BELGIUM vs USA | Highlights Men | Volleyball Olympic Qualification 2019 (HD)

Rotterdam, The Netherlands, August 9, 2019 - Triple Olympic champions USA had to fight hard against Belgium to kick start their campaign for a ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Games with a 3-1 win.

Micah Christenson, USA setter: "It was great, absolutely a tough match. Something we expected completely coming into this first match. Especially with Belgium, which is a great team. They’re really great at playing volleyball. Very skilled team. I’m really proud of the way we fought. How we handled adversity. We stayed steady throughout the match. They did some amazing plays in the third set. I don’t necessarily think we played our best, but we didn’t play bad. We didn’t give up. We expected a battle, I’m super excited about how we responded in de fourth. Tomorrow will be another tough match, we all saw today that they pushed Holland to five sets, that’s not an easy thing to do. They’re defending a lot. They’re not making a lot of errors, we have to our best on our side, to stay mentally strong. Not get frustrated with it."

John Speraw, USA head coach USA: "I'm thrilled with the win. Each of these matches is intense, every team will play their best volleyball this summer. I feel like any win you can get is a great win. It also places additional pressure on us when we are the favourite. The opponents can come in and play free and loose. For us to play as well as we did tonight against a team that was coming in, fighting as hard as they did. Belgium fought really hard, even when they were down. I’m proud of the win. Tomorrow will be Korea, we don’t know that much about them, they don’t have that much video from the summer. They are playing with a bunch of guys from previous teams. We’ll go and play as hard as we can again."

Brecht Van Kerckhove, Belgium head coach: "Everything worked for us in the first set until 20-20. Our reception was solid, our goal to control the strong services from Team USA turned out well. We were playing full of confidence and assertive. But after 20-20, we missed four side-outs in a row. We knew all of our players would have to reach their highest level today to beat USA, and that was not the case. We played solid in reception, but not strong enough in attack. We only focused on this match in our preparations but we will not give up right now. In sports everything is possible, and we will have to keep fighting for qualification in the upcoming two matches."

Pieter Verhees, Belgium player: "I have the feeling we could have gotten more out of this match. We started out well, and on the moments we were in the flow, we could seriously play against the United States. But it’s hard to keep up this high level, especially since USA is serving so well. I think this was the key match for us this weekend. We have an Olympic dream, and we keep hoping. Tomorrow we will play with full focus against The Netherlands."

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