It was announced as a difficult match, much more so than the rankings let on, and so it was. In fact, you don’t need to be a volleyball luminary to understand that Pool Libertas Cantù is a team whose technical values are far superior to its ranking, just read the names on the roster. Names who, on Saturday evening, showed all their value: Pedron, Ottaviani, Aguenier, people who in A2 are used to fighting to excel, rather than getting by. Not to mention Gamba, who with his 28 points made it clear that he wanted to remain among the top players in the category, no ifs or buts.
“It was a difficult match – coach Massimiliano Ortenzi’s words at the end of the match – as we expected. This is a complicated pitch, Cantù has good shifts at bat and important numbers in attack, there were moments in the match where we needed to have patience and be good at containing, in the second and fourth sets instead we were in too much of a hurry to do things. In the fifth however the approach was optimal and we deserved and earned it all, blocking ourselves in situations that previously they didn’t work, it still went well.”
The Yuasa Battery will have to get used to these situations and these challenges, because now everyone will face it with the attitude with which they face the top of the class, and with the crazy desire to be the first to trip those who, up until now, have tripped he really didn’t want to hear about it. A tie break that also leaves some regrets for a second set in which they started very strong, also accumulating a good lead gap, only to then squander it with a long series of direct errors, an atypical circumstance from what we have seen so far from the leaders. And from there, inevitably, the match became point to point.
“The point-to-point is there – continues the coach from the Marche – we have to be better and more patient at playing it, we have to learn to tolerate more in difficulties, there are moments of the match in which we need to stay focused even when things aren’t working well However, I am very happy with the reaction we had in the fifth set, we must have in our heads the desire to go and win these matches without taking anything for granted.”
