Ruse, Bulgaria, September 15, 2018 - Canada stays undefeated in Pool B at the 2018 FIVB World Championship! The North Americans achieved third win in a row after 3-1 (25-22, 25-19, 21-25, 25-23) against China in “Arena Monbat”.
Stephane Antiga, coach of Canada: “I’m satisfied with this victory! It was not easy against China. I think China and Egypt are good teams and they are capable to make surprises. You must show respect and to be concentrated during the whole match when you play against them. We did it, we played well and achieved this victory. This win already qualified us for the second round and we are happy with this fact. Now we must prepare for our next two matches against Brazil and France which will be difficult for sure. We will try to get the maximum out of them because at this tournament every point is important.”
John Gordon Perrin, captain of Canada: “We fought very hard to win this match. It was a difficult one for us. In the third set we opened the door for them and then they had a momentum of a very good play. They have good players that can play well. We gave them an opportunity to get to the game and then we had to stop that in a forth and win the match. It was a hard-fought game and I am proud that we showed a good heart to achieve the victory. I do not put any expectations for us regards to the upcoming matches we have against Brazil and France. I just want us to go out and play the best volleyball we can, and I am confident that we can compete with anybody. I will be happy if we just fight hard like we did today, and I think the rest will take care of itself."
Steven Marshall, player of Canada: “This match was a little difficult for us. They played really well in offense, they blocked really well. I think they definitely won the block-defense battle, but we served a little bit better and then we made a few big plays at the end of the sets. We are happy that we managed to win the three matches till now and to get all 9 points, even though this last game was not smooth as we would like. Now we have to focus on our next matches against Brazil and France that will be very tough, and hopefully we can take some points to the next round.”
Raul Lozano, coach of China: “It was not only the third set that we won, I think we changed totally compared to the day before. We played much better. Today our blocking was working. We did 18 blocks and that is a good/big number, especially when you play against strong team as Canada. We were good in attack as well, but they played better in defense, and that is why they had more balls in the counter attack part and they made use of that break points. Despite that, I think that today we saw a completely different Chinese team, we changed. I hope that we will play like this in the future.”