Canada coach Glenn Hoag was happy with the performance of his bench players in their 3-1 victory over Japan
Tokyo, Japan, June 4, 2016 – Canada coach Glenn Hoag commended his bench players in their victory, while coach Masashi Nambu saw that the missing link in the match was their good servers.
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Canada coach Glenn Hoag: “We are very happy with the win. We have a chance to qualify tomorrow. I'm proud of our players. The bench players like Marshall and Vigrass did a good job. Japan are a great team, they fought hard with their younger players tonight. Now we have to recover for tomorrow. Our spirits are in a good place. We will give it our all tomorrow.”
Canada captain Rudy Verhoeff: “What an amazing match. It's so much fun to play Japan in Japan. The crowd is great. We stayed disciplined and played our game. I'm happy for our guys. We found our rhythm in the second set. We were resilient. I'm happy we got the three points.”
Japan coach Masashi Nambu: “In the first set our serve was effective and reception was stable. From the second set our reception went downhill and their attack became more effective. Their side-out was better from the second set. Without our good servers we have to fight an uphill battle.”
Japan player Daisuke Sakai: “We wanted to change the atmosphere tonight, but the result was 3-1. From the second set we had a lapse of concentration. When we do that we can't beat overseas teams.”
Japan player Tatsuya Fukuzawa: “We have missed out on the Olympics. We have a lot of fans and supporters watching on TV and we wanted to fight to the end for them and show our volleyball. The first set was a good sprint, but from the second to the fourth sets we lost points, which has been a recurring thing in this tournament. Some of it is technical, some mental. We fought to the end without giving up.”
Japan player Takashi Dekita: “We could not get the ticket to Rio, but we wanted to play well for our fans. We did not give up and played until the end. The first set was good. The issues we must address have become clearer.”
Japan player Masahiro Sekita: “We could not pull off a win. We still have one match to go."