France achieved an important victory over Canada on Thursday
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 11, 2016 – French offensive star Earvin Ngapeth hopes to be smiling again following their next two matches in the preliminary round the way he was after defeating Canada in straight sets.
Ngapeth, who scored 21 points in the victory, said that against Canada, the French team showed its real game and hopes to play at the same level when they face United States in their next match.
Laurent Tillie, Coach of France: I am very proud of my team after the tough start that we got, it was not easy to play at this level against Canada. I think we responded in a good way, but it’s not yet finished because we have one more win to be qualified to the quarterfinals. We are happy tonight but we need to be focused on the next game.
Where we are now, we are just looking to go out of group play. It’s true that (Earvin) Ngapeth played well in this match. The other players were around, played strong and solid, so we need this if we want to go through. We will try to improve each day and each match. We have to stay focused on our level and try to tactically give some pressure to the other team.
Earvin Ngapeth, Player of France: It was a superb game. We played well and won in straight sets. We have to play at this level again against the United States. We do not have the experience in the Olympic Games and I think we did not come into that first match the way we usually do. In this match, it was our real team and we played our game. We need to have this focus and have that smile in the next matches. We need to maintain our energy because we play very well when we have good energy.
Glenn Hoag, Coach of Canada: France played an excellent game today. They received well and their setter (Benjamin Toniutti) did a good job moving the ball around and putting a lot of pressure in our blocking. I think that was the key today.