Karma for Germany?
Non-German volleyball fans believe that Coach Heynen and Germany had a dose of karma after losing to Bulgaria days and after being accused of Match Fixing during the Preliminary Round.
Because this happened:
Hosts Bulgaria repeated their classy performance from the first day of action in Sofia and left almost no chance at all to Germany recording their second 3:0 win over the Baku 2015 European Games gold medallists (25-19, 25-23, 25-23) to continue their amazing journey in the competition and go for a much anticipated semi-final with France coming up on Saturday.
The imposing Arena Armeec will definitely be packed once again as the 2015 men’s EuroVolley approaches its final, most exciting stages.
No wonder they’re saying that it’s karma.
In case you missed the news, The Netherlands and some fans accused Germany of purposely losing their match to Bulgaria and The Netherlands to finish 3rd in their pool and face a much easier opponent in the next round (vs Belgium which Germany won in 3 sets).
“Germany wanted to play Bulgaria in the Quarterfinal match because the coach strongly believed that Bulgaria is the easiest opponent to beat in the QF compare to playing against France, Poland and Russia.
Sadly, the coach underestimated what Bulgarian players and the 12,000+ fans can do at home so now Germany is going home. It’s called karma.” a non-German fan tells Volleywood.
During the post match conference, Coach Heyned DID NOT talk about the accusations but shared great words for Bulgaria:
“I think that Bulgaria was better than us. They beat us by 3:0. Today we performed better than in the first game during the pool stage, but that was not enough. I am not happy, but if I need to make a conclusion I will say that they deserved to qualify for the semi-finals. I hope that they to go to the final and they achieve a fantastic result. That will be good for Bulgarian volleyball.
I think that our team can do a lot of things better.”
On other hand, Bulgarian captain Vladimir Nikolov publicly pointed out Coach Heynen’s dirty tactics during the press con. The 38 year old also hinted the public that this could be his last European Championship.
“I am very happy! Today I made another dream of mine come true. Earlier today my wife told me: you need to live this moment, because this match can be your last for the Bulgarian national team. Fortunately, we defeated Germany so I will have another opportunity to play for Bulgaria. The match was with a big pressure, but we managed to show strong nerves. We were focused in the key moments and we won. In Bulgaria we say: be careful what you wish for.
Vital Heynen wanted to play against us and we beat them again!
Today our biggest weapons were the block and this Bulgarian audience.”
What’s next for Germany (and Bulgaria)?
Coach Heynen now has a lot of work to do with his squad. Germany is hosting the European Olympic Qualification Tournament in January 2016. They will be joined by 7 more teams.
The winner of this tourney goes to the 2016 Olympics while the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams go to Japan in May for World Olympic Qualification Tourney.
(images: cev.lu)