Head coach of Brazil Jose Roberto Guimaraes considers Italy match as a final

 Hamamatsu, Japan, November 3, 2010- Brazil and Italy both qualified officially to the second round of the 2010 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Championship, but their clash in the final day of the first round pool B here at Hamamatsu arena is considered as a real final for the competition as seen by Brazil head coach Jose Guimaraes to finish this stage at the top of the pool.

 The match that starts at 18:00 h local time at Hamamatsu Arena on Wednesday will determine the final standings of the pool and hence the calendar of the second round of the qualifiers from this pool that will be played in Nagoya. The top 4 teams of pool B along with the top 4 of pool C playing in Matsumoto will make up Pool F taking in consideration that the results and the points of the matches already played during the first round will be taken into account and not replayed.

 “This means that our match against Italy now is of double importance, first because it will determine the top of the first round pool and second because we want to qualify with the full points to the second round,” said Guimaraes.

 ‘I prepared my players psychologically to win because it will give us a great push to continue towards the first World Championship title for Brazil. I need also to postpone the clash against USA that is supposed to lead pool C to the last day of the second round.” Brazil coach added.

 “We will play against USA in Nagoya but it is better to be the last match because we will have the over view of the situation at that time.
 “Both Italy and Brazil know well everything about each other and this is making the match a fully exciting game but I need my players to be on their top performance to get a positive result,”

 “I’m looking forwards also to put the proper strategy to deal with the Italian big guns and find the way to stop their powerful spikers and this makes our match as a real final.”

 Brazil leads pool B at the end of day 4 with four straight victories, while Italy comes second with a 3-1 record.