“Physically, it was burning”, the Yavbou team recounts this second set of madness against Brazil

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From our special correspondent in Tokyo,

Two men among others to thank that France volleyball extends its lease a little until the quarterfinals, after a comeback from the coffin worthy of Uma Thurman in the Kill Bill. The DJ of the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, who first sent sound from the house to encourage our troops: I Will Survive, Maître Gims, Vegedream, In an organized band, we would have thought we were on Saturday evening at the campsite des flots blue. And a little Earvin Ngapeth, too.

“Physically, it was burning”

The number one striker of the Blues, transparent at the start of the tournament, like the friends, sent wood against Brazil. 26 pawns, including 14 on this endless second set which plunged us back into our memories of Isner-Mahut at Wimbledon. 39-37 for the Blues in the end, with certain points to be framed at the Musée d’Orsay, next to the Impressionists. We think in particular of this exchange of nuts at 32-33 on a Brazilian set point, while France was on the edge of the precipice. The ball has sailed well five times in both camps, a rarity in volleyball, while a last against outside of a Brazilian tower relieves all the French bench.

“There were so many incredible points that we could make a fifteen-minute highlight of this match,” says Yacine Touati. We were tired, we were just focused on what we had to do. We could see everyone’s heads, a little white, at the end of their rope, but that was what had to be given to get there ”. It took a last ball from Earvin Ngapeth subtly slipped along the line a kind of dead leaf to complete this set of 50 minutes and consider, finally, the quarter-finals, with a second won more quietly. “Physically it was hard, it burned, we had much less rest than them, underlines the star of the Blues. It is really with the guts and the heart that we went to look for this set which begins to make them doubt. We know that teams like that, it’s the moment when you doubt you have to push ”.

One more match for Laurent Tillie

“I saw for a while that we had nine match points, then I stopped counting,” laughs Benjamin Toniutti. But it’s important to win these sets, it’s good for morale ”. And how. This gives a first qualification for the quarter-finals of an Olympic tournament and a match for Laurent Tillie, the man of the revival of French volleyball, who will give way to a coach… Brazilian after the Games. Promised, the coach of the Blues has not thought of him. No time, after a first week in roller coaster, with descent of the Urals in free fall and ascent without chairlift started against Russia, precisely. “We are survivors. We only want to think about the next game, stay in the flow and that’s it. We don’t think of anything other than keeping our level, our desire to play, regaining recovery and dynamism ”.

It will take Tuesday against Poland, the other best team in the world with Brazil, to say it quickly. But victory, or not, the France team has gone one step further in its permanence at the top level. First to qualify for the Olympics twice in a row, then to get out of the pool. It is the first time that a team lives from the Games and that half of this team replay the ones after. In handball and basketball, it’s constant. This is why the Tokyo Olympics were essential for Paris 2024. The experience, it cannot be bought and it cannot be decreed.You have to have patience, and we are in a country of patience, we see bonsai how they do. An athlete, a team and a federation feed on history and continuity ”. If the Blues take a little lead by playing the medal, we do not say no.





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