Volleyball World Cup, Santarelli company: gold Serbia, Brazil defeated

by our correspondent Gian Luca Pasini

October 15
– Milan

It ended like so many times in Conegliano with Daniele Santarelli kneeling on the ground with his arms in the sky. In his first year at the helm of Serbia he won an extraordinary gold medal with the Belgrade national team that overwhelmed Brazil 3-0 and confirmed himself on the top step of the world championship podium four years after the same team (but without Ognjenovic!) he had beaten Italy in Yokohama.

Serbia 3-0 Brazil (26-24, 25-22, 25-17)

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Boskovic and her companions were overwhelming also in this last game, they close the tournament with 12 wins in 12 games, leaving the opponents only the crumbs and many many regrets. Like those that touch the Italy that had everything, absolutely everything, to bring home this title. Instead Serbia deserved, Daniele Santarelli deserved, dug in his face and with two dark circles like this, for all the sleepless nights spent watching his opponents and studying his team. This is a great success for the Umbrian coach who has flown Conegliano in recent seasons. Before the match he received the good luck of his wife Moki De Gennaro (theirs is a family with the most medals in the world, with a gold and a bronze!), But he also had an encouraging hug from his former player. Paola Egonu, right before going on the pitch. The match had history only in the first set and a half, when Brazil did everything to put the Serbian girls in difficulty (thanks to a careful defense), too little for this national team, very square, very ruthless and who had a of the best Boskovic in history (24 points in the final, but his was a World Cup to frame), also great proof of Jovana Stevanovic (great protagonist of the Italian championship) who closed with 11 points and 4 blocks a race that the Serbia eventually dominated.