The captains of the FIVB Volleyball World League Group 2 Finals Four teams (from left to right) - Japan's Hideomi Fukatsu, Australia's Paul Carroll, the Netherlands' Jasper Diefenbach and Slovenia's Tine Urnaut
Gold Coast, Australia, June 23, 2017 – Slovenia captain Tine Urnaut said his team had not yet reached full potential as Australia, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Japan prepare for action in the FIVB Volleyball World League Group 2 Finals in Gold Coast, Australia on Saturday and Sunday.
“We have yet to see the strengths of our team over the other teams,” Urnaut said in the press conference on Friday. “We want to improve our game every day. We still have a lot of potential that we haven’t reached so far in this competition. So we are focusing on every aspect of the game.”
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Slovenia reached the Final Four with a top-class performance of eight wins and one loss in the preliminary round. The European squad had a sensational debut when they won last year’s Group 3 Finals and they are on the hunt for another title at Gold Coast.
“We are satisfied to be here because we are a new national team,” Slovenia coach Slobodan Kovac said. “It is our first time to play in Group 2, so we want to play better and get a good result.”
Urnaut said the team's service game would be key to implementing good defence against their opponents. However, he believes that there is no time to relax at this stage, as the tournament progresses and the contenders are also going to step up on Saturday.
“If we serve well, then we will have a good block-defence system,” Urnaut said. “We’ve had some good results with this system during the group stage, but the Final Four is a totally different tournament. We have to start over.”
Slovenia are preparing intensely for their match-up with the other European squad in the Final Four, the Netherlands, in the first semifinal match at 17:10 local time on Saturday. The two squads faced each other in the 2015 European Championship playoffs, where Slovenia won in straight sets.
“After the first weekend we didn’t expect to be here ,” Netherlands coach Gido Vermeulen said. “We changed the team a little bit and made it younger. I’m happy that the young players were able to perform at this level. We are looking forward to the game against Slovenia. They are the second (best) team in the last European Championship. We want to see tomorrow where we are after two years.”
The Netherlands came in second after the preliminary round with seven wins and two losses, and will try to use their six-match winning streak to power their Final Four campaign.
“We are happy to be here because we started very badly,” Vermeulen added.
Netherlands captain Jasper Diefenbach had a very tough job leading the squad to the Final Four, especially in reference to previous achievements of the Dutch national men’s team. The Netherlands' last big achievement at world level was a gold medal finish at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.
“It’s hard to compare this team to the team that became Olympic champions in 1996,” Diefenbach said. “It’s hard to replicate that result, but I don’t get pressure from that because I think we are a completely different group. I’m proud to be captain of this really great team. We’re going to do our best tomorrow and we’ll see where it gets us here in this tournament.”
One of the Netherlands’ go-to persons is Wouter Ter Maat, who has been solid in scoring throughout the tournament. His outstanding scoring game will be vital for the progress of the team in the Final Four.
Meanwhile, hosts Australia are back in the Group 2 Final Four and are hoping that their previous experience in Sydney 2015 and their recent performance in the preliminary round will reflect in their second home stint in the Final Four at Gold Coast.
“Our goal is to win,” Australia captain Paul Carroll said. “We are pretty good. We ran through the group stages without having to worry about qualifying ourselves, but we were able to concentrate on the volleyball we wanted to play. We got a lot of guys playing and we were able to qualify ourselves anyway. We got our confidence out of that.
“Being at home gives us the advantage of being comfortable as our home fans are behind us. We were able to use that two years ago in Sydney, when we beat the Netherlands and France. So our goal is to replicate that performance.”
Australia coach Mark Lebedew is interested in finding out how his team will perform against Japan in the second semifinal match – their third meeting in Group 2 – on Saturday at 19:40 local time. He directed Australia to six victories in nine matches in the preliminary round.
“It’s going to be a very special day for me tomorrow, but it’s not about me or anybody in particular, it’s about the team and the work we’ve been doing in six or seven weeks now,” Lebedew said. “It’s about the improvements we’ve made, the team spirit, the team unity and the style that we’re going to do over this time. And when it comes to the game tomorrow, all that we’re going to think about is to be able to replicate what we’ve been doing in the last two months.”
Carroll believes the Australian side will have to rely on their own strengths against the defence-driven Japanese side.
“In modern volleyball, we don’t know what the other side is going to do,” he said. “You stop what you can stop, and we just have to play against Japan. We are a pretty physical team and it could be frustrating to play against Japan because they defend so many balls. We just have to mentally stick in the game.”
The Australian lefty has been doing just that and is expected to lead his team again in the Final Four with power plays.
Japan, on the other hand, are pleased to have reached this stage, but will now turn their focus on winning. The Asian powerhouse won five matches in the preliminary round and will not go down without a fight in the semifinal match against Australia.
“All I can say is just have fun,” said Japan coach Yuichi Nakagaichi on his refreshing approach on the Final Four. “Volleyball is always like this. We just have to focus on how we can win.”
The Japanese journey in the World League has been fruitful and being in the Final Four is an important step towards their campaign for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
“I am happy to be in the Final Four because this kind of result has a great effect for the team towards Tokyo 2020,” Japan captain Hideomi Fukatsu said. “Our goal here is to become champions and we have to make an effort on Saturday and Sunday to achieve this goal.”
Japan will count on their best hitters Yuki Ishikawa and Masahiro Yanagida, and rising star Issei Otake to run their offence. Yanagida, in particular, has been pivotal to Japan’s qualification to the Final Four and led them in spiking and serving. His performance will be vital to make it to the top of Group 2.