FIVB, Volleyball, Women's World Championship, Verona
Verona, Italy, September 22, 2014 - Coaches of Kazakhstan, USA, Russia, the Netherlands, Mexico and Thailand spoke ahead of the start of the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship at the press conference after the technical meeting at Parc Hotel Paradiso e Golf Resort in Verona on Monday.
Kazakhstan coach Oleksandr Gutor: "There are very hospitable people here and we are thankful for that. We tested our preparation at the Asian Cup that ended a few days ago. Our goal here is to play our very best in all the upcoming matches."
USA coach Karch Kiraly: "I want to thank the Italian volleyball federation and the local organisers. We saw a great spectacle in Poland at the men's World Championship and we expect much the same here. It's great for volleyball to have such wonderful organisation. We are excited to be here."
On Kiraly playing a match at Arena di Verona against Soviet Union on May 23 1988: "Yesterday I got a wonderful gift of a DVD of that match and I watched a little bit. There were some wonderful memories."
On the Kazakhstan team: "I would imagine that all the coaches have looked at video of all the opponents. We looked at Kazakhstan and they play a little different style to other teams in the world. It's unconventional and we have to adapt."
Russia coach Yury Marichev: "The major goal is to play good volleyball. The coach has insisted on this. Regardless of the team we have to play well. We know the teams who have travelled to Italy are the strongest in the world so we want to play strong against them."
“Among all, Russia are probably those who know Kazakhstan the best because of the closeness (geographically). The style Kazakhstan use is closer to the Russian style than the Asian style, even though they are an Asian team.”
The Netherlands coach Gido Vermeulen: "We are very happy to be here. The Dutch people always like to come and play here in Italy as players or coach. It's close by as well so we have a lot of spectators coming to the venue. We have a young team and we are excited. We have players who are playing their first World Championship and we have been preparing five months for it."
On the Kazakhstan team: "We had a great experience in Kazakhstan last year because we played the Grand Prix there. We play them tomorrow morning so this is all we've been talking about for the last week and we are prepared for that."
Mexico coach Jose Miguel Azair Lopez: "We are very happy for being at the World Championship. In Mexico, volleyball is developing and playing with these teams for us is very important because I think we want to learn how to play like these teams. We hope to qualify for the next round and we will give our best volleyball."
Thailand coach Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai: "Thank you to the Thai embassy and fans in Italy who will come to support us. We prepared together with players for five or six months and we are very happy to play with good teams in the world like Russia, USA and Netherlands. We will do our best to show our volleyball style and we will try to improve our young girls and show our best for our fans."