The women's volleyball team of Russia started in the second group stage of the World Cup. Started with a victory, without much difficulty beating the team of Puerto Rico with a score of 3: 0. Today, wards Giovanni Caprara meet with the Dutch team, a much more serious opponent. The Dutch also won their first match of the second stage. In a difficult five-set match, they defeated the Germans - 3: 2. However, the headquarters of the Russian team believe that beating the Dutch team is quite capable. You just need to play very carefully and minimize your own mistakes.
The game of the Russians with the Puerto Rico team began at six in the morning Moscow time, and about seven it was already over. Naturally, it’s in Russian favor, since the outcome of the meeting was not in doubt even before it began. This very beginning, by the way, turned out to be very revealing. Elena Godina attack from the zone of the second number brought the first point to her team, and then, rising to the pitch, performed, speaking in tennis, three aces in a row. Juan Carlos Nunez, the head coach of the Puerto Rican national team, tried to correct the situation with a timeout, however, a short respite and coaching instructions did little to change the site. The Russians continued to attack and did it as spectacularly as effective. 25:16 - the first set and 25:10 - the second. Only in the third game segment Puerto Ricans showed some semblance of a struggle, judging by the score. But this was not so much their merit, how much the flaw of the Russians. The most productive of our team were Ekaterina Gamova (15 points on her account) and Elena Godina (she has one point less). At the post-match press conference, Giovanni Caprara said that “today it was important to win. A 3-0 lead allows me to feel happy. However, we still have problems with our binders. Marina Akulova, for example, lacks experience, but she instantly reacts to all changes on the site. Marina Sheshenina has plenty of experience, but she is a little slower. But with a strong attack, we can all compensate. I really hope that in the future we will play as well. Moreover, we have a lot of complex games ahead, but we will not tune somehow in a special way for each specific team. ” Before the start of the second group stage, Caprara also urged not to divide opponents into strengths and weaknesses. But the coach of the Russian team nevertheless expressed one wish: to solve the problem of reaching the semifinals before meeting in person with the Brazil team. Brazilians, like ours, are still without defeat. They also began the second stage with a confident victory - 3-0 in a meeting with the Azerbaijani team. According to Caprara, Brazil has no weaknesses and the more interesting the meeting will be, but it would be better if it was already comradely. The rest of the national teams really do not cause much concern in Caprara. In the semifinals, as you know, the first two teams from each subgroup go out. In group E, without defeat, the national team of Serbia and Montenegro is still playing. Until yesterday, the Taiwan team did not lose, but stumbled on the Turkish national team. Another of the contenders for medals, the Italian team, easily outplayed the Polish national team - 3-0.
VALERY WINGURT