2007 Women’s World Championship


Head Coaches facing the 3rd Round

Tokyo, 8th November 2007 – The 12 Head Coaches of the Women’s World Cup 2007 had they press conference today to open officially the third Round of the event. Tomorrow in Sapporo and Kumamoto the top FIVB event will start its 6th day of competition. Broadcasted in high definition standard by Fuji Television, the World Cup 2007 will give the first three Olympic berths to the best teams.

Press Conference in Sapporo

Massimo Barbolini (Italy): We are undefeated until now, but we know that the final ranking will be decided in the last two rounds, starting with Poland tomorrow. We know that there are waiting for us a lot of difficult matches. (On the prospect of facing Poland's former Italy coach Marco Bonitta): We know that we will play against a strong team, a team with a good block and with good attackers and a good serve. I think that is enough -- a strong team.

Sammy Kirongo (Kenya): This is world-class Volleyball and we have come from a continent where we are learning slowly. It is going to be tough against a tall and experienced team (Serbia) because all players of my side are very short. We want to give our best and try to do well in all departments, to have total commitment.

Enio de Figueiredo (Peru): So far we have played against some teams with very high potential such as Brazil, Cuba and Poland. Next we play Japan and this team is famous for its quick play; like us, they put the emphasis on defence, so we have to come up with different tactics to play Japan. Our goal here is not to qualify for the Olympic Games but to go higher in the world rankings, so every game through to the final round is important. Baylon (No. 11) has a back problem and will not play again in the World Cup. She has always been the central player of our team and we have to cover for her and devise a new way of playing. It will be difficult for us without her.

Marco Bonitta (Poland): Glinka has come back and we are very happy about that because she is a very important player for our team. So far we have played pretty well but the results have not reflected that, so starting from tomorrow (against Italy) we want to play a good game and also have a good result to go with it.

Zoran Terzic (Serbia): In the European Championship Poland beat us 3-0 very easily in one game, and in the second game we beat Poland 3-0, so if you ask me which result I would like next I would say like the same game in the semi-final. After the first and second rounds we have some chance to be in the first three teams until the end of the competition, but to do that we must win all three games in Sapporo. Of course it will be very, very difficult, especially against Poland because everybody knows very well that Poland have a great team and an excellent coach. It is not so easy to win two times (against Poland) in a short period of time, but I hope and I believe that my team will have enough power to do it.

Shoichi Yanagimoto (Japan): After yesterday's game I told my team that they had tried their best. We prepared very hard for the Italy game but the result did not follow. We have to switch our mindset for the Sapporo round and try to win all three games. We have to show our best performance and head for the final round in really good condition.



Press Conference in Kumamoto



Jenny Lang Ping (U.S.A.): I think we played well as a team in the opening round, but I felt we were lucky in a couple of matches. In the third round, we need to continue to work hard as a team. We still have six matches left, so there's still a long way to go. I'm sure we will continue to play as we have and do everything possible to win. In this tournament, we play different teams every day and we need to learn how to make quick adjustments. Also, this week we will play two teams from Asia and they play a very fast game with a lot of combinations, so we'll have to make a quick adjustment in those games. We also need to receive more consistently.

Ze Roberto (Brazil): This third round is important for our team. Yesterday, we lost to the USA, so we hope we can do better in these games. We are having a great competition and I think our performances have been getting better and better. We've been able to identify some weak points as well as our strong points in these matches, and I think our defense needs to improve.

Antonio Perdomo (Cuba): In the first round, we lost two games and won one, and in the next phase we won two straight games. We have to dedicate our efforts towards winning these games; we can't afford to lose any more and that will be our motivation here. For us, communication between the team members is crucial. We need to perform more efficiently to get better results. In the last round we got better and better and I'm sure we will put on a good show for the spectators.

Beato Miguel Cruz (Dominican Republic): As I said before, our team is very young and the games here will be a great experience for our players. We've only won one game, so we're in a tough position, but our ultimate goal is to win three games and we must work toward this. As I said, the team is young and they have little experience in playing big games. We have to maintain our pace and rhythm during the games and we mustn't be nervous in the matches; that's very important for us.

Srisamutnak Nataphon (Thailand): We weren't able to win any games in the last two rounds but the games provided us with great experience. We learned a lot. Here in the third round, it will also be difficult as we will be up against some strong teams. We will do our best and hopefully get something out of the games. Everyone knows that height is one of our weak points as our average height is lower than those of other teams, but we can't do anything about it. Receiving is also one of the aspects we need to improve upon. If we avoid making errors, I'm sure we will improve in the next round.

Lee Jung Chul (Korea): Here, we will have the toughest matches against some of the strongest teams. They will be very difficult. We have a lot of young players and they will be able to get great experience through these games. We won two games in Osaka, so we are in good condition and feel good. We are looking forward to winning the games here and promise we will put on a good show. For us, one of our problems has been that our main veteran players are injured. As for other parts of our game, we have to improve the combination work among our central players. Sometimes it doesn't work so well.

Competition Schedule (3rd Round)



City date Loc. time GMT time



Sapporo 09 Nov 14,05 05,05 Italy – Poland



Sapporo 09 Nov 16,35 07,35 Kenya – Serbia



Sapporo 09 Nov 19,30 10,30 Japan - Peru



Kumamoto 09 Nov 12,35 03,35 Brazil - Thailand



Kumamoto 09 Nov 15,05 06,05 Dominican Rep. – U.S.A.



Kumamoto 09 Nov 18,05 09,05 Cuba - Korea



Sapporo 10 Nov 14,05 05,05 Italy – Kenya



Sapporo 10 Nov 16,35 07,35 Peru – Serbia



Sapporo 10 Nov 19,30 10,30 Japan - Poland



Kumamoto 10 Nov 12,35 03,35 Cuba – Dominican Rep.



Kumamoto 10 Nov 15,05 06,05 Thailand – U.S.A.



Kumamoto 10 Nov 18,05 09,05 Brazil - Korea



Sapporo 11 Nov 12,35 03,35 Italy – Peru



Sapporo 11 Nov 15,05 06,05 Poland – Serbia



Sapporo 11 Nov 18,00 09,00 Japan - Kenya



Kumamoto 11 Nov 12,35 03,35 Cuba – Thailand



Kumamoto 11 Nov 15,05 06,05 Korea – U.S.A.



Kumamoto 11 Nov 18,05 09,05 Brazil – Dominican Rep.





Standing after second Round

Italy and U.S.A. 10; Brazil and Serbia 9; Cuba and Japan 8; Poland and Korea 7; Dominican Republic and Peru 6; Thailand and Kenya 5 (2 points for victory, 1 for loss).

Tarek Al-Adwar from Japan