Russian women’s volleyball coach Giovanni Caprara slammed his highly fancied side yesterday for their negative attitude after they were outclassed by Italy in their Olympic opener.
Russia took silver in Athens four years ago and have won gold four times before, but the Italian spikers snatched victory 25-20, 17-25, 25-16, 25-23.
“The start time is not only early for us, but for Italy too. There is a different mentality with Russian teams regarding early matches as they tend to have an issue with fatigue,” Caprara said.
“I have to persuade them and work hard to overcome this mentality and be prepared for tough matches, but it seems that I fought here alone. It’s an issue of attitude,” he said. “There was also a lack of concentration from the players. Italy took advantage of this in the third and fourth sets.”
Italy’s best Olympic finish was fifth in Athens and coach Massimo Barbolini was ecstatic at the win, given Italy were missing key players Antonella Del Core and Taismary Aguero.
“I’m very proud of my players. We play a good match with a good rhythm,” Barbolini said.
The 12 women’s teams here are divided into two groups in the preliminary round with Italy grouped with Algeria, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Russia and Serbia in Pool B.
Defending champions China are alongside Cuba, Japan, Poland, the USA and Venezuela in Pool A.
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