Tokyo, Japan, December 2, 2007: Comments from the official FIVB press conference after the USA-Russia game on Sunday.

USA

Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon: First of all congratulations to Russia. At the end of the match their tactics worked well, especially their service line. We had a chance to win this match but Russia was really good down the stretch. We played a lot of games through the World Cup and we learned a lot of things, so these matches have made us stronger towards qualifying for the 2008 Olympics.

Captain Thomas Hoff: In this World Cup we could make progress and be better and better. We played in a good rhythm until the 16^th point in the fourth set and the Russian serve changed the rhythm of the game and gave us a lot of pressure. After that we could not recover.

Lloy Ball: This is my fourth World Cup in Japan. Japan has done an excellent job, and this World Cup is the best. We played very well until the last one and a half sets. Russia has a great service, especially Poltavskiy, and Volkov came back to the court and put us under a lot of pressure.

Russia

Head Coach Vladimir Alekno: As for today’s match, it is the same as I said in previous press conferences – sports games cannot be explained logically sometimes. Maybe we had the luck to win this game. Myself and the team learned many things from this tournament.

Semen Poltavskiy: I do not have anything in particular to say about the game, other than that it was very important to win because it meant we could go to the Olympics. We achieved that and that is the only thing that matters. We are always amazed at the excellent organization in Japan.