Ludwigsburg, Germany, June 16, 2018 – An all round team performance by the hosts in Ludwigsburg sees Germany move up to 9th courtesy of a 3-1 win (25-19, 25-19, 20-25, 25-22) over Argentina. Choosing to rest some of their normal starters, Coach Andrea Giani will be pleased to be leaving with all three points.
With both teams losing yesterday, the pressure was on to turn their weekends around. Moritz Reichert ended up second top scorer on 16 points and after the game spoke, saying: “We had a good feeling on the court, but lost our way in the 3rd set so are pleased to come back and win the fourth.”
The star of the show was Simon Hirsch who is really starting to feel comfortable in the opposite slot for the European Silver Medallists. He scored 17 points through the match including 14 attacks, four blocks and 1 ace. In the fourth when things got a little tight Marcus Böhme joined the game for the first time and scored an impressive and important 5 points. Tobias Krick is still learning his trade but will also be pleased with the 12 points he amassed through middle.
Coach Julio Velasco was his usual composed self, instructing his team in a calm manner whether they were ahead or behind but again they leave empty handed. Down in 14th position with only two wins from eleven matches will not be how he envisaged the VNL going but they can only look forward.
Known for spreading the points, Argentina ended up again with four players reaching double figures, namely: Cristian Poglajen (12), Martin Ramos (12), Agustín Loser (10) and Sebastian Solé (10).
Germany (including East Germany and West Germany) have now won 11 of their 15 world level major competition matches against Argentina, although have lost the last two with them. Both teams are back on the court tomorrow at the MHP Arena as Germany face Russia, but before that Argentina will take on Japan.
At 16:00 local time it was game on with Germany looking to get their home fans on side early after the disappointing 3-2 loss the previous day to Japan. From the first point they were one step ahead of their South American opposition and gradually established a lead. After just 24 minutes it was Ruben Schott with only his second point of the match that finished the set 25-19.
Coming out of the technical time-out at 16-11 in the second set, Germany took three straight blocks to extend their lead further. What followed was slightly less impressive with a number of service errors that ultimately letting Argentina have some hope of levelling the match. Simon Hirsch had other ideas and in the end it was an Argentina serve that went long that finished the set, mirroring the score from the first set.
At 0-3 down in the third Argentina were forced to call a time-out needing to change things if they were to alter the course of the match. They came straight out and scored to kick start their set. Martin Ramos is the captain and more often than not the leader of Argentina and he was urging his team to believe. Believe they did, jumping to a 16-13 lead, after some great sportsmanship from Germany as they owned up to a touch to save wasting any time with a Challenge.
Jan Martinez Franchi had started the third set in place of Tomas Lopez and he was seeing a lot of the ball, but it was Sebastian Solé that set up set point only for his opposite Tobias Krick sent a spike long and the set went to Argentina 25-20.
Germany have lost their last two VNL matches in the tie break and as they don’t have a particularly good record in five set matches they were keen to finish before reaching that point. They didn’t get off to the best of starts and trailing 1-4 Coach Andrea Giani had seen enough and brought on Marcus Böhme who hit a winner and quickly followed it up with an ace.
Trailing at the halfway point it was time for next of Germanys more regular starters to be called into action as Lukas Kampa came in. Then leading 20-18 and sensing the win was within reach, Christian Fromm also joined the fray. His impact was significant with a kill block, a wipe off the block and a line kill to take Germany to match point. They then erected that blocking wall again and with as vertical block as you are likely to see the Germans took the fourth set and the match.