Sir Susa Vim Perugia has already closed and put the first championship final match in the drawer.
The Block Devils started off on the right foot last night in the series that awards the tricolor against Monza. In an amazing PalaBarton, truly thrilling, Angelo Lorenzetti’s boys brought home the first point after a complicated, hard-fought and nervous match as befits a championship final.
But today the thoughts are already moving forward. The team meets in the afternoon for a physical and technical work session in Pian di Massiano. Early tomorrow morning departure for Brianza, in the afternoon final finishing touches at the Opiquad Arena in Monza where on Sunday, with kick-off at 3.15pm, we will take to the pitch for game 2.
“Yesterday was a point-to-point and nervous match,” explains coach Lorenzetti. “I was kind of expecting it. Afterwards I expected that once we started we would loosen up in certain technical situations that even in the series with Milan we had perceived to be important and that we had managed to do. Last night, however, we did it often but not always and in certain moments we paid for it.”
Perugia’s coach is looking forward to Game 2.
“We have to read the situation of game 1 carefully. Monza was coming off an incredible series against Trento, it was their second consecutive away match and it wasn’t easy for them. In this we must read the enormous improvement that they can make for game 2. At the same time we must identify the improvement to be had, we must have it in terms of approach, not just as a team but as an individual, and in certain choices. Having said that, we know who Monza is and what he has done. When a team eliminates Civitanova and Trento, even if the latter without the starting setter, it means that they know how to play volleyball well and have always demonstrated it in the championship, often beating the big teams. So we must go to Monza with enthusiasm, humility, with the idea of living it to the fullest and a little better than race 1.”
Among yesterday’s great protagonists was director Simone Giannelli, MVP of game 1.
“It’s a final and Monza has already demonstrated all its value in these playoffs. We certainly won’t discover them now, we’re talking about a team made up of great players who have been playing at an international level for years and who never give up like us. We’ve been training all year to play point-to-point and these matches will be like this, this series will be like this. Yesterday the entrances of Leo and Seba (Leon and Solè, ed.) in the fourth set were fundamental, they are synonymous with the team and we know that everyone will be needed in this final. As always in the playoffs, now there is game 2, yesterday’s match no longer counts for anything.”
