Turkey head coach Slobodan Kovac had more than one reason to celebrate on Saturday, as his team got off on the right foot at the 2025 FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship.
Kovac, a Serbian national who has only been with the Turkish national team for a few months, was celebrating his birthday just as his squad faced off against higher-ranked Japan at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
And his players delivered the perfect gift, pulling off a stunning 25-19, 25-23, 25-19 victory to shock the world No. 5 Japanese side.
But Kovac was quick to deflect the credit, emphasizing that it was his players who got the job done as they opened their Pool G campaign with a 1-0 record.
“We played really good, tactically. We played good volleyball. We played with good discipline,” said Kovac.
Ramazan Mandiraci and Adis Lagumdzija formed a deadly one-two punch for world No. 16 Turkey. Mandiraci dropped five aces and finished with 17 points, while Lagumdzija contributed 15 markers.
Turkey played so well that they forced Japan into committing 23 errors and held two of its stars, Yuki Ishikawa and Ran Takahashi, to just 10 and four points, respectively.
For Kovac, the win was a testament to his team’s ability to keep up with the best teams in the world.
“Before this Championship, it’s totally normal, we’re nobody. Everybody says there are some teams who will play here and after the second round, go home,” Kovac explained.
“And I try to explain to the players that we don’t coach to be a nobody. My players have played against the best European teams and have the quality to play high-level volleyball.”
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
AloJapan.com