The reigning champions Lions won all their matches in the regular season of the competition, but this time it was not enough from the start. They did not create problems with the serve, did not assert themselves in the attack and lost the first set 20:25. In the second set at 9:13, home coach Juan Manuel Barrial changed both of his sweepers, instead of Oskar Madsen and Daniel Čech, Luís Estrada and Jan Vodička came on the board.
Their vigorous attacks brought the home team back into the game, but the guests, even without the injured all-rounder Alejandro González, took the set to the winning end. From the score of 20:24, Prague avoided three set points, but then their all-rounder Casey Schouten played the ball for free instead of smashing it, and Luengas immediately punished it. Schouten lasted only 3:5 in the third set before being replaced by David Kollátor. The changed lineup won the third set for the Lions, in which the hosts won 25:21, and forced the match to continue.
But then the home team stopped doing well on the pass. In the fourth set, the South Bohemians jumped from 13:13 to 17:13 and maintained their lead. They won 25:21 and scored the first point in a three game winning streak. With a great contribution from the libero Michael Kovařík, who was declared the best player of the match.
Home coach Barrial admitted in an interview to Czech Television that the visitors outplayed his team. “We didn’t push them. Our service wasn’t. Their reception was better than ours,” he said. Libero Milan Moník regretted that he and his teammates did not please the home fans. “We couldn’t do anything at all. We managed the first set on the receiving end, but putting cars on one hand, getting blocked… We didn’t serve,” said Moník.
In the next match scheduled for Saturday, Jihostroj will have the advantage of the home environment. “It was a very important match. We haven’t won against Prague all season and now the boys believe they can beat them. But it’s only one step, the champion has to win three matches,” said the Polish coach of České Budějovice Andrzej Kowal. “We have to continue our game, as we finished this match, with the same energy, with the same motivation in our heads. It’s a new match, it can turn around again,” Kovařík added.
Moník believes that the initial defeat will not break the champions. “Last year we also lost for the first time. I hope that we will all look at our conscience, what we did wrong, if we went into it one hundred percent. I hope that this loss came in time and that it will start us,” he added.
2024-04-17 20:50:31
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