Serbia's Coach Zoran Terzic chats with captain Maja Ognjenovic during the match against Puerto Rico
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 8, 2006 – Serbian coach Zoran Terzic said his team boasted overconfidence in the first set against Puerto Rico and expressed concerns about repeating the same mistake when facing the stronger competition that lies ahead in the tournament.
Zoran Terzic, Coach of Serbia: Today happened exactly what we talked two days ago. The team went out thinking that getting the victory would be an easy task and halfway the first set they realized the truth. Then they felt the pressure of needing to overcome the opponent. We need to play better if we want to win one of the medals. Our next opponent will be USA and then China and Netherlands. The pool is very strong. At the end we got the victory 3-0 and we are satisfied with the result.
Jovana Brakocevic, Player of Serbia: It was a good battle in the first set and Puerto Rico played very well. As the game advanced we found our rhythm and we could dominate because as individual players we are stronger than Puerto Rico.
Juan Carlos Cruz, Coach of Puerto Rico: We made only seven errors in the first set, but four of them took place after the 20-point barrier. We keep battling but teams capitalize on our weaknesses. We did some counter-attacks and we keep pushing despite our physical condition as a short team. We have to improve our services in order to be able to compete against the teams here.
Karina Ocasio, Player of Puerto Rico: We made many errors that have cost us the sets. We haven’t been able to execute the plays in the key moments. Today we had better offensive rhythm than against United States. As a team we have played fairly well but we still need to improve and reduce the amount of errors.