Rezende looking for marked improvement from
defending champs
 June
2, 2005 - The opening weekend of the 2005 World
League in Caracas, Venezuela already saw the
Olympic champions Brazil claim two victories,
but according to coach Bernardo Rezende his team
still has plenty of work to do if they are to
defend their World League title.
On their return from Venezuela, where Brazil
surprisingly conceded three sets across the two
matches, Rezende and his team headed straight to
the Brazilian Volleyball Development Centre in
Rio de Janiero to iron out some of their
problems ahead of their round two contest with
Portugal in Lisbon.
Pic: Brazil beat Venezuela 3-1 (25-19, 32-34,
25-22, 37-35) and 3-2 (23-25, 25-21, 25-10,
20-25, 15-13) in round one
It promises to be an enthralling encounter
this weekend with both sides having recorded two
wins from as many matches in Pool A and both
sides desperate to gain the early ascendancy in
their quest for a final round spot.
Such is the importance of this weekend’s
matches, Rezende is expected to take 14 players
with Renato Felizardo and Giba or Gustavo set to
join the 12 who played in Venezuela.
"Gustavo and Giba are an option but their not
quite in the right condition to play",
Bernardinho said. "In the training sessions in
Rio, we will try to correct the areas of play
where we let ourselves down against Venezuela.
Two main points are the spiking and receiving
while we also need to work on our blocking.”
Brazil’s first game against Portugal is on
Saturday at 16:00 (local time) followed by the
second on Sunday at the same time. |
Competition Formula