The second week of competitions in the Men’s VNL has ended. In Rotterdam, Ferdinando De Giorgi’s Azzurri won the first three of the four matches against Iran, China, Serbia and lost against Poland. They are seventh with 5 total victories, the first eight will play the quarterfinals in Gdansk (Pol). Gianluca Galassi started in three matches scoring 8 points (2 blocks, 37.5% in attack, 3 defenses). In the other tournament in Orleans (Fra) Japan was the protagonist with Ran Takahashi who is still unbeaten in the event, the Japanese spiker was the author of four exemplary performances that bring him with 137 points to third place as the best scorer of the whole event (60 .4% in attack, 26.4% in reception, 7 blocks, 8 aces and 62 defenses); these are the partials for this week: Iran (18, 51.7%), Serbia (14, 68.4%), Bulgaria (21, 61.3%, 2 aces) and France (32, 72.5%, 2 walls). Also involved are Brazil, with little used Fernando Kreling, who is third in the standings with 6 wins, France without Ibrahim Lawani, tenth with 3 wins and Canada, thirteenth with two wins. Stephen Maar reaches 103 total points (40.5% in attack, 28.6% in reception, 9 blocks, 7 aces and 40 defenses) these are his partials (17, ne, 16, 14); Arthur Szwarc is increasingly used with his 80 points (50.8% in attack, 5 blocks, 9 aces and 19 defenses) in individual games (17 with 4 aces, 11, 15, 13), Eric Loeppky is still not used.
The European League ended with the finals in Zadar won by Turkey 3-2 over Ukraine. Petar Visic’s Croatia hosts (who entered the semifinals) finished in third place, overcoming the Czech Republic 3-0 after losing the semifinal with Ukraine 3-1.
The third week of competitions in the women’s VNL kicks off tomorrow with the tournaments in Suwon in South Korea and Bangkok in Thailand. CT Davide Mazzanti has called up the captain Myriam Sylla, Beatrice Parrocchiale and Adhuoljok Malual, the goal is to detach the pass for the Finals in Arlington (USA), they will face Brazil, Canada, Croatia and Japan; there will also be Nika Daalderop’s Netherlands. In the other tournament in South Korea there will be the Dominican Republic of Brenda Castillo and the United States of Dane Rettke and Kara Bajema.
