Nikola Grbic was shocked when he saw the German play. He asked himself one question
Poland lost to Germany 1:3 in the first friendly this year. Nikola Grbic summarized the meeting and pointed to a player who made a great impression on him.
The long-awaited national team season has begun in earnest. On Wednesday, Nikola Grbic's players played their first sparring in Spodek in Katowice. The opponent was Germany, who turned out to be better, winning 3:1. It's just a friendly event, but our team has nothing to regret. This is mainly about the advantages we lost in individual sets. This also caught the attention of the Polish national team coach.
Grbic summarized the match against Germany
– We did a lot of things well. We attacked well and blocked better than our rivals. But they served great. They sent 12 aces and some of them took place in decisive moments. In the first and third sets we were leading almost all the time, but we were not able to use our advantage – Nikola Grbic assessed the match in the mix zone.
– It's hard for me to talk about details at this point. I would have to look at this match with a cool head and see what we should have done better – added the coach of the Polish national team.
The loss in the friendly match should not hurt the Polish volleyball players, because we are only dealing with the beginning of preparations for this year's most important events, including the Olympic Games. However, during the clash with the Germans, Grbic made strong gestures towards his players, reacting emotionally to the events on the pitch.
– The result of the match is always important to me. However, it depends on how we play. When we do it wrong, we lose, especially in duels with rivals such as Germany, emphasized Grbic.
Moritz Reichert impressed the coach
The Serb shared an interesting observation at the end of the conversation with journalists. He gave an example that the situation in the club may differ significantly from what happens to volleyball players in the national team. He pointed to Moritz Reichert, a rival player. The German made a great impression on the Polish national team coach.
– If you played a good season for the club, it doesn't mean that you will do well for the national team, but there are also situations where the opposite is true. Let's look at a player from Germany – Moritz Reichert. During the match I asked myself, does he play for Perugia? Or maybe in Zenit Kazan? No, he plays in the French league. And he was able to serve 110 km/h to the line. He was killing us, sometimes from the left, sometimes from the right, concluded Grbic.
The Polish team will have another sparring match on Thursday. This time the white and red team will face Ukraine. This match starts at 6 p.m.