Hamamatsu, Japan, September 16, 2019 – The Netherlands defeated Brazil 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-22) on the third day of the FIVB Women’s World Cup at Hamamatsu Arena on Monday.
Netherlands captain Maret Balkestein-Grothues: "It was a tough match and we knew Brazil are a very good team with lots of quality, but from the start we were very focused and aggressive. We kept pushing and it was our day today and I’m very proud of my team. I think the key today was the atmosphere in the team. OK, we made some mistakes and didn’t play perfect volleyball, but we kept believing and played with heart and passion and I think that’s very important for our team if we want to win big matches."
Netherlands coach Jamie Morrison: "We’re a good volleyball team that’s had two bad volleyball matches in the recent past. I’m proud of our team’s ability to believe that they can win every single point in this match, and I thought we played good volleyball in just about every phase of the game, so I’m proud of my team and looking forward to what’s next. For us, we talked about worrying about our side of the net, about the way we play and win or lose we left this match proud and I’m proud of our group and the way they came out and played with heart in this match.
"I thought the coordination between our block and defence was very good and our defence was in good places in relation to where they were, and I just thought we wanted to get the ball up more than Brazil did. I think there’s a desire that comes with defence and I think we had it tonight. We were going after everything, so it goes back to heart a little bit. I was really happy with overall how we played tonight."
Brazil coach Jose Roberto Guimaraes: "Congratulations to the Holland team. They played really good in block and defence. They did a very good job and we need to learn from this to improve our defence, our block. We only had four points on block, but they have very good spikers. Today, they defended many balls and had many counterattacks, and also they went ahead by three or four points at the start of the first and second sets."
Brazil captain Fabiana Claudino: "Congratulations to the Netherlands. We know the Netherlands have good defence and serves and because of this we couldn’t control the rhythm of the game and that’s why we lost the match. But it’s a long tournament and it’s at the beginning that we have this problem, so when we find a problem, we need to solve it."