Argentinean coach Julio Velasco talks to his players during the match against Russia
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 9, 2016 – Coach Julio Velasco recommended his players to find and stay with the right balance between confidence and humility after their big victory over Russia in four sets, the second in a span of 45 days against the defending Olympic champions.
Julio Velasco, Coach of Argentina: I am very proud about this victory because I grew up learning from Russian volleyball. We defeated them at the World League and it was a difficult task to repeat. We followed our game plan and kept it for the whole match. Our serves and defence were the keys for us. We move closer to the quarterfinals but still have matches to play. My advice to my players is to find the correct balance between confident and humble an stay that way.
Luciano de Cecco, Captain of Argentina: We still have some areas where need to be improved but I am very happy and congratulate our coaching staff and my teammates. I think we blocked pretty well, played good and aggressive defence, served well and counterattacked. They (Russians) are a more physical team than us, but we played like it was the final match.
Vladimir Alekno, Coach of Russia: Argentina is a very strong team and defeated us in the World League. The summary of the match is simple mathematics: The team who made most errors lost the match. Congratulations to Argentina.
Sergey Tetyukhin, Captain of Argentina: We played good volleyball for parts of the game but today it was not possible against Argentina and their serves. That was the difference today. Congratulations to all the players of Argentina for a deserving victory.