2023-06-25 20:33:45
The French volleyball team during the final of the Tokyo Olympics, August 7, 2021. The French won the first gold medal in their history against Russia. YURI CORTEZ / AFP
The road for French volleyball players is long until the Paris Games. After eight matches in the League of Nations, a prestigious competition which takes place each year in several countries and which brings together the 16 best teams in the world, France already has five defeats (Poland, Slovenia, Japan, Argentina, Brazil) for three victories ( China, Cuba, Canada).
Sunday June 25, for their last match of the French stage of the League, in Orleans, the Blues were beaten in four sets (20-25, 24-26, 25-19, 23-25) by Brazil, who is one of the favorites for the Games. The record of the League of Nations is unflattering for the Olympic champions in Tokyo in 2021, but the situation does not seem to worry the staff too much.
“The League of Nations is not a priority objective this year, explains the Italian Andrea Giani, the coach of the Blues. At the end of their championship, the players had their heads stuffed with volleyball. They needed to breathe. This is why we called on young people to inject new blood during the first stage of this competition, in Nagoya. » With the exception of Kévin Tillie, the team’s executives were thus exempted from traveling to Japan, and France suffered three defeats in four games.
The return of the executives
The executives made their return during the second stage of the League, which was played in Orleans from June 20 to 25. Only Earvin N’Gapeth is still missing, who should make his return to the selection during the third stage, in Anaheim, in the suburbs of Los Angeles, from July 4 to 10. Having finished the season exhausted with his Modena club, the star of the Blues, who has just signed at Halkbank Ankara (Turkey), obtained a free pass to extend his vacation.
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If the Olympic champions were visibly happy to meet again, they still need to find rhythm and automatisms. To reach the Final 8 of the League of Nations, in Gdansk (Poland), from July 19 to 23, they will have to win their last four games.
Suffice to say that the qualification is badly embarked. A bad for a good ? In view of the Euro (from August 28 to September 16 in Italy, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Israel), and, above all, the Paris Olympic Games (from July 26 to August 11, 2024), granting additional rest to players would not be a luxury.
The lessons of summer 2022 have been learned. Last year, France won the League, before getting stuck in the world championships, which they had nevertheless made a major objective, France having never won this competition. The physical and mental wear and tear of the tricolor volleyball players had not escaped their staff.
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