Volleyball Update: FIVB Men’s World Championship 2010- Italy vs. Bulgaria
The FIVB Men’s World Championship is supposed to hit the scene next month on 25th September and the volleyball activity will go on till 10th October, 2010. The fun-filled two weeks of volleyball will showcase some of the great competitions. 24 teams from five different continents will grace the tournament.
In this connection, the participating teams are preparing for the big competition and playing friendly practice matches in order to measure their level of expertise. The teams from Italy and Bulgaria played a practice match on Monday, 30th August 2010. The Italian city Messina hosted the competition and Italy picked up victory over the visitor team from Bulgaria. The match covered five flights to reveal the results. Finally at the end of fifth set, Italy finished the tiring game and claimed 3-2 (28-26, 25-18, 23-25, and 16-14) victory.
Although Bulgaria lost the match but they fought like a hungry wolf and engaged Italy in a strenuous fight. The first set started with straight mighty serves from Italy, which provided them an edge to push the competitors in back-court area. Bulgarian team had to focus on their defence-line and they successfully created balance in the game. The points’ counter shifted with a difference of close numbers. Every single point added much weight to the team’s lead and game progressed with a perfect flow. Luckily, Italy availed the chance in last moments of the set and finished it with a point-scoring kill. Italy won the set with a margin of two points at 28-26.
Victory in the opening set put them on the right track and set a direction for them to lead the game. Their position was strong and they benefitted from home-court. Bulgaria tried to hold their spot but seemingly, they failed to attain balance in the second set. In the meantime, Italy scored additional points and took a lead in points’ run. They further extended their lead and pushed it to the set-point. Bulgarian side collapsed after receiving 18-25 defeat.
Bulgaria was in trouble after losing the first two sets but they managed to shake off the Italian influence in third set. Some good blocks and bump passes earned the Bulgarian team with consecutive points. In addition, they avoided the ball-handling errors and saved many points. This was how Bulgaria stole points from Italy and pushed them behind. Ultimately, Bulgaria achieved 23-25 win in the third set.
Afterwards, Bulgaria tried hard to tie the fourth set but Italy didn’t let them go off the line. With two-set win, Italy had the chance to dismiss Bulgaria with one more set-defeat. It created frenzy in the game and ball stayed in the air for most of time. Italians hit the spikes with precision, while opponent Bulgaria tackled their strike with accurate blocks. No side was ready to accept defeat and continued with best of their volleyball skills. A slight mistake from Bulgarian setter created a fair chance for Italy to finish the game at 16-14.
Italy clinched victory in friendly match with Bulgaria by posting a score of 3-2.
The arena was completely sold out and masses were gathered to witness the great game between Italy and Bulgaria. The Italian team’s captain Valerio Vermiglio had the huge fan following as he grew up in the same city. Italian coach expressed joy about their victory and commented, “I’m very happy, it was a difficult day. We are working to prepare for the World Championships. We’ll try to win all the matches, it’s not important if they are friendly matches. Bulgaria is an excellent team and during this week here in Messina we did a good work.”
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