Volleyball stars angry at referees
At the Olympics, the German volleyball team impresses with strong performances against the favorites, but ultimately suffers a narrow quarterfinal loss to France. Afterwards, there is great sadness and disappointment, as well as confusion over a controversial referee decision.
After the extremely close Olympic loss to France, there was not only great disappointment among the German volleyball team, but also some anger towards referee Juraj Mokry. "You'd have to ask the referees about that. I don't understand it either," said frustrated captain Lukas Kampa about the reasons for the red card shown to Tobias Krick in the heat of the tiebreak.
The 25-year-old middle blocker had created some hope for the Germans with a powerful spike to make it 5-8, and then briefly looked towards the French near the net. The Slovakian Mokry apparently interpreted this as inappropriate behavior.
Since Kampa had already been shown a yellow card, Krick was shown a red card. The consequence was a point and serve for the French. "Those are the rules, but I don't understand why you can't have a bit more gut feeling and finesse, and just let the game be a game," said Kampa. It was also pointed out from the German side that players from both teams had frequently celebrated in a similar manner without being penalized. Kampa also made it clear, however, that Mokry was not the reason for the German defeat.
"Sadness and emptiness" for Grozer
There was particular disappointment for Georg Grozer. "This is a sad story," said Germany's volleyball star. That the DVV team, despite leading 2-0 in sets, ultimately lost to the host France in a thrilling tiebreak (25:18, 28:26, 20:25, 21:25, 13:15) was "disappointing, of course, it's painful." Especially because it was his last appearance on the biggest stage of sport. What went through his mind after the match point? "That these were my last Olympic Games," said Grozer. There was "sadness and emptiness," "we fought and fought" - but in the end, it wasn't enough.
Just like at the last participation in London 2012, the DVV team's run in Paris ended in the quarterfinals despite strong performances. "I'm still incredibly proud of this team, what we've achieved in the last year and here at the Olympics, everyone can be proud," emphasized the 39-year-old. He was "really sorry that we didn't take the next step for volleyball history, but that's how sport is sometimes. It's just very hard to accept right now." The East German team had celebrated the greatest success of a German team with a silver medal in 1972.
Grozer and co. wanted to get on the podium 52 years later, and the team had underlined their ambitions in the preliminary round with wins against Japan (3:2) and Argentina (3:0), as well as a narrow loss to the three-time Olympic champion USA (2:3) in a volleyball thriller.
"We were very close to a medal, we were mentally ready and caused favorites to stumble," said captain Kampa, who was also part of the team in 2012: "So we can be proud of ourselves. I can say goodbye with a good feeling."
Following their quarterfinal loss to France, rumors of potential rematches between the German volleyball team and their opponents circulated among avid fans of the sport. "I'd love to face France again, we gave them a run for their money in the Olympics, and I believe we could turn the tables next time," expressed Grozer with a glint of hope in his eyes.
In light of their impressive performances against the favorites and their narrow defeat to France, it was only a matter of time before the German volleyball team reignited their passion for the game and began preparing for future competitions, including potential rematches.
