A day after Bulgaria defeated the USA with a score of 3:1 games and showed the first signs of a truly good game, today our national team returned to reality, suffering a quite expected, but hard-fought loss against the Netherlands. Nimir Abdel-Aziz and company fought for the win after easy first and third sets, which ended 25:16 and 25:13 respectively, while in the second, our team showed its inspiration to close it in its favor with 25:20. The fourth set started similarly to the previous lost ones. In the end, we managed to get closer to the opponent, but ultimately lost after 25:20.

The loss comes at a good time for Bulgaria, as the first tournament this summer in the VNL calendar, held in Antalya, has concluded. The balance after the first four matches for the "lions" is as follows: 3 losses – against France, Canada, and the Netherlands with scores of 3:0 and 3:1, showing good play in a considerable period of the matches. We also managed to secure a valuable victory, especially from a ranking perspective, over one of the top teams, the USA, which is currently without its main volleyball players.

Good things are yet to come, but the next stop on the NVL program comes to the fore – the tournament between June 4 and 9 in the Japanese city of Kitakyushu. There, Bulgaria's opponents will be European champion Poland, the traditionally inconvenient German team for us, Asian champion Iran, as well as one of the giants in world volleyball for the past almost 10 years, Slovenia, which showed formidable form in its first matches.