Tokyo, Japan, September 20, 2015 – The final three days of the FIVB Men’s World Cup Japan 2015 will run from September 21 to 23 and ahead of the action, the coaches of the Site B teams attended a press conference in Tokyo.
Egypt coach Nehad Shehata said he was delighted to be in Japan.
"I’m very happy to be one of the coaches in the 2015 Volleyball World Cup. We didn’t have good results in our previous rounds but they were good for my team. My team has made progress and gained experience. My younger players have had a good experience, so we have achieved most of our target to be a good, strong team. We hope in this round we can get some results and we’ll play as much as we can to get a result."
Tunisia coach Fathi Mkaouar meanwhile rued the sets his side failed to win.
"We tried our best in the first and second rounds," he said. "Of course, there are sets we could have won but we were able to play well against strong teams. We’d like to do our best in the third round in Tokyo.
For coach Glenn Hoag, this round is all about preparing for the future.
"I think our second round was a little bit better at times. We did some good things against Poland and Argentina and our focus is on that right now. In two weeks, we have the NORCECA Championship so we’ll use this week to prepare for this and try to keep improving."
Vincenzo Nacci said there is room for improvement from his Venezuela side.
"We’ve only won one game against Tunisia, but our goal for this tournament was to get into a rhythm. We were able to have good experience and we played positively. We played especially good against Poland and Japan. Of course, there is room for improvement during the third round. We’ve learned a lot during this tournament. Some of our players have not played in such a big tournament before so it was good that they were able to experience this tournament. In this round, we’d like to improve our level, especially in the accuracy of our counterattacks. Our goal is to play well and prepare for the pre-Olympic preliminaries in October."
It has been a disappointing World Cup for Australia, and coach Roberto Santilli is hoping for better in Tokyo.
"To be honest, the last round wasn’t exactly what we expected – it was below our expectations – but it’s not about the result; it’s about the level of performance in each game. We were aware of the power of the best teams in the world, Russia and Poland especially, but of course when you watch your team you also expect that they can play better, but we didn’t. Of course, we are a bit disappointed for it. I don’t consider all experience good experience. Sometimes we can have bad experiences. We really hope we can have a good end to the tournament in the last three games."
Finally, Iran coach Slobodan Kovac is expecting a tough ride in the third round.
"I expect three difficult matches because, first, Australia, Canada and Egypt are good teams and, second, because we are near the end of the competition and everybody is tired mentally and physically. We will try to do our best. Until now, we’ve played so-so, but in my opinion Iran is a better team than our position. We’ll try everything to get a good result. "