Coaches Marco Bonitta (right) and Karch Kiraly exchange greetings after the match Italy vs USA
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 12, 2016 – Italian Coach Marco Bonitta is of the opinion USA can win the gold medal of women’s volleyball at Rio 2016 Olympic Games, something unprecedented in the history of the competition.
The United States have finished in second place three times and that includes the last two editions in Beijing and London when they lost the final match to Brazil.
Bonitta made his comments after his team lost to United States in their contest on Friday afternoon at Maracanazinho Stadium to remain as the only undefeated team in Pool B.
Marco Bonitta, Coach of Italy: I am very proud of my players as they battled so hard in this important match against the USA. That is a very strong team and in my opinion they can win the gold medal. My team played hard, never gave up and I am very proud and satisfied with their job.
Karch Kiraly, coach of USA: Italy played really good volleyball. (Antonella) Del Core and No.18 (Paola Egonu) did a nice job for them. I love how hard they fought and how hard they made us work.
Kimberly Hill, player of USA: Italy are a good team and we obviously didn’t play our best volleyball, but we did a good job of fighting through to the end and playing one point at a time. I think that just shows the character as a team that we’re always willing to fight even if we’re way down, we can always come back and win.
Jordan Larson, player of United States: We found some ways to make key plays in the tense moments of the match. That was the key for us. Also it was important to stay together as a team. I am one of the veterans of this group so it is part of my job is to be there for the young players. I like the chemistry of our group and we will continue giving our best and trying to win games.
Martina Guiggi, player of Italy: We knew that we didn’t have a chance before we started the match, but we just wanted to try to finish well as we can. The USA are a very good team and we had to focus 100 per cent against them. We are happy that at least we won a set. It’s a good thing that we can restart. The future of this team will be very interesting because our players like Egonu and (Alessia) Orro have good potential. We will look out after them and see that they have a good future.
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