Zhejia Zhang and Libin Liu of China block against Canada.
Tijuana, Mexico, September 17, 2015 - China classified to the semifinals at the FIVB Men’s U21 World Championship. Their blocking, receiving skills and speed have been part of their characteristics.
It is not easy to prepare for a world caliber team, but there is always some time to hang out and enjoy a competition far away from home.
“We feel great for the victory and at the same time, despite we are far and away, we have felt a special motivation when the Chinese community members come here to see us,” said captain Yaochen Yu.
“In Mexicali and Tijuana we have receive the full support of the people,” he added.
“Canada played as a very strong team. Their stars (Ryan Nickifor and Brandon Koppers) are very tough players. We watch them and analyzed them to prepare very well against this match,” Liu remarked.
“We are in semi finals. We had the chance to close with a victory but today it was not easy, Canadians are very strong and physical. Our players tried to do their best to win the game,” said Genyin Ju, head coach of China.
“For our next match we even have to do better things in order to advance,” Ju added.
Canadian coach John Barrett stated that his team made many errors. “We did not handled at all the pressure of the match and the Chinese team is a very good team when they receive the ball well. They are difficult to stop in attack,” Barrett said.
“Congratulations to Canada. We have to regroup and prepare much better for the next match,” He added as they aspire to improve their performance in the classification round for places 5 -8.
“Every match for us is very important and we have to show our pride as Canadians and Canadian Volleyball,” Barrett concluded.