Poland blocks out Turkey on the net and jumps into the first win

Saturday evening in front of 11 thousand of fans on the ERGO Arena's tribunes, Poland's national team entered 2013 CEV VELUX Volleyball European Championship in Gdansk by victory/defeat with Turkish team 3-1 (25-22, 25-15, 22-25, 25-21). It was a brilliant game of Bartosz Kurek, who scored 24 points, whilst the best Turkish players Emre Batur gained 19 points on his account.

Saturday evening in front of 11 thousand of fans on the ERGO Arena's tribunes, Poland's national team entered 2013 CEV VELUX Volleyball European Championship in Gdansk by victory/defeat with Turkish team 3-1 (25-22, 25-15, 22-25, 25-21). It was a brilliant game of Bartosz Kurek, who scored 24 points, whilst the best Turkish players Emre Batur gained 19 points on his account.

It was a close match from the beginning. Poland played well, however solid game of Halil Yucel remained Turkish team in touch to host team. After failed spike of Jakub Jarosz, Turkey took a control on first TTO 8-7. Since then any team couldn't take a supremacy on the court. Bartosz Kurek scored few points and started to be truly leader of the game. Turkish players continued their block-out game and Polish player could not stop them effectively. However, Kurek was also the one who remained calm in Polish team, doing his job on the court and supported by the rest of the team with good Michal Winiarski's serve and some smart spikes of Jarosz, they took advantage of 18-16. Eventually, Poland with such a brilliant game by block claimed a victory 25-22.

Second set started with a series of fine Polish blocks again, which let them to lead by three points (8-5). Then Poland jumped ahead to even six points advantage and stayed at top till 16-10. There were nothing which Turkish team could be able to do to stop Andrea Anastasi's team. Playing with accuracy in each element and being focused on game, Polish players won 25-15, finishing part with block-out Kurek's spike.

Emanuele Zanini's team woke up on the start of third part with still their best Emre Batur, though, after excellent Jarosz's kill it was 8-7. Then, Poland stopped to play their game, made Turkey possible to catch up with the score for 12-9 an 16-12. Michal Kubiak, who entered the court in place of Michal Winiarski, standed up to his role in the team, changing the game for the score 17-17. However, Turkey continued its good performance against Poles, feeling their chance in ERGO Arena and took the victory after Can Ayvazoglu's spike on block (25-22).

Turkey did not lose their spirit in the next part of the game, playing smart and strong volleyball and improving their block. At the score 9-7 for Zanini's team, Anastasi decided to fulfill the team with Winiarski again in place of Kubiak, but then he failed with reception of Turkish serve. Then Kurek woke up and came back to the match, whilst Winiarski scared Turkish team by streak of great serves. Team in white-red jerseys couldn't lose this game and with leading 19-15 started to have a fun from their games for example with one-handed excellent set of Lukasz Zygadlo to Marcin Mozdzonek. Relaxed Poland came to an end with satisfactory score 25-21 after Lukasz Wisniewski’s ace.

 ‘We played against one of the best teams in all over the world today. We have been working with our new coach for a month and a half, though, I think we are well-prepared to this tournament’ commented Turkey’s captain, Ulas Kiyak. ‘ Our motto is to play from the beginning till the last ball for each point. We did our best, but Poland was simply better. I hope we will play better tomorrow.

‘The first match is behind us. It was a bit nervous game but the thing is we were able to stay in this match, not losing our minds’ pointed Marcin Mozdzonek, Polish captain. ‘We are satisfied and happy that we won today. Now it’s time for coaches to analyze our strong sides and bad sides before tomorrow’s match.’

‘As my captain told, I have been working with those guys for 40 days, but I am happy about this performance, obviously not being satisfied with the score’ stressed Emanuele Zanini. ‘If two teams ranked on very different places meet each other in tournament like this you can see the  difference. I used to teach my players that the most important is to fight for each ball and from that learn how to improve their game. I see the progress right now. I only regret, that we made so many errors in last set, especially ‘.

‘For each team it’s not easy to start this tournament. We can play better and I think it will change in the next days. Today’s struggle was a strange one with two good sets and two weakest ones with many mistakes. We must change it’ ended Andrea Anastasi shortly.