Match V Greece

Well our final match meant nothing in terms of pregressing to the final round, however it was important to gain some pride and I was really keen to finish in 17th place rather than 21st. The Greeks however I'm sure felt the same, and being a top 10 team in the world were always going to be tough.
The first set again started pretty bad for us, we were unable to gain any rhythm in attack and the Greek opposite Kravarik was hurting us with his serving and blocking. First set to Greece 25-20.
In the second set we changed Ben for Andy in the pass-hitter position and Paul for myself as opposite. However this did not seem to help at all as the Greeks ran to a 4-0 lead. However quick as this happened we fought back through a run of serves from Dan which involved some great digs and transition hitting. Suddenly we had some momentum and pushed to be up 16-15 at the 2nd technical. Another run of serves had us a commanding 19-15 up. Then we let it slip, the Greeks stepped it up, and with our inability to side out at the crucial time they won 10 of the next 13 points to take the set 25-22.
Down 2-0 we could easily of thrown in the towel, but the guys did the complete opposite and came our firing in the 3rd. It really didn't feel at all like we were down 2 sets to 0. Andy was hitting some good kills to keep our side-out efficent and we went into the 2nd technical 16-12 up. Dan was having an good game and fired another ace to give us some breathing room. The Greeks closed within 1 but we pushed again and a Luke Campbell kill gave us the set to 22.
The 4th set was really quite even, we went down a few points up until 15-13, but then pushed to go ahead at 16-15. It felt like we had all the momentum and it was only a matter of time till we got the set winning break. However to their credit the greeks weatherd the storm helped by there opposite who was the go-to for most of the set. At the end of the set the Greeks managed to make some big plays to keep them in the match, digging some big swings that they had not done the whole match. Still at 23-23 it was still anyones game until Kravarik hit another kill to give them match point. A large rally ensued for match point, Andy hit a great ball of the hands which was somehow dug with a one hand dive by the position 6 defender. They manged to make a pipe set (maybe the only one of the match) and killed it inside the triple to take the match.
Again dissapointing, so close and unable to male crucial plays to finish of the 4th and 2nd sets. However we showed our depth in this game using the bench to good effect. Personally it was good for me to get some court time and make an impact on court, I felt like I had trained well the 2 days before and just had to wait for my opportunity. Andy also did a great job from the bench like the Cuban match, and I thought Dan had a good came with his serving and blocking.

So where to now for the National Team?
Clearly we showed we can mix it with some good teams, however we gotta start winning the close matches. I think being in the tough pool has left us in good stead for the Asian Championships next year. In the words of Luke "our goal is definitelly to win Asians next year, we know we can and we have the team to do it." However it wont be easy, teams like Japan have had a good World Champs as well as the usual competitive teams such as Korea, China and Iran.
I don't think there is any doubt in the teams mind that we can win Asians, so now it just up to working hard and doing what we have to do.