During the outgoing weekend Bulgaria’s men’s national volleyball side received the team of the Netherlands as part of the qualification tournament for the World Men’s Volleyball League finals. The host games of the Bulgarian volleyball players take place as usual in the Black Sea capital of Varna in the Convention Hall of the Culture and Sports Palace in the coastal city.
The Bulgarian team started the game with utmost confidence and gained quickly 4:1. The Dutch coach Peter Blange demanded two technical breaks, the second at 16:4 in Bulgaria’s favour, but to no avail. When the score mounted to 20:6 the Dutch coach released almost all of his reserves into the game. But it was no use since Tsvetan Sokolov of Bulgaria ended the game at 25:9.
The second game started on more equal terms, but near the end the difference in score amounted to 21:14, and the Dutch players seemed to have lost faith in their victory. Matej Kaziiski, Todor Alexiev, Viktor Josifov and Teodor Salparov excelled in the second game.
The third game was a fierce one, with the Netherlands leading 18:15 in the score, but soon Bulgaria scored a draw 20:20, and managed to score 27:25, thus ending the first match as winners in straight sets.
Bulgaria’s Andrey Zhekov commented he was pleased with the straight set win over the Netherlands. “We made a strong kick-off, but I don’t think the Netherlands were a rival easy to beat. We could have lost near the end, but we were lucky and that did not happen”, he added.
On the second day unlike the previous one the Dutch team began with greater focus and showed more variability in their attacks, which helped them keep the game to a draw. But the Bulgarians did not give up and snatched the win at the last minute with Matej Kaziiski scoring 25:22.
In the second game the Dutch volleyball players led by 8:6 and later even reached 12:6, but the Bulgarian team carried out two successful attacks and finally ended victorious at 25:20.
The last game was particularly hard for the Bulgarian team and it is worth mentioning Dick Kooy's aces. It looked as if Bulgaria’s defence was lacking in concentration, but Teodor Salparov helped his teammates endure and marked a draw 14:14. After 20:19 for Bulgaria the game became very tied, and it was until the score peaked to 31:30. And then Dick Kooy made a mistake, Bulgaria’s Andrey Zhekov scored a fantastic ace and Bulgaria won again in straight sets!
Bulgaria has yet to meet the powerful team of Brazil in Varna, and then it will be decided which of them ends first, and who remains runner-up in that qualification group for the World Men’s Volleyball League.
