Riffa, Bahrain, August 24, 2017 - France settled into the quarter-finals of the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship, with a straight-sets win against United States on Thursday at Isa City Sports Hall.
France coach Belmadi Slimane: We took the time to observe the playing style of United States. We were a bit afraid of their tall spikers, but we knew that if we could work hard on reception and service, then we can give them some difficulty in attack. In the wings, it will be easier for us to play. They utilise the pipe a lot, but without this working for them, it was manageable for us. Today, my players did a good job.
France captain Lucas Soldner: We planned to play today as we have from previous matches by keeping the same team spirit. We want to play every single game as if it were the final. We want to win a medal in this championship. If possible, we want the gold one.
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USA coach Samuel Shweisky: A lot of respect goes out to France, as they are a talented team, and a very well-coached team with skilled players. We were a little disappointed with how we played in the beginning of the first set. It was hard to get some better energy and we realised that they were very good but we could compete with them. I do not want to blame the injuries but it definitely affected us. We made some adjustments. We tried to stay focused and kept on improving but when you have some injury disadvantages and against a vey good team, it’s hard. But I was very pleased because even with all that we came close. We just want to look at the positives and take them into the next matches
USA captain Joel Schneidmiller: I thought it was a good test for us to overcome the adversity of those two injuries. I thought we stayed together as a team for the most part. It’s usually easy to fall apart when that happens. I thought we had good energy and that’s something positive that I want to take from this match.