Finland falls to Germany in four-set match at Olympic Qualifiers – Volleyball news
Finnish men’s national volleyball put up great fight with Germany in the second match of 2012 European Olympic Qualification Tournament on Wednesday but failed to dig up success.
Germany proved to be better and posted 3-1 (31-29, 25-19, 21-25, 25-16) victory over Finland. Arena Armeec competition hall in Sofia, Bulgaria hosted the match and created an excellent sporty environment for volleyball enthusiasts. Victory improved the winning
record of Germany to 2-0, whereas Finland suffered the loss in second consecutive match.
Germany’s Marcus Böhme added 18 points and Mikko Oivanen of Finland shared the top-scorer’s score as both of them contributed 18 points, apiece.
Finnish ‘army’ made a good start in the match and promptly jumped to 8-3 lead. German players came from different angles and used different tactics to catch up with Finland but the difference of points remained the same up till next break. Finland rallied
past to 16-13 at the second technical timeout. Mikko Oivanen showcased his wonderful skills and helped the team to lead the scores. However, the first set ended up with a lot of drama. Germany came from behind and achieved the set points at 31-29. Despite
have a great opening and dominating the set for better time, Finland suffered the loss.
The raged-up Finnish team produced aggressive shots in the next set and tried to cover the deficit. Nonetheless, they faced utmost resistance from Germans. The two teams exchanged long rallies and score soared up with incredibly close intervals. Germany
led the scores at first technical timeout (8-7) and converted it into 16-15 at the next mandatory stop in second set. Finland failed to go up on scoreboard and dropped another set in row.
Germany started well in third set and picked up early lead. The Finnish, on the other hand, put up a spirited effort and flipped the lead at second technical timeout. Once they got better on the scorecard, they did not stop and cruised past to third-set
win.
It seemed as if Finland was back on track but Germany bounced back and crushed the opponent with success in fourth set. Finally, Germany marched away with 3-1 victory and improved to 2-0 in the tournament.
Winning skipper Björn Andrae expressed delight about victory. He said, “Our team played a really good game today. We won the tough first set after coming back in the result. That made things easier for us. We were very successful in blocking and defense
and were very precise in following our tactics.”
German head coach also shared his thoughts after the match. He stated, “I think there was no difference between the two teams today. The result came from a physical standpoint - yesterday Finland played five tough sets against Italy, while we won our first
game easily.”
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