Italian team eyes the title of 2011 FIVB World League – Volleyball News
Italy is the number-one team of Pool D of the 2011 FIVB Volleyball World League and has bigger plans for the coming matches. Italian team put up against South Korea, Cuba and France in the pool matches and quickly overpowered their rivals.
The 2011 FIVB World League tournament was kicked started on May 27 with sixteen of the best volleyball teams from all five continents of the world. The championship was opened with the first preliminary round-robin, which is scheduled to complete its run
over six weeks. The Final Round of the FIVB World League will be staged in the seventh week. A total of 24 matches have been played in three weeks. At the end of third week, Brazil, Russia, Argentina and Italy have topped the ranking in their respective pools.
The boys around head coach Mauro Berruto were challenged by the French team in the opening week of the tournament. Team Italia performed amazingly well and ousted the French side on their home soil. It was a great start for Italy in the championship.
In the second week, Cuba came across the Italian side. Cuban team put up a great effort but couldn’t match its performance with the Italians. Better attack and defence capabilities allowed Italy to march away as winners. Success against France and Cuba boosted
the Italian team’s morale as they faced South Korea in the third week and held them off for victory in both matches.
Considering all the facts and figures of the game so far, Italy is in very good position to make further progress. Team Italy is actually eyeing the title trophy of 2011 FIVB World League. Former Italian star and two-time world champion, Andrea Zorzi, had
his say about the prospects of success for Italy. He said that the Italian team is in top form and it has a fair chance to make it to the number-one slot. This year the conditions are quite favourable for them to shine. The team has faced a few disappointing
years but the time has come that they should showcase their real talent to the world.
Zorzi is generally regarded as a volleyball legend and he has a lot of weight in his opinion. He represented Italy at many international events in the past. He was part of the successful Men’s National Team of Italy, which captured the World Championship
titles in 1990 and 1994. Besides this, he helped his team in winning three league titles.
Speaking about the performance of current Italian team, he said that solid defence has been the key to success for the team. He said block and defence has been fundamental to their performance in the 2011 FIVB World League competition.
In the coming weeks, Italy will meet the same pool members. The fourth week games are set to resume on Friday, June 17 and France will once again take on Italy. Italian squad has the confidence of previous victories and it is more likely that they will comfortably
defeat the opponents. On the whole, they are tipped to finish the prelims in the top slot.
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