our best players are not here, but it is also a chance for the young players and a good preparation for the next European Championships.”
Australia assistant coach Luke Reynolds said: “I would like to thank China here. It is a lovely country, and the hotels are good. We will play two traditional Asian teams, China and Japan. We will play Turkey, they have a great league. We learned a lot in the first week, and we built on that.”
China captain Weijun Zhong said: “It is a good thing to be back in China. China played well in the first week - we want to improve a lot under the new coach. We didn't play well in the second week - part of the reason is that our new coach wants to study young players. I hope we can play well in China with high spirits.”
China coach Raul Lozano said: “This is our first time in China this season. The World League is a good lesson for all teams. In the last two weeks, we played well in some games and not in others. We tried many players and different squads. We now have only two injured players so I hope we can get better results at home.”