15/07/2014 20:00
Turkey and Germany want European League crown
2014 CEV Volleyball European League - Women
Bursa, Turkey, July 15, 2014. On the eve of the 2014 CEV Volleyball European League – Women first final match starring the national teams of Turkey and Germany, a press conference was held in the city of Bursa. The media meeting was attended by Mrs. Bahar Mert Ucoklar, member of the Board of Administration of the Turkish Volleyball Federation, the head coaches and captains of both national teams, Ferhat Akbas and Gözde Yilmaz for Turkey, Giovanni Guidetti and Lena Möllers of Germany. The first round of the finals is scheduled for Wednesday, July 16, at 5 pm local time before the return match follows on Saturday, July 19, in Rüsselsheim.
Mrs. Mert Ucoklar, a former Volleyball player, addressed the media saying that Turkey is very proud of hosting the first round of the finals and in a demonstration of fair play wished the best of luck to both teams.
Germany’s head coach Giovanni Guidetti congratulated his colleagues Ferhat Akbas on Turkey’s excellent performance in the prelims and added: “We have a young team and we do not have that much experience at this level. As we made the finals, we got the opportunity to play another two matches against a very good team, Turkey. These teams are quite similar to each other but I do believe that Turkey is stronger than us in attack. This means we have to perform a lot better in all remaining fundamentals to stand a chance to win.”
“We are happy with being in Bursa and playing our second consecutive European League final,” Germany’s team captain Lena Möllers said. “We are a very young team and it makes us proud that we made it all the way to the finals. We will do our best to retain the title we won last year in Varna.”
Turkey’s mentor Ferhat Akbas stressed the importance of the match coming up tomorrow and congratulated Germany and his friend Guidetti as well: “We always try to play good Volleyball. Our goal now is to perform well again and to win the gold medal,” he said, stressing that Turkey never achieved this feat before. “We will be doing our best to achieve this goal. We played two group matches here in Bursa and we won both. This means we have good memories from our previous games here. We hope that many supporters will come again to Cengiz Göllü Volleyball Hall to cheer on us.”
Team captain Gözde Yilmaz stressed that the real job is starting now: “We had a very good preparation period during the European League. We have been working very hard to make it to the last stage of the competition and our real job is starting now. We are aware of the importance of playing in the finals and want to bring this crown to Turkey.”
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