Nations League
Volleyball players start Olympic year with defeat
The German volleyball players started the Nations League with a defeat. photo
© Jean-Marc Wiesner/dpa
The German volleyball players are starting in the Nations League, but the Olympics are already looming. The opening match in the VNL was against the world champions – who lived up to their role as favorites.
The German volleyball players started the last tournament before the Olympic Games with a defeat. The opening match in the In the Nations League (VNL), national coach Michal Winiarski’s team lost 0:3 (21:25, 18:25, 23:25) against world champions Italy. At the site of the successful Olympic qualification in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), captain Christian Fromm was the German team’s most successful attacker with 13 points.
In the VNL, a total of twelve preliminary round matches will be played at three locations to reach the quarter-finals and to gain points for the world rankings, which will determine the last Olympic tickets. Since Germany, unlike Italy, has already secured its ticket to Paris, Winiarski is resting some deserving players who have had a long season behind them in the first week of the VNL.
For the players in Rio it will also be about recommending themselves for the Olympic squad. In the second VNL game, the Germans face Cuba today (7 p.m. German time).