Pavel Pankov carries his teammate libero Evgenii Andreev as part of the celebration in the victory over China.
Tijuana, Mexico, September 16, 2015 - In a rematch of the U19 World Championship finals of 2013, the same generation of players that fought for the gold medal at the same venue (the High Performance Centre) faced again now at the U21 tournament.
Despite winning in a three setter, Russian coach Mikhail Nikolaev, said that their Chinese opponents were very strong.
“It was not too fast to win. We played against this team in the finals (of the U19 Championship) here. They are a very strong and interesting team. Today they served very good,” Nikolaev remarked.
“We were stronger in attack and high ball. I am very glad. My players played well, Pavel (Pankov) did things very well as the leading player of our team,” the Russian coach commented.
Genyin Ju, coach of China shared also his impressions after the match.
“Today we played against a very strong team and we just played 40 percent of our capacity so we lost, because we did not give it all and not showed up all our potential but I believe tomorrow we will improve against our next rival,” said Ju.
Yaochen Yu, captain of China admitted his team did not play well. “We did not did things well. We could not play better than our rivals. We must improve our performance and attitude in our next match.”
Pavel Pankov, captain of Russia stated: “Chinese players are really strong and a good team. They play a good combination with the ball and have a good tactical scheme with the ball.”
For Pankov and his teammates every time they play against China things are not easier. “They are not an easy team, but today we were stronger this time. We could not get tired, we have a good condition now and we could be able to play up to five sets against them.”