Italy-Brazil is never a trivial challenge. Whether it’s football or volleyball, the imagination in power (sporting) turns on enthusiasm and fears. Which are exactly the emotions experienced by the blue volleyball on the eve of the world semifinal, scheduled today in Bangkok at 2.30 pm Italian time. “We hope to beat them and dispel this statistics that always sees us defeated at the World Cup against Brazil,” says the technical commissioner Julio Velasco.
The world taboo is a little less taboo out of the world champion perimeter, given that the last two crossings have smiled at the blue of Velasco, helping to build the series of 34 wins in a row that the CT looks with skepticism. «It will not count the past for them, just as the series will not count for us: it will be a game in its own right. And above all a good game », his belief. Danesi, Egonu and companions have beaten the Brazilians in the last two nations league meetings: first in the group stage, 3-0 in Rio de Janeiro, then in the Lodz final, with a 3-1.
For the Argentine Velasco there will then be a challenge in the challenge, that with the Brazilian technician Zè Roberto: “We always joke with him,” Are you still here? “, He says to me. And I, “Yes, until I give up you don’t give up either” ».
More or less what will happen between blue and Brazilian on the field tomorrow. «This will certainly be a difficult game, I believe balanced and to play the belief of Italy’s coach with great attention -. What I can say is that the girls are fine, we are working well, but then it will be the field to speak. They are a technical team, full of energy: I expect a very concentrated Brazil and ready to give everything, like us, moreover. It will be a good game, then we hope to win it … ».
