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Yugoslavia - Greece 3-2
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Xanthi, GREECE, July 22 (fivb.ch) - Second in the row victory for Yugoslavia over Greece after a thrilling five-set match - 3-2 (19-25, 25-23, 25-19, 18-25, 16-14).
Greece put up a fight against the reigning Olympic Champions in the
second match of the double header of the 4th weekend of the 2002 World
League, but eventually fell to Yugoslavia in five sets. Greece came away
with the first set with a good blocking performance by Antonis
Tsakiropoulos and Sotiris Pantaleon, but the turning point came in the
second, when Yugoslavia's head coach Zoran Gajic responded by putting
Vladimir Grbic on the court, to tie the match overall at 1-1 and gain a
1-2 lead. It was the first appearance for Grbic, who is injured, in this
World League so far. Yugoslavia broke away in the second set after 21-21
and sailed on to a comfortable victory in the third.
But Greece still hadn't said the final word, much to the delight of the
almost 4,000 strong crowd. It was an incredible match with an equally
exciting ending, as Elias Lappas came on the court for captain Marios
Giourdas and helped force the match into a tie-break.
Yugoslavia led throughout most of the fifth set, 5-9, 8-11 and 11-13,
but twice Greece caught up at 11-11 and 13-13, before the guest team
inched past to finish the match at 14-16.
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Yugoslavia - Greece 3-0
Xanthi, GREECE, July 21 (fivb.ch) - Yugoslavia achieves a 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 29-27) victory against Greece, for the 4th weekend of World League 2002, in "Philippos Amoiridis" sports hall, in Xanthi. The gold winner of Sydney 2000 Olympic Games was more concentrated and took the charge of the game from the beginning.
At the first set, the Yugoslavian team didn't face great resistance and it had many offensive solutions. On the other hand, Greece played a nervous game, with many lost services and many problems in block and reception, despite the substitutions of the head coach Stelios Prosalikas.
The entrance of Ilias Lappas in the second set of the game gave a breath to the Greek team, which improved in block and attack, but Yugoslavia kept a steady rhythm and managed to win the second set as well.
At the third set Greece was ahead from the beginning and gave the impression that could win the set. Greece had 4 set-balls after 24-23 but the mistakes at these crucial points of the game gave the victory to Yugoslavia, which without the need of any substitution maintained its great offensive rhythm and made a great defensive game. The Yugoslavian team made very few mistakes and had at a great day Nikola Grbic, Vujevic and Mijic.
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