Czech Volleyball Team Knocked Out of European Championship in Round of 16

The Czech national volleyball team's European Championship campaign has come to an end after a Round-of-16 defeat to Belgium. The match was played in Turin, with the third and fourth sets proving decisive — sets the Czechs effectively threw away.

According to head coach Jiří Novák, the outcome of the match might have looked very different had the team closed out the second set. The Czechs had clawed back from three set points down and were themselves in a position to take the set, but the first referee called a double touch against Dragonjovski and awarded the point to Belgium. On the next set point, Patrik Indra put an attack out — leveling the score at one set apiece.

Collapse in the Third and Fourth Sets

"It seems that ending decided everything, but I don't understand why. There were still a third and fourth set to play. The score was 1-1, there was no reason to fall apart," Novák said. From the second set onward, the Czechs' attack broke down and their serve reception deteriorated. "As for the third and fourth sets, I don't even want to comment on them. It was simply chaos, a mess," the coach admitted without holding back.

The outcome of both lost sets was essentially decided right from the start. The Czechs quickly fell behind — by four points midway through the third set, and by six in the fourth. As the match progressed, it became clear that turning things around would be extremely difficult. Belgium's team leader, Ferre Reggers, found his rhythm; the Czechs had managed to contain his attacks in the first two sets, but after that they lost the initiative — and the match was decided.

Coach Names Reasons for the Collapse

"The opponent played exactly as we expected. They used a tactical serve we had faced in training, but we still couldn't handle it. On top of that, we stopped attacking and had trouble on reception," Novák said, listing the reasons behind the Round-of-16 loss and calling the overall result a failure.

The coach admitted that his own concerns, voiced even before the tournament began, had been confirmed: the Czech team lacks consistency, especially in matches against higher-ranked opponents. "We're capable of playing perfect volleyball. We can win the first set, even the second — and then completely disappear. And that applies across the board. Against strong opponents it's even more noticeable. You can only beat them by playing flawlessly and staying consistent for the whole match. We couldn't do that," lamented the 51-year-old former hitter who now leads the national team.

Asked how to teach the players to maintain their level throughout an entire match, Novák stressed the importance of volleyball players regularly holding key roles at their clubs — something many of them lacked last season. "We can raise them to a certain level, but the consistency just isn't there yet. What can we do? We'll simply have to work even harder, so that in difficult moments the players don't hesitate or fear whether something will work out for them," the national coach said.

"Mistakes are part of the game — volleyball is a game of errors, really. But we made a whole string of them, and each time it was a different player making the mistake. We dealt these blows to ourselves, and we just couldn't recover," Novák concluded, summing up his team's run at the European Championship, which ended in the Round of 16.

Source: sport.cz