24/07/2015 23:21
Turkey celebrate first European League win with solid performance in first matchup with Romania
2015 CEV Volleyball European League - Men
Canakkale, Turkey, July 24, 2015. After a negative streak of four consecutive losses, Turkey men’s national team could finally celebrate their first victory in the 2015 CEV Volleyball European League. They did so as they cruised to a 3:1 (31-29, 25-21, 20-25, 25-21) win over Romania on Friday in Canakkale to open the third round of action in Pool B.
Turkey started the game with some excellent serving by Ugur Günes and took an early lead (5:1) before widening it to 8:3 at the first technical time-out. Romania reduced their gap to one point at 8:7 but Turkey got back control of the actions doing so especially at the net and again set the pace of the game also at the second technical time-out with a comfortable margin (16:12). However, Laurentiu Lica propelled Romania’s comeback and the visitors levelled the game at 18:18. In the end, both teams had the opportunity to win the set and Turkey used their fifth set point to eventually seal the final 31-29.
Opposite Metin Toy (pictured, #15) paced the home heroes on their way to gain a four-point advantage at the first technical time-out of the second set (8:4). Metin Toy and outside spiker Baturalp Burak Güngör were just unstoppable and Turkey increased their lead to seven points at second mandatory break (16:9). The hosts were able to capitalise on that, with their leadership being kept at least at four points, and finally celebrated their second set win at 25-21.
Turkey was the better team at the beginning of the third set as well and got to the front at both technical time-outs (8:4 and 16:12). Romania played better later on and tied the game at 17:17. Andrei Georgescu’s serves and Lica’s attacks caused problems to the Turkish receivers and this way Romania ended up stretching the game to a fourth set (25-20).
The score remained very close in the early stages of the fourth set before Turkey went on to lead by 8:6 at the first technical time-out. Metin Toy was again the ‘pacemaker’ for the hosts with his spikes and serves and this way Turkey reached the second technical time-out leading by 16:11. Both teams made quite many errors towards the end of the set but Turkey eventually had the upper hand at 25-21 and this way won the match 3-1.
Turkey’s Metin Toy was the best scorer of the game with 25 points while Laurentiu Lica paced Romania with 21.
Emanuele Zanini, coach of Turkey, said: “We are satisfied only with the result, not with the way we played. We did some good things but at the same time we made also some terrible mistakes. It is our first victory in the competition so it is good. I hope that that we will play better tomorrow. We have the features and ability to do this. Today was not a good day for some of our players but still they did their best. It is important to stick together and keep on playing with the right attitude and approach.”
Caner Peksen, captain of Turkey: “We started the game very well. We did what we wanted and had planned. We played against a strong team. After losing the third set we made a comeback and won. We hope we will win again tomorrow.”
Danut Pascu, coach of Romania: “I am very upset because we played very, very bad. We played with our second setter and our attack was not so good. We will try to fix our problems and to perform better tomorrow.”
Adrian Radu Gontariu, captain of Romania: “There is not much to say. We had a lot of chances but we played poorly. Turkey deserved their victory. Congratulations to them.”
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