League of Nations Volleyball. Difficult task of the Poles in Final Six

Polish volleyball players will participate in the final tournament of the first edition of the League of Nations before Wednesday's game against the Russians. The "Red-White" road to the semi-finals of the Lille event is not easy, as their second rival will be American.

The performance in LN, which replaced the World League played for many years in the calendar, is the first major test of the Poles led by coach Vital Heynen. From the beginning, the Belgian stipulated that he would use these struggles to test as many players as he could.

Before each intercontinental tournament, he made several changes in the team of 14 players, and for every game he displayed a different "six". The routers and players who scored the first season in the senior national team had chances.

In the first two events that took place in the country, the coach "White-Red" put more experienced volleyball players. victories. The series was interrupted by a defeat with Germany 1: 3 at the end of the fight in Łódź. At this point, the participant Michał Kubiak put an end to the performance LN, which had to rest and face the ophthalmic problems. The Polish captain will join his colleagues during the preparation of the World Championships in September

In June, Heynen players made a grueling tour of three continents – they successively participated in Japan, the USA and Australia. In Osaka, they showed their good side, they won all three matches and they were very close to the promotion to Final Six. The situation was complicated by a poor performance at Hoffman Estates near Chicago, where they did not even save a set. The final version of the intercontinental phase was decisive. "Bialo-Czerwoni" until the last day, they fought a duel match with Italy. The only free ticket to Lille that they won, winning the June 24 in Melbourne with the hosts 3-0. Heynen admitted that before the start of the NL, he would not qualify for the final tournament.

"I'm glad this emerging team has already achieved something, I've used 21 players in these 15 meetings …) We still have a long way to go, I'm happy with what we have accomplished in LN, and now I will have an additional opportunity to observe the players, "said the coach after returning to Poland a week ago. , who was later impoverished by Mateusz Mica, who underwent surgery associated with Belgian appendicitis

during calls to the event in Lille put some bettors – Fabian Drzyzga and Grzegorz Łomacz will occur, and the first libero will be Paweł Zatorski. Apart from Kubiak, there will also be two other important players who have performed well in the intercontinental phase – midfielder Piotr Nowakowski and forward Dawid Konarski

On less experienced volleyball players, Heynen decided to launch the attack and the adoption. Bartosz Kurek, appearing on the first of these articles, has many performances in the national team, but he has been the host for most of the time. After their return from Australia, the players had a few days off and on Friday they met in a short camp in Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki. Two days later they fly to France

The LN finals will take place from July 4th to 8th. The Poles went to Group B, where they will face the Russians on Wednesday, and a day later with the Americans. With "Sborna" in the intercontinental phase, they faced the end of May in Krakow, the second round of meetings. They won 3-0, but then the rivals were still chaotic, then they improved each week. In confrontation with the American team – in mid-June at Hoffman Estates – Heynen's accusations did not even win a game.

The president of the Polish Volleyball Federation, Jacek Kasprzyk, has stressed that he was aware that the "White-Reds" "We will be very mobilized, but remember that Russia and the United States already play in the strongest and most experienced teams, we have a lot of young boys "- the coach" White-Red "claimed

welcomes the French, Brazilians and Serbs.

Final Six semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, and the day after the final match and third place will be held

quarterback – Grzegorz Łomacz, Fabian Drzyzga

striker ] – Maciej Muzaj, Damien Schulz, Bartosz Kurek;

middle – Bartłomiej Lemański, Jakub Kochanowski, Mateusz Bieniek;

receiving [1] 9459020] – Artur Szalpuk, Aleksander Śliwka, Bartosz Kwolek, Bartosz Bednorz,

libero – Paweł Zatorski, Michał Żurek.

Wednesday

Group B: Poland – Russia (hours 18)

group A: France – Brazil (20.45)

Thursday

group B: Poland – United States (18) [19659024] group A: Serbia – Brazil (20.45)

friday

group B: Russia – United States (18)

Group A: France – Serbia (20.45)

Saturday

Semi-final 1 (14)

Semifinal 2 (16.30)

Sunday: [19659009] match for third place (17)

final (20.45)