Ningbo, China, August 9, 2019 - Argentina began their Tokyo 2020 qualification campaign with a 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 27-25, 25-23) edge against Canada in Pool F of the Tokyo Volleyball Qualification tournament at Beilun Sports and Arts Centre on Friday.
Argentina coach Marcelo Mendez: “We are happy to win against an excellent team. We showed our best form to win against a big team.”
Argentina captain Luciano De Cecco: “We are very happy. We are a good team and we played really hard. We stayed focused always and we played well in crucial points. Tomorrow we will try to play better against team Finland.”
Canada coach Glenn Hoag: “First, I would like to congratulate Argentina for their win. They had good focus and great defence. We knew their quality, setting position and how they can run good offence. We had some opportunities but we could not make it in crucial moments, which caused us to lose the match.
“For us right now, it is important to regroup as we have some young players. They need to learn from this type of matches. Tomorrow is an important match and we need to stay in the competition. I think we can come back, prepare and try to play a good game. China played pretty well today and beat Finland, so it would be a difficult match tomorrow.”
Canada captain John Gordon Perrin: “Argentina played a really good game. Their offence was really fast and it was hard to stop and defend. They also defended very well. I think we could have prepared much better especially this morning. We were missing some crucial points. I think the pressure affected us a little bit especially in those small situations of free balls and we messed it up. We should have kept focused to win this game.”