06/12/2015 18:25
PGE Atom Trefl Italian-born mentor Micelli expects tough rematch in Novara
2016 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Women
Sopot, Poland, December 6, 2015. Italian-born Lorenzo Micelli can be more than satisfied with his team’s performance lately. Last Saturday the Atomic Girls claimed an important victory in their national league at the end of a thrilling clash with PTPS PILA. Now they are going to challenge another tough opponent, this time in Pool B of the 2016 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Women, Italy’s Igor Gorgonzola NOVARA.
Two weeks ago Micelli’s team played a perfect game against Igor Gorgonzola. The score in the end was quite astonishing and even though the Italian mentor doesn’t want to single out any real weakness in his team, he still sees room for improvement.
“Well, frankly speaking I can’t say anything about our alleged weak points. I just would like my players to enjoy the game. At some point we did not fight as I expected they would do, but anyway we suffered a little bit from a physical standpoint, missing some players. In such situations it is important to have the chance to try some different elements in our game system, some other tactics. We obviously have fewer chances to try out some other combinations, especially when someone is injured, like for instance Brittnee Cooper. That’s why it is important to play with the right attitude from start to end. However, we must keep in mind that two weeks ago NOVARA played only one set with their first setter, Noemi Signorile. Now they have stopped their negative streak with a great victory over Imoco Volley CONEGLIANO in their national league, so they probably got an extra boost of confidence and they trust each other a lot more within the team,” Micelli says.
Another victory over Igor Gorgonzola NOVARA would almost guarantee PGE Atom Trefl SOPOT a spot in the Playoffs of Europe’s elite competition. “First of all, we can’t say that we have already made the Playoffs. For me the situation is simple – we still need at least to get one point in Novara to secure the second place in our group. That’s all and the only way to make it to the next round. If we won’t manage to achieve this goal, finishing as the third best across all pools might be hard. There are a lot of pools without any clear leader and three teams fighting for first place, so they will obviously have more victories than us, but finally the same number of points,” Micelli explains. “In that case our first goal should be to at least make it to the tie-break in Italy. The other goal we have set is to play good and perform on a high level. We also have to build our power and confidence, because now we play well only if we have more time for practice. I hope to have all players available and with the right attitude we will happily seal our ticket to the next round,” adds the PGE Atom’s coach.
Does Micelli expect a more difficult game in Novara than it was two weeks ago in Ergo Arena? “Everything is about our attitude and if we are ready to play the match. So there is no difference for me to play against a team with Caterina Bosetti and Signorile or without them. The same thing is with the venue – honestly for me playing at home increases your chances to win only to 51%. But finally I think that it will be a hard game, mostly because both teams are eager to win this crucial clash. Maybe we surprised our rival in Ergo Arena, because they probably had not expected us to be as motivated as we really were and ready to play with high accuracy, closing them each possible way. Now they are waiting for us well prepared and with a different attitude to manage to win this game. So we must be ready mostly to show the right character on court, because we will have a totally different opponent standing on the other side of the net compared to the previous game and they will surely show more willingness to fight this time,” he says.
Apart from the fact that this match is so important for both teams, the Italian-born Micelli has no problems to play against an opponent from his home country. “For me it is always good to play with Italian teams. That’s because if you don’t give it all with them, you will lose the game. Just to remind – playing in CEV Volleyball Cup last year in Conegliano we lost 1:3 and in my opinion we showed only about 60-70% of our real abilities. In Italy it is always about raising your level – so maybe you can play with less quality in attack or something, but the number of mistakes is quite low. In Italian Volleyball the difference is made by the number of errors registered on the other side of the net. It is always a very good test because Italian teams make you easily realise what you are making wrong. I think that we made a big step forward after the above mentioned game with CONEGLIANO, focussing on how to raise our level. It is now one year since then and we hope to have learned the lesson to perform even better in our next match with NOVARA.”
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