Germany Frees Coach Lozano

European Volleyball Federations take their jobs seriously.

Over a week ago, the Germany Federation and men’s coach Raul Lozano mutually decided to dissolve the latter’s coaching contract due to the poor results of the men’s team. After a disastrous performance at the 2011 European Championship, it was pretty obvious that Lozano was on the edge of getting a pink slip & losing his position.

Coach Lozano took over in 2009 and hasn’t really fulfilled the expectations of the Federation. In all fairness to coach RL, he took Germany to win the 2010 European League, led the team to 8th place at the 2010 World Championship 2010 (Germany’s best finish since 1974) & brought the German’s back to the World League in 2010 and 2011 since 2003.

Germany Volleyball Federation sports director Günter Hamel has released this statement: “We saw the bond of trust between the team and the coach as too strongly damaged, so further cooperation didn’t seem promising to us.”

We think he’s a great coach! We’re also inclined to believe that language barrier could be one of the main reasons why things didn’t work out as planned. Coach RL is just 55 so he’s pretty young and can still coach another national team. Maybe he can try applying in the US because even if you haven’t won any tournament you still get to keep your job for 4 years. Just Kidding Coach Knipe!

Side Dish: Per FIVB, “Men’s junior coach Stewart Bernard and assistant coach Ralph Bergmann will take charge of the team for their Olympic Qualification warm-up tournament in Tourcoing, France from November 23 to 27 before a permanent replacement is found.”

THOUGHTS?