MATCH INFO

Osaka, Japan, June 23, 2012, Press Conference, Japan vs Turkey - Facing Japan on their home court, Turkey managed their seventh win of this Women’s 2012 FIVB World Grand Prix, and clinched a spot in the Finals. Coach Aurelio is delighted with his team’s play thus far in the tournament, and hopes they can finish strong.

Turkey captain Esra Gümus: "We are happy to win and qualify for the finals, here against Japan. We had good serving, defense, and attack today. The first set was hard for us but after that we were good overall. The spectators here were great and the atmosphere was good. We’re very happy to play here [in Osaka]."

Turkey coach Motta Marco Aurelio: "Like my captain said we are very happy, as this is our first time to qualify for the finals. It’s our eight match in this World Grand Prix, and we won seven matches, losing only against Cuba. I hope tomorrow we can finish well [against Germany]. Our performance today was good, and I’m very happy for that."

Japan captain Yoshie Takeshita: "We started very good but at the same time we had many mistakes throughout, giving up bunches of points a few times. We have to fix some that, and hopefully tomorrow we won’t see the same problems."

Japan player Mizuho Ishida: "The biggest reason for today’s loss was giving up series of points to them. For me personally, I couldn’t score on my back spike, and I feel bad about that."

Japan coach Masayosi Manabe: "The problem today (as my players said) was giving up bunches of points, and we need to address that. […] Against Turkey, like Germany yesterday, had an especially good serve. And we couldn’t get the ball back to our setter properly to organize our attack. We need to make sure we have a good reception. From Olympic qualification matches I knew we had to address serve reception in order to prepare for the Olympics. So that’s the first thing. But we also need less mistakes and quick volleys."

On using some regular players in fourth set: "After the regular members became tired physically and mentally, but they’ve started to recover. So today I thought I could use Kimura and Sano."