Bulgaria: Fighting for Every Win with New Players

On June 8, 2023, our journalist conducted an exclusive interview with Lorenzo Micelli, the team coach of Bulgaria’s women’s volleyball team, following their training session.

Micelli revealed that the primary objective for the tournament is to maintain their position in Volleyball Nations League 2024, rather than aiming for the final round. Instead, the team’s focus is on achieving wins and accumulating as many points as possible. As they head into week 2 of the Volleyball Nations League, the coach acknowledged that Italy and China are on a level above them, but they hope to be competitive against Canada and the Netherlands. Micelli emphasized the importance of every victory and positive outcome for the team, particularly given the inexperience of many players at the international level. In the current roster, there is only one libero and one middle blocker participated in the FIVB World Championship 2022. The coach considers the inclusion of younger players a progressive move by the federation.

Discussing the team’s morale and motivation, Micelli stated that they are fighting every day and working diligently to enhance their performance, including studying videos.

The 2022 VNL relegation battle was fierce, with four of the five challenger teams (Poland, Bulgaria, Canada, and Belgium) tied with four wins each. Ultimately, Belgium was relegated due to having the lowest number of points.

Currently, Bulgaria holds one win and five points, ranking 11th out of 16 teams. The newly-promoted challenger team, Croatia, is one win behind them, while the other three challenger teams (Poland, Canada, and the Dominican Republic) are ahead of them in the leaderboard.

(Reported by Boris CHUNG Bok Man)