2008 Men’s World Olympic Qualification Tournament- Espinho, Portugal

Portugal and Poland achieved first victory and topped the tournament Espinho, Portugal, May 30, 2008- The Organizers Portugal and the big favorites Poland were the heroes of the first day of the 2008 Men’s World Qualification tournament after both teams set their first victory over Indonesia and Puerto Rico respectively her at Nave Municipal de Espinho in Portugal on Friday. Poland led the tournament with the point ratio ahead of Portugal with an exciting final expected between both teams on Sunday. Aided by the home spectators Portugal survived from their sluggish start to beat the struggling Indonesian team in straight sets 25-23, 25-27, 25- 21 in 62 minutes. The Portuguese right attacker Hugo Gaspar was the match star not only with his 22 points scored the match that made him the match scorer but also with his continuous movement that disturbed the Indonesian block with the aid of the skillful setter Nuno Pinheiro who was the maestro of the combinations that facilitated the duty of his team. Although they lost but the Indonesian team did well all through the match and was very competitive specially in the first set where they were near to win. Portugal win loss ratio becomes 1-0 to come second to Poland after the tournament’s first day, while Indonesia dropped to 0-1. Portugal Head coach, Jorge Schmidt was happy with the victory but not satisfied with the performance. “We have to play tomorrow much better than today to win against Puerto Rico to win.” Said Schmidt in the press conference after the match. “This match was very difficult and it is very hard to play a tournament like this, but beside these difficulties we could win this match which is a good start. The team captain, Joao Jose expressed the same in his comment. “We started the game not concentrating but I think it is normal due to the high pressure of such kind of tournaments.” He said. Indonesia Head coach, Hu Xinyo referred the defeat to the difficult situation of his players as they don’t have the experience of such big competition and also to the absebce of the libero. “It is the first time for us to play in Europe and the Europeans have much better players than in Asia. We have some problems in blocking and the reception. We didn’t play with the libero because he is sick.” He said. Poland returned back to their usual tract after the simultaneous failure in the European championship qualifier and drowned Puerto Rico in straight sets 25-23, 25-18, 25-14 in 73 minutes of thriller action specially in the first set that was the most competitive. The winners put their opponent in a continuous pressure of services and unstoppable hits from the match scorer Michal Winiarski and the right attacker Mariusz Wlazly and both were the match stars with the setter Pawel Zagomny who was the maestro that deceived regularly Puerto Rico defense. The victory put Poland at the top of the tournament standings with a win- loss ratio of 1-0, while Puerto Rico dropped to 0-1. The Polish coach Raul Lozano was happy with his team’s performance specially in serving which put Puerto Rico team on a continuous pressure. “In the beginning the two teams were very adapted to the match. The Polish team then took free of that pressure and ruled the game.