Bangkok, Thailand, July 2, 2015 - The countdown clock is ticking. In less than 24 hours, the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix Pool A encounters will kick off at the Hua Mark Indoor Stadium in Bangkok, with hosts and world No.12 Thailand playing Serbia and the Olympic two-time champions Brazil taking on Japan in a rematch of the last year’s final.
Speaking at a press conference held ahead of this weekend's matches, Thailand coach Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai spoke about his team's match-up with Serbia: “It’s one of the most important matches from which my players will learn a lot of things and gain more experience and exposure. In the first match, Serbia are not underdogs. They are stronger than us. We have to study their game plan and make our preparations for the match against them the best. My players are fit physically and mentally and ready to go with their best form. It’s not easy to beat the Serbians, but we will learn from them. One thing I can be sure of is that we will do our best here on home soil.”
“We have trained hard because all teams we will play in this year’s World Grand Prix are very strong. We will have a chance to learn more tactics and techniques from those teams. It’s impossible to beat every team we play, but we will try our best to stay in Group 1,” he added.
Japanese coach Manabe Masayoshi said: “We will start our World Grand Prix with a tough encounter against defending and successive two-times champions Brazil. We are fielding several young talents in this tournament to check their performances. However, we will try our best in every match we play.”
Serbian coach Branco Kovasevic also hopes that his team will kick off their World Grand Prix campaign in style. “Every team is very strong, but we will do our best. We took bronze medal at the European Games and hope to repeat that feat.”
Brazilian coach Jose Roberto Guimares expressed his satisfaction with his team’s arrival in Thailand for the World Grand Prix. “We have played here in Bangkok three times already, and I’m glad that we are back here this time too. Pool A features strong teams and it will not be easy to beat all, but we will do our best.”
On Friday, Thailand and Serbia will play the curtain-raisers at 16.00 local time, followed by the match between Brazil and Japan, the rematch of last year’s final. Host Broadcasters Channel 7 will televise the Thai match live from 16.00, while satellite TV SMM will broadcast both matches live.