Netherlands wins the final showdown of European League against Turkey – Volleyball News
The Netherlands men’s national volleyball team worked out an amazing performance in the final showdown of the 2012 CEV European League on Sunday and defeated arch-rival Turkey, 3-2 (25-16, 25-15, 22-25, 23-25, 26-24).
The Baskent Sports Hall, which was filled up with some 3,400 fans, saw the rise of Dutch squad. The hosts fought a great battle with the visiting team from the Netherlands, but failed to overcome the opponent. The Oranjes played in front of the strange audience
but did not show any sign of intimidation. They played in their usual style and marched away with victory.
Turkey’s Emre BATUR settled for the top-scorer’s position as he added match-high 21 points in the loss. The second best-scorer of the match was also from the Turkish team. COŞKUN
supported Turkey with 19 points. For Netherlands, KROLIS did an amazing job and contributed team-high 18 points.
Dutch team opened the match with an ambition of victory, which was quite evident from their body language. They jumped to an early lead of 8-4 at the first technical timeout and extended it to 16-9 at the next TTO. The Turks suffered the set-back and dropped
opening stanza after scoring only 16 points, while the Dutch went on front with 1-0 lead.
Second set also had some sort of symmetry with the previous set. The visiting squad came out firing and picked up an early four-point. Turkey made frequent attempts, but could not manage to break the rhythm and tone of charged-up visitors. Second set also
slipped from the hands of Turks as they ended with 15 points.
Following the loss of two sets in row, Turks came up with better performance in the third set. They claimed third set and followed it up with another set-win in the fourth frame. Hence, the score tied at 2-2. After a close competition in the decisive fifth
set, Netherlands settled for match victory.
Netherlands’ Jeroen Rauwerdink stated: “We were impressed by Turkey’s performance yesterday and we knew that we had a tough game ahead of us. Although we played so well in the first two sets, then we slowed down, but still won the match. It is an important
success for us to earn gold in a tournament like this.”
Veljko Basic, the coach of home squad, also had his say about the match. He said that the tie-breaker fifth set changed the scenario. However, he congratulated Dutch team for their victory. He also appreciated the good effort of his team for creating the
dead-lock of 2-2.
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