Brazil is one step ahead of other teams which played in Bydgoszcz. Bulgaria and Poland, the medalist of the last world championship, are still far from the perfect shape. Also Czech Republic is in the middle of preparations.
Brazil won this year’s Hubert Jerzy Wagner’s Memorial and already showed a good shape before the upcoming world championship. “Canarinhos” were playing without their famous head coach Bernardo Rezende who got injured during the practice before the beginning of the tournament. However it didn’t negatively affect the performance of his team. Moreover, Brazilians were extremely motivated to win the tournament to dedicate victory to Bernardinho. They had no problems with beating Czech Republic and Bulgaria, also Poland didn’t stop Giba and his teammates. Once again Brazilians proved that at the moment they are the best team in the world and the main favorite to win the gold at the world championship in Italy. All the players are already in the good shape, however “canarinhos” will still work to improve their reception. It’s no surprise that the only way to overcome well-prepared Brazil is to focus on the strong, hard serve. Murilo Endres has been voted to the MVP title and is becoming the new leader of the team.
Bulgaria, the second team of this year’s Hubert Jerzy Wagner’s Memorial is still far from the optimal shape. Even their top star Matej Kazijski didn’t play at the same high level all the time however still he was the best spiker of the tournament. It seems that now Bulgaria needs to improve a lot their defense and balance their shape in other elements of the art of volleyball. The hosts of the tournament and reigning European champions are also in the middle of preparations for the world championships and need to work a lot.
Poland managed to win only one game against Czech Republic and had serious problems against Bulgaria and Brazil. There is only a couple of weeks left to the world championship held in Italy so there is little time left for the preparations. For sure this tournament was an important step for both coaches and players and helped them to find out what are the most important factors to work on at the moment. Brazil is one step ahead of other teams which played in Bydgoszcz but the true test for them will come at the world championship.
Individual awards:
Best spiker: Matej Kazijski (Bulgaria)
Best blocker: Piotr Nowakowski (Poland)
Best Server: Lukas Tichacek (Czech Republic)
Best receiver: Dante Amaral (Brazil)
Best libero: Teodor Salparov (Bulgaria)
Best setter: Marlon Muragati (Brazil)
MVP: Murilo Endres (Brazil)
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