Bulgaria defeated the USA team in their first friendly match, played in Hiroshima this morning. The Americans are our potential opponent in the elimination rounds if we advance from the group.
Head coach Gianlorenzo Blengini led Bulgaria against the USA with a starting six: Simeon Nikolov, Iliya Petkov, Martin Atanasov, Asparuh Asparuhov, Alex Grozdanov, Aleksandar Nikolov, and libero Damyan Kolev.
Our national team started confidently and set a high tempo right from the first set, where attack became a decisive factor "," 67% efficiency and a 25:22 victory.
The second set offered a similar scenario. The serve contributed with 3 aces, the block also worked with 3 successful stops, and the score was again 25:22 in favor of Bulgaria.
The Americans took advantage of our errors in the third set (8 in total) and brought back the intrigue "," 20:25. It was then that changes were made to the lineup, with Stoil Palev, Georgi Tatarov, Venislav Atanov, and Preslav Petkov entering the court. In the fourth set, the fresh energy of the substitutes yielded results, and the national team closed the match with 25:21, making the final score 3:1.
The top scorer for Bulgaria was Aleksandar Nikolov with 16 points (57% attack efficiency, 2 aces, and 2 blocks). Asparuh Asparuhov also played an excellent match, finishing with 11 points. For the opponent, opposite hitter Gabriel Garcia performed best with 13 points.
The next friendly match against the USA team is tomorrow at 04:00 AM Bulgarian time "," the final test before the start of the World Championship in the Philippines.
Bulgaria's first official match at the World Championship is against Germany on September 13th at 12:30 PM.
photos: BFV
