Katowice, Poland, May 25, 2018 - Poland had a near-perfect start on their first FIVB Volleyball Nations League tournament at home in Katowice, defeating Korea in straight sets (25-20, 25-18, 25-21).
Poland coach Vital Heynen: “I'm satisfied because some players, like Sliwka or Szalpuk looked good on the court. The match against Canada lately was not so good, maybe Korea was not so different an opponent, but I think it's good to have won at least one game. I'm very good at statistics, maybe we are now first in the tables. Maybe we are leading in Volleyball Nations League? I'm joking of course. We will see what happens tomorrow against Russia and the day after. It's always important to win matches, which we have to win. The match against Korea went as it was supposed to go.”
Poland captain Michal Kubiak: “3-0 is always a success. The team looked good today. You don’t judge the winners – our coach said that we did not play exactly as he wanted, but the victory is what counts, so that’s important. We now have a new goal ahead of us. We have many debuting players on board and everyone will get a chance to play, gain experience, travel the world, fight the jet lag and most of all fight the opponents on court and fight yourself – see what the Volleyball Nations League is about. I hope we can get into the Final Six, but tomorrow we’re taking on Russia and that’s what we have to focus on.”
Korea coach Kim Hochul: “It's a great honour for us to be here and play against one of the best teams in the world. It was a very important experience for our players which should help our players in the future. The speed and height were the missing elements in our game because in these aspects Poland were better than us. Our players didn't show their quality in this match, we had a long journey to come here so they are still struggling with jet lag.”
Korea captain Moon Sung-Min: “We can learn many things from the Polish team. We have to aim to their level to be competitive in the world. I'm really happy that I can play here. In Poland you have great fans, but it's nothing new for us because in Korea we also enjoy enthusiastic support from our fans. We don't think about the fact that our opponent is better than us, we are focused on what we have to do on the court. If we show our best game, anything can happen. We have to prepare even better for next matches and focus on our game and then we will see.”