Strugglers Thailand find Germany tough

A large crowd saw Thailand’s Malika Kanthong score a match-high 12 points including 10 attacks from 37 attempts. Captain Margareta Kozuch led Germany with 18 points, 15 of which came from devastating spikes.

Germany are in 10th place with 15 points and world No 12 Thailand in 13th with nine points. Both the teams cannot make it to the finals to be held between August 28 and September 1 in Sapporo, Japan. 

Kozuch unleashed a series of thundering cross-court smashes to help her team take an initial 12-6 lead. Germany’s blockers foiled most of the attempts made by Thai players. Germany continued their attack to stretch the lead to 24-15. The visitors allowed the world No 12 only one more point from an erratic serve by Denise Hanke to end the hosts’ challenge in the game 25-16.

Thailand found their touch early in the second game to lead 8-7 before Germany started to produce the goods that are making them an exciting unit. The Germans mixed their splendid offensive combination of Kozuch’s spectacular attacks and scintillating blocks to close the gap at 8. Thailand could not maintain their momentum and became more prone to offensive mistakes. Germany stormed on to capture the game 25-14. 

Thailand went all out in the third game and came within a whisker of winning it at 24-24. However, they made two straight unforced serves and an erratic net play. Germany won the thrilling, hard-fought game 27-25 and the match. 

Germany improved their win-loss record against Thailand at World Grand Prix to 6-1. They lost to the Thais only once in the World Grand Prix Pool G in Hong Kong in 2010.

After the match, Italian Giovanni Guidetti, head coach of Germany, said: “It’s a great honour for us to play in this incredible atmosphere. It was the second time we played in Thailand after we were here in 2008. Also, it was so amazing to see volleyball becoming very popular in this country. So it was our pleasure to play in front of the amazing crowd. Thai fans are fantastic. It’s always difficult to play against the team like Thailand. They have great players, great coaches. My team did a very good job. But it has never been easy for us to win here, especially when we played in front of Thai fans.”

Thailand’s head coach Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai said, “Germany are very strong and aggressive. We tried our best to attack and block, but it didn’t work effectively.”

Thai captain Wilavan Apinyapong added, “We did our best, but Germany were too strong. Their aggressive serves were very difficult to receive. Although we tried to follow the advice of our coach, unforced mistakes made our plan go awry.” 

Earlier, Russia thrashed winless Puerto Rico 25-8 25-16 25-19.