Denys Kaliberda (r.) Was most recently only a bank player for the German champions Berlin. In the national team, however, he displaces younger talent.
Photo: imago images / Jaroslav Ozana
Andrea Giani had known what was in store for his team. There is no other national team besides his own, with which the national volleyball coach is more concerned than that of his home country Italy. “They have some players that I have trained myself at the club,” Giani said before the European Championship quarter-finals in Ostrava on Wednesday evening. »Italy always play well, but since the arrival of new coach Ferdinando De Giorgi they have treated the ball very differently. They make extremely few mistakes. «Giani was supposed to be right with the prognosis, but was unable to find a solution to reduce the error rate of the German team to a similarly low level. In the end it was a clear 0: 3.
The opponents were too strong, the gap too great. Giani had seen his team much further in its development. “Overall, I’m pretty happy with the tournament. We wanted to at least get to the quarter-finals. I am also pleased with the quality that we have shown. All the players helped the team, ”said the Italian, drawing a positive conclusion from the European Championship. It was visibly difficult for him to admit that the world leaders are still a long way ahead. “Our goal for the summer was to get one step closer to the teams up there. I think we did that. But today’s game showed that we have to go a little further to win duels like this. “
In his almost five-year tenure, the former world-class player initiated the necessary generation change, but never carried it through consistently. In the insignificant Nations League, Giani experiments with young players, but prefers to rely on the older stars such as main attacker Georg Grozer (36) or player Lukas Kampa (34) in large tournaments. That is understandable, after all, Giani wanted to go to the Olympics with his team and only missed qualifying in the last game. Also at the EM should come out more than the 13th place last in the Nations League.
However, this means that young substitutes in the second row lose important experience. After Kampa’s failure, player Jan Zimmermann led the team solidly through the tournament, but he lacks the precision and creativity to play a strong block like the Italian one. In the first set of the quarter-finals, Grozer also fell out with knee problems. The 21-year-old Linus Weber is athletically well advanced, but in difficult situations he does not come close to finding a solution in attack with such a high rate as Grozer. “It was a chance for Linus to show what he can do in an important game. He needs that to carry us in the future, ”said Giani. The question arises as to why he didn’t set it up from the start. The fact that he preferred to rely on the 31-year-old outside attacker Denys Kaliberda instead of younger alternatives shows either that the second row is still lacking in quality or that Giani is not ready to trust them in big games. For comparison: all Italians who were on the field on Wednesday are younger than 30.
The German Volleyball Association (DVV) can look back on a disappointing summer for its indoor teams without Olympic participation and after the women were eliminated in the European Championship round of 16. Now he has to decide whether to give Giani a third chance. The Italian once led the Slovenes to the top of the world, but in Germany he hardly succeeds. His contract, which expired in 2020, was extended by one year in January. But this time too, the great progress did not materialize. Giani thinks there is. “It annoys me that we couldn’t see what we earned,” he said. It seems to have been going backwards since the surprising EM silver in 2017.
DVV sports director Christian Dünnes nevertheless shared Giani’s positive tournament record: “The team has shown good performance, much more is not possible at this point in time.” A little astonished at the rapid change in the opponent, he added: “Italy’s team already has one after the Olympics Change initiated without sacrificing great quality. That is enviable and remarkable. We also have young players who still have a lot of potential and can definitely take steps forward in the right environment.
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