As you know, we’ve just beaten Serbia, ranked fourth in the world, 3-1 (25-20, 25-22, 17-25, 25-23). It was a great match by everyone on our team and a big confidence boost for our next match.
The story of the match was our ability to limit our errors and force the Serbs to play hard from start to finish. The final tally: the Serbs made 30 unforced errors compared to 13 for us. But the Serbs biggest error isn’t on the scoresheet. Their coach decided to start three subs. Whether it was arrogance or disrespect, our players reacted perfectly and executed Glenn’s plan to a tee.
The Serbs added two starters for the second set without any success. In the third, with their pride on the line, the Serbs dominated. But the damage was done and we quickly bounced back in the fourth. It was a big win against a team that has won so many medals through the years. Italy is still in shock.
But we can’t rest on our laurels. The hardest part is yet to come. The Germans are anxious to face us after a tough loss to Poland in five sets that lasted two and a half hours. The Germans have a different style than the Serbs based more on pure power, especially with their service- and less on finesse in their execution. We’ll need to adjust and continue to build on our victory.
Our situation is simple: a win and we are in the second round. A loss combined with a loss by the Serbs to Poland will create a three-way tie for second place in our pool. Since the first tie-breaker is the grand total of points for and against it is impossible at this time to make any assessments.
Day #13 – Trieste
We had a good start to the day. We trained for an hour this morning on the match court, which happens rarely at an official FIVB event. Usually the match court is reserved for the matches. But a heavy rainfall this morning caused problems at the practice facility. Therefore organizers let the teams practice in the big hall.
The rest of the day also went well even though we had little time between practice and the match… 5 p.m. games come fast.
We had a good start in the first set. It was probably our best performance in several weeks ...until 20-20. Then two errors took the wind out of our sails and allowed a nervous Polish squad to win 25-22. That shifted the momentum to the Poles and we never recovered. Still we grabbed an 8-3 lead in the second set but the Poles responded with five straight points. After we played catch-up for the rest of the set. The final score was 25-21. The third set ended 25-13.
Fred Winters continued to be our main offensive threat with nine kills and 3.21 score out of 4 for service reception. Gavin Schmitt led the team with 12 points.
The coaches and I returned to the gym after supper to watch the Serbia-German match. Serbia appears to be on a mission and easily won. The Germans had beaten Brazil two times in three matches last week. Therefore there is a big challenge ahead for us tonight against the Serbians.
Day #11 and #12 – Trieste
It is 6 p.m., September 24 in Trieste. The team is completing its training session without me and Larry McKay who have been assigned laundry duties this afternoon. We did a great job.
The trip from Bled to Trieste went well. We actually arrived earlier than expected. At our arrival, everything was ready: hotel rooms and lunch. Since then it hasn’t been as smooth. It is true the worlds are a big event being held in six cities. For example the organizing committee wasn’t aware of our request made last month for tickets to other matches for our team members. We hope to solve this dilemma prior to our first match.
On the court, training is going well and our guys are focused. Last night’s training on the match court was held at a high level. Lots of work on ball control, six-on-six. The intensity was high.
For Glenn and me, two meetings in 12 hours: the first at 9 p.m. was for preliminary enquiries. This meeting is to verify the players’ passports, registration forms and team uniforms. This afternoon, we had a technical meeting with the organizing committee, officials, as well as, the coaches and team managers.
With all formalities aside, the serious stuff starts tomorrow. Our first match is at 5 p.m., against Poland. In fact our three first round matches are at 5 p.m.
Photos are available at :
http://www.fivb.org/EN/Volleyball/Competitions/WorldChampionships/2010/Men/PhotosVariousF.asp?Tourn=MWCH2010.
Day #10 – Bled
Last full day in Bled. The team is very positive and is anxious to travel to the world championship venue.
This morning’s training focused on defence and reception, Glenn wanted to limit the number of jumps.
In the evening in Zirovnica, about 10 minutes from Bled, a match against Remat Zalau, the Romanian league champions, coached by Radovan Gacic, Glenn’s assistant two years ago at ACH Volley.
The match went well. We played four sets and won all four 25-20, 25-20, 25-16, 25-18. Our six starters were slow off the mark but dominated the opponent, a weaker squad than ACH. The subs also did well especially Gord Perrin. Fred Winters delivered another consistent performance. It augurs well for the weekend.
Tomorrow morning we have weight training, then travel by bus to Trieste, Italy.
Day #7, #8 and #9 – Bled, Slovenia
The final phase of our preparations for the world championships started today. We had training this morning and a modified match against Bled tonight
The last day and a half was relatively light. On Sunday night, Glenn held a video session with the players focusing on Poland, our first opponent in Italy. In the first part, everyone provided comments on each of the Polish players. In the second part we watched three sets of a match between Poland and Brazil a few weeks ago.
Everyone had the next day off. We were received by Bled’s mayor in the morning at a castle overlooking the lake. We went to lunch at the ACH players’ favourite pizza parlour for lunch then visited Ljubljana in the afternoon.
Then this morning, we were back in our routine. A two hour workout with a short weight training session and defensive work with one on one attacks (defence exercise 5 vs 5). We ended with service and reception. The rest seemed to be beneficial for all.
We have just returned from our match against ACH. The match was more like a training session: there were no uniforms, no officials, no scoresheets. We played four sets; the last two played the regular way. Both coaches decided to modify the first two sets by allowing three consecutive serves per team. Therefore once the first exchange was completed, two more serves were immediately launched, one an easy ball over the net and then an easy ball directly to the setter to simulate a ball high in the air and in transition. Each set went to 25 points. We won three of the four sets.
Tomorrow, we have two more sessions. In the morning, we have training and in the evening a friendly against, in a town close to Bled.
Day #6 - Bled, Slovenia
It was a gala evening at the Radovljica Arena. This venue, about eight kilometres from Bled, is where the ACH Volley plays its home games. The corporate headquarters for ACH (Auto Commerce Holding) the club’s main sponsor, is in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital.
The club celebrated its 40th anniversary last night and our match was part of the festivities. For the occasion there were many special guests including Bled’s Mayor, members of the original 1970 team and…Glenn Hoag begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting (Hoag coached here the last two seasons). During the presentation of the six starters for Canada, the arena’s announcer named Olivier Faucher as the team’s starting libero instead of Dan Lewis as a prank to one of the crowd’s favourites. Lewis is a member of the Bled squad during the winter season.
Even though it wasn’t a great match we were able to get back on the winning track. We won 25-23, 25-18, 23-25, 25-23. Glenn took the opportunity to provide everyone with some game time. For the first time on this trip, all the players were on the plus side in the plus\minus rankings. Glenn used Olivier Faucher as the second libero but mainly for defensive purposes. The FIVB could soon imitate the CEV league and allow this rule. In European Cup play, a team can use two liberos in the same match, as long as they are not on court at the same time.
Tomorrow we will train in the morning and have a video session in the evening. Since we left Gatineau each player has videos on all three teams we will face in the round robin at the world championships: Poland, Serbia and Germany. They must all fill out reports during this trip and tonight will be the first opportunity to compare notes.
Monday is an off day for all, including me. I’ll be back Tuesday with more news.
Meanwhile you can visit http://www.ach-volley.si/ which will post photos of the match.
For travelling enthusiasts here are some websites to check out on the area.
Bled tourism: http://www.slovenia.info/?_ctg_kraji=3284&lng=5
Our hotel website: http://www.hotel-krim.si/
Day #5 - Litomysl-Bled
We have just arrived in Bled, Slovenia. The trip went well but was very long. If you combine the bus rides, two one-hour flights and the waiting time in Prague and Munich, it took us 15 hours to get here. It took us just as long to travel 6,500 kilometres from Ottawa to Litomysl on the day we left for overseas. Long live international travel!
Bled will be familiar territory for many of us over the next five days. Glenn Hoag begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting coached the ACH pro team here for two seasons; Nic Cundy was a member of the Bled team for two years while Dan Lewis will return for a second season this winter. Assistant coach Vincent Pichette begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting and I visited Glenn here last winter. Dustin Schneider trained here in March-April 2009 and Toon Van Lankvelt and Adam Kaminski played for teams in the same league as Bled last season. Adam Simac has joined the squad for the 2010-2011 season.
Glenn has managed all the arrangements and we just received our schedule from Petra the Bled club manager.
Tomorrow we train at 2 p.m. and play a match against Bled in the evening. Glenn’s former players are obviously looking forward to challenging us and apparently the match is nearly sold out.
The ACH web site will broadcast our match at: http://www.ach-volley.si/index.php?page=novice&id=1139
The team’s health is also improving. I was even criticized for saying Justin Duff was sick which wasn’t the case. The first beer is on me Justin!
Until tomorrow.
Day #4 - Czech Republic
Our illnesses outside the court persist. While I felt much better, Glenn Hoag begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting, Louis-Pierre Mainville and Justin Duff all continue to suffer from abdominal pains. Toon Van Lankvelt suffered bad indigestion the previous evening and did not participate in training and the match.
The rest of the team showed a higher energy level in the morning training and the level of intensity climbed a notch. Glenn decided to keep it simple. He put aside the formation with the middle in front of the setter which had worked relatively well against Cuba. We played tonight with the fourth attacker in front of the setter.
The other theme in training: counter defence. However the match tonight was similar to the other two. A 0-3 loss (19-25, 24-26, 23-25). It wasn’t a stellar performance and we lacked finish at the end of sets. Our top two scorers were our middles!!!
While we defended well, we made too many errors on execution and the experienced Czechs made us pay for it. We must regroup and work very hard to play at a superior level against the Poles, Serbs and Germans. Everyone must bear down and work for the team (these are Glenn’s words).
The first part of the trip is now complete and we leave for Bled tomorrow at 7 a.m... Long day ahead. More details tomorrow.
Day #3 – Litomysl, Czech Republic
I am writing these lines on September 16. We didn’t have a good day yesterday. We were either hit with food poisoning or a virus, I’m not sure. I couldn’t attend the morning training session, due to illness but I finally dragged myself out of bed to go to the match in Chocen. And now, Glenn is also feeling some stomach pains. The food here seems O.K. Let’s hope the players will be spared.
From all reports, the morning training went very well. Glenn split the group. Half the players did some weight training, while the others, the group that didn’t play so well on Tuesday, worked on reception-attack and vice versa.
Our second match was in Chocen, a small town 20 kilometres north of Litomysl. In a packed gym (250 people) we tried to make up for our loss the previous night. But for the second night in a row we couldn’t put pressure on the Czech receivers and attackers. Glenn started Dustin Schneider for Josh Howatson and Nic Cundy for Dallas Soonias. But nothing works. We are dominated by the star Czech player who end the match with 20 kills and four aces. He is a high calibre player who’ll play for Trentino, Italy next season which includes superstars Juantorena of Cuba and Kasisky of Bulgaria. The final score: 0-3 for the Czechs (19-25, 23-25, 19-25). Gavin Schmitt was our top scorer with 11 points.
The game plan for tonight: elevate our level of play, by playing harder and with more intensity
For the rest of the morning my main task is to find and internet connection that works, as the one in our hotel is useless.
Day #2– Litomysl, Czech Republic
Training last night went well. We kept it simple: long warm-up, followed by individual work: ball control, attack, reception and service.
It was the same story this morning. However since it was a birthday for Nic Cundy and Olivier Faucher both received some whipped cream pies courtesy of Dallas Soonias.
MATCH #1
There are many reasons why we lost our first match : it could be jet-lag, poor defence, perhaps a more experience Czech team. Final result: 0-3 (23-25, 22-25, 25-27)
Even if we didn’t play well we still kept it close. We even had leads in the second and third sets. Fred Winters played very well scoring 16 of our 50 points.
Tomorrow, the routine starts again. Training at 10 a.m. and the match at 6 p.m. This time we play in Chocen, a small town near Litomysl.
We are struggling with our internet connections so we apologize for delays in our reports.
