Corrientes, Argentina, August 13, 2015 – For the second time in four years, Argentina will host the FIVB Boys’ U19 World Championship, from August 14 to 23, with Corrientes as one of the venues.
Local fans won’t have the chance to enjoy any Argentina match in the preliminary round, but they really can’t complain, as the defending champions Russia, Asian champions Iran and European Champions Poland will concentrate the action from Pools C and D in Corrientes. Brazil, Germany and Bulgaria will also be part of the fight to get to the finals.
Before the competition kick-off of Friday morning, the head coaches of the teams featuring Pools C and D expressed their opinions and goals during the General Meeting with the FIVB control committee.
Percy Oncken, Brazil coach: "I think that in this tournament there are at least twelve teams fully capable of winning the gold medal. We hope to be that team, of course. We try to follow the volleyball philosophy from Brazil - speed, accuracy. We hope to reflect those aspects in our game and achieve a fast style".
Dragan Ivanov, Bulgaria coach: “We found in Corrientes a very beautiful and joyful city. We are ready to do our best; we expect to show the world a high-level volleyball and to give the people a nice show”.
Ivan Villarreal, Chile coach: “We find this opportunity to be in the World Championship very important, we have to enjoy it and take profit of it. We arrived to Argentina with a lot of expectations and willing to show what we have practiced. We know that we will face very strong teams, and we are aware that every match will be special for us”.
Kalny Matus, Germany coach: "We come to this tournament as the fourth European team, after what was a very good tournament for us. Now we have the goal of playing good volleyball and take the step into the next round. We are used to be a serving team, with good block and also some spiking skills".
Reza Vakili Farjad, Iran coach: “The achievements we had are not an accident. We are here to show the teams from all around the world we have talent and to create the future for Iranian volleyball. We want to show this to everybody. We didn't come to make tourism - even though many teams can be the champion, we can as well. We want to show our skills and talent".
Hiroshi Honda, Japan coach: "We're looking forward to the start of the competition. We're happy about being here. We have a whole new team, but as everybody, we want to win all of our games".
Sebastian Pawlik, Poland coach: “The people, the city and the competition hall here in Corrientes are very nice; It’s a very good place to play volleyball. First we need to think about winning some matches in order to go to the second round. Then we will think about getting to the finals”.
Julio Ruvira, Puerto Rico coach: “We have been working for two years in a development programme which help us enlarge the size and the skills of our players and gives us the motivation to face this World Championship looking for that development, gaining experience for a very renewed group of players. We know that we will have to struggle with fantastic volleyball teams”.
Chia-Yung Lee, Chinese Taipei coach: “We hope to win our first game, but we're thinking game by game. We want to be among the 16 best teams and then, if everything goes well, we are looking forward to be in the Final Four. That would be our best result. We try to cover every aspect of the game - our players are capable to be very complete and we hope to do that".