League of Nations volleyball players. Poland – Serbia 3: 1

More such texts can be found on the main page of Onet.pl

Rookie Wilfredo Leon? Although it seems surprising, the host of Perugia today played for the first time in the colors of the Polish national team in the League of Nations. As a youngster, Leon played in these competitions (until 2018 under the name of the World League) in the colors of Cuba, but then he accepted Polish citizenship and changed the national team. And although he has been in our team since 2019, he was not allowed to play in the League of Nations before. Two years ago, when the games were underway, he still had a grace period related to receiving a Polish passport, a year later the League of Nations was canceled due to Covid-19. Leon saw the first game of the League of Nations this year in Rimini from the square for the substitutes, so today he opened a new chapter in the history of his starts in the white and red colors. He opened a bit unlucky, because he was blocked in the first action, but then he showed great class. Especially in the serve, because he hit his rivals with bombs from behind the end line, and the match ended with eleven (!) Aces on his account. All Serbs to the company had six aces.

Leon was not the only rookie, because also Kamil Semeniuk, a completely new character in our team, played the first match in the VNL yesterday. Kędzierzyn-Koźle, the host of ZAKS, after a fantastic season, joined the national team for the first time this year, and he made his debut in a sparring with Belgium. Today, alongside Leon, he played for the first time in the League of Nations and delighted. He played without stage fright, like a professor and next to Leon he was the main character of the team.

Against the Serbs, Vital Heynen threw a completely different squad to the fight than the one who beat Italians 3-0 the day before. This time the sixth, apart from Leon and Semeniuk, were the middle players Jakub Kochanowski and Norbert Huber, who joined the Rimini squad at the last minute, attacking Bartosz Kurek, quarterback Fabian Drzyzga and libero Paweł Zatorski. Heynen therefore launched a few of his stars for the match against the champions of Europe. – The Serbs are a very strong team, they came to Rimini with the strongest squad, and because they do not play at the Olympics, they want to win a League of Nations medal. That is why we had to approach this meeting with full seriousness – says Paweł Woicki, one of Heynen’s assistants.

Also check: A horrible accident at a competition. Three motorcyclists suffered

The Serbs, which the Poles will face in September in the group of the next championship of the Old Continent in Krakow, appeared weakened in this match. In the first match of the tournament with Slovenia, the former player of PGE Skra Bełchatów Srećko Lisinac suffered an injury, and Uroš Kovačević also suffers from health problems. The new acquisition of Aluron Zawiercie did not have the opportunity to show himself to the Polish fans.

Despite weakening, in the first minutes of the match the opponents imposed a strong pace and were leading 7: 4. Then Leon went to the service, he banged twice and Biało-Czerwoni took the lead 11: 9. However, they had to fight for winning the inaugural game in a fierce ending, in which they defended the set ball. Kochanowski showed off with two great actions (attack and block), and Leon ended the set with a strong attack. The host of Perugia scored 6 points in the first set, equal to Semeniuk. Both hosts were the main characters in the first set and it was like that until the end.

Also check: Volleyball players of PWSZ Tarnów are academic Polish champions

The Poles won the inaugural game despite making 11 mistakes (including 6 in the service and 4 in the attack). When they eliminated the mistakes in the second set, the rivals had nothing to say. In the second game, the world champions were leading 8: 3 and 11: 5, and when their rivals came close to a dangerous distance, Leon with four aces in a row took away their desire to fight.

After two sets, the host of Perugia was leading against Serbia in a 6: 1 service, and that was not the end of his exploits. Besides, in the third game other aces were added by our other representatives – Kochanowski and Huber. Unfortunately, Biało-Czerwoni made too many mistakes in this installment (9), and in the end Aleksandar Atanasijević showed off with a series of good plays, who probably wanted to prove something to Heynen. The Serbian attacker got along poorly with the Belgian in Sir Safety Perugia, rarely played for the Italian team, and announced after the season that he would be returning to PGE Skra. The team from Bełchatów is to be led by the coach of the Serbian national team, Slobodan Kovač, but the club from Bełchatów has not announced this transfer yet.

The Poles started the fourth game by leading 9: 1 after another series of plays by the rampaging Leon, and then they only finished off their rivals, achieving a second victory in the tournament. It is true that on that day Kurek did not shine in the Polish team, but Leon and Semeniuk showed their strength on the wings.

On Sunday, at 19.30, the Poles will play against Slovenia, with which they have bills to settle. The Slovenes, making their debut in the League of Nations, kept Poles in the last three tournaments of the European championship, most recently in the semi-finals in 2019. A difficult match is being prepared, and in the Polish team we will again see other players than in the clashes with Italy and Serbs. Nevertheless, the world champions will be the favorites again.

POLAND – SERBIA 3: 1 (26:24, 25:19, 21:25, 25:15)

POLAND: Drzyzga 1, Leon 25, Kochanowski 12, Kurek 12, Semeniuk 17, Huber 6 and Zatorski (l), Śliwka 1, Kaczmarek, Wojtaszek. Coach: Heynen

SERBIA: Jovovic 1, Ivovic 13, Krsmanovic 5, Atanasijevic 11, Peric 4, Podrascanin 13 oraz Pekovic (l), Luburic 6, Kujundzic 1, Batak, D. Kovac Coach: S. Blacksmith

They judged: Collados (France), Macias (Mexico).

–