Kira Walkenhorst, Germany - (On the week off) “It was good to recover again. It was a tough tournament in Long Beach two weeks ago so it was good to get some energy back plus it was good to practice with another team. It was good but we need more ways to get back into our top performance. We didn’t know the team so it was more important to pay attention to our side. It was good for us to focus on ourselves and working on details. (On 3 German teams in Pool D) “German Championships! To play in the World Championships you never want to play against your country. It always feels different.”
Laura Ludwig, Germany – “All in all I think it was good that we practiced last week after Long Beach. We had lots of games there and I think it was perfect for getting in rhythm and then we could work on details and technique. Now we just go 100 percent from game to game and get more and more competition feeling and the competition mood, going for every ball we can. It’s not that difficult to evaluate (this match) because when we are concentrating on the things we want to do then we can say we are satisfied with this. We did a lot of things where we afterward we said we were satisfied, like passing, setting and also the serving and not letting them get into the rhythm. (On 2 German opponents coming up) “We didn’t play so many tournaments this year and that’s why we didn’t see so many teams anyway. We focus really on ourselves and this is more important.”