Toyama, Japan, September 17, 2015 – Argentina overcame Australia 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-16) in the FIVB World Cup at Toyama City Gymnasium on Thursday.
Argentina coach Julio Velasco: I think we played a good match with few mistakes. Only in the middle of the match we made too many mistakes on service, but generally speaking we made very few mistakes like yesterday with Egypt. We had a problem when Australia changed their opposite (Edgar) because he (Carroll) was completely different – he was left-handed and played a lot with the block and it took time for us to get our timing, but when we blocked and defended him I think the match finished.
Argentina captain Luciano De Cecco: Today, we played well, I think, although we had some time when we were behind, but we were able to stay focused and fight our way back.
Australia coach Roberto Santilli: Unfortunately, it’s not easy to comment on this game because I’m so angry about the attitude with which we started the game. It’s not the first time and it’s not enough to say we are young guys; this is not enough to explain it that we can’t approach the game in this way. We are making some step forwards and then after that we make a step back and this makes the coach very angry.
We led the second set by a point or two points but we didn’t exactly dominate the set; we played point by point. But we were playing much better and we found a better bounce with Carroll. We found balance but at the end, we missed a sideout and they had such an easy counterattack because they played well on service and Conte had an important ball. But sometimes we are not able to play the transition well and we don’t score on the sideout. At the end, we showed our luck and it’s a pity, of course, because the second set can change the way of the game. The same happened yesterday against Russia; we were leading 24-22 and then they had a good service and we suffered on reception. If we don’t suffer reception, we suffer something else. We always suffer on some point and they showed that they can play better than us and they can play the important moments with a cold, cold mind and they can play more confidently at important moments. That’s what we are looking for.
(Re. replacing captain Thomas Edgar): Because we were not playing well. Fortunately, we have a very good substitute for him and Paul Carroll always shows something interesting. Like (Julio) Velasco said he’s a really different player than Edgar because he’s left-handed and because he can play the ball faster. So sometimes it’s difficult for an opponent to adapt to a substitute like this. At the end, he finished with 60 per cent in attack, so it was a good performance. That’s why I decided to keep him on the court. Often Edgar doesn’t start well and when he doesn’t start well the game is difficult for him to come back in.
Australia captain Thomas Edgar: Today’s match for me was extremely frustrating, not only the way we played but the way we approached the game. I definitely think we could have performed a lot better and got a better result. The aggression wasn’t there, the fight wasn’t there and that transferred into our technical skills and our overall play. So, it was a difficult match and we’ll have to learn from this for the next four games and especially for the future of this team.