World Championship trophy to stay in Europe as Poland dethrones Brazil

Katowice, Poland, September 22, 2014.  The dynasty is over. Poland finished the three-period reign of Brazil in men’s volleyball with an emotional triumph achieved on home soil in front of more than 12,000 spectators who crowded the Spodek Hall on Sunday night to cheer for the local boys.  The 3:0 (18-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-22) victory in the final of the FIVB Men’s World Championship 2014 gave Poland its second crown in the history of the competition while putting an end to the attempt of Brazil at becoming the first nation to win the title in four consecutive editions.

Poland first won the gold medal forty years ago in 1974 when the event took place in Mexico City and had to settle for the silver medal in 2006 when it succumbed to Brazil in Japan.

The victory by the home team capped a brilliant tournament that included 18 days of competition kicking off at the Warsaw National Stadium on August 30 in front of more than 62,000 loyal spectators.

In fact, more than a half million fans, 563,263, watched the 103 matches, smashing the previous record in the competition.  In Italy four years ago, the total was 339,324, while in Japan in 2006 it was 298,352.

Mateusz Mika led the final victory with 22 points, followed by the consistent Marius Wlazly, named the Most Valuable Player, who contributed 14 points. Michal Winiarski and Piotr Nowakoswki chipped in with 13 and 10 points, respectively.

Wlazly, the tournament’s top scorer with 233 points, received the MVP award as well as the Best Opposite, presented by FIVB President Ary Graca, while teammate Karol Klos was named the Second Best Middle Blocker.

Brazilians Lucarelli and Murillo earned the honors as Best and Second Best Outside Spikers while Germans Marcus Boehme and Lukas Kampa received the awards as Best Middle Blocker and Best Setter, respectively.  France’s Jenia Grebennikov was the Best Libero.

The MVP received $30,000 in prize money while the members of the Dream Team were awarded $10,000 each.

“The hardest part of my coaching debut was imagining success,” said Poland’s coach Stephane Antiga from France, who retired as a player after the 2014 season to accept the position at the helm of the Polish team.  “We wanted to play this match as if it was any other match.  The guys showed a lot of character and spirit and they all played as a team.”

Earlier on Sunday, Germany captured the bronze medal with a straight-set 3:0 (25-21, 26-24, 25-23) victory over France.  It was the first medal for unified Germany in the history of the competition since they had won the gold medal as East Germany in 1970 in Bulgaria.  Germany had finished in eighth position at the previous world championship held in 2010 in Italy.

“We played fantastic game today and defended more than France which is something,” Germany’s coach Vital Heynen said.

Germany’s captain Jochen Schoeps added:  “We are extremely happy, even some tears dropped, everybody saw how we enjoyed this victory.”

Click here for more info on the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship Poland 2014.