The French volleyball team is reassured. With a reshuffled squad, the Blues found their way to success in the Nations League by beating the second team from the United States on Friday in Antalya (Turkey) (25-22, 25-21, 25-21), the day after their defeat against Slovenia (3-1). The reigning Olympic champions will conclude this first week on Saturday against the Turkish host with the objective of gleaning a third success and placing themselves, before the next two stages, for the final phase at the end of June, in which the eight best teams will participate.
With a view to the following two weeks, in Canada then in Japan, coach Andrea Giani was able to measure the depth of his group’s squad, even if the adversity offered by the United States, which did not field any of the players selected for the Olympics, invites us to put things into perspective. With the replacements for the first two matches (Benjamin Toniutti, Théo Faure, Kévin Tillie, Daryl Bultor, Joris Seddik, Benjamin Diez and Yacine Louati), the Blues never really trembled against the young Americans, proving effective on the counter (7 pts) and tightening the game at the end of the round to win by a good margin.
Tillie, who is competing for a starting place as receiver-attacker with Trévor Clévenot, particularly stood out (8 pts) in the first round, offering two set points on a counter and then a winning diagonal attack. Faure, who has a card to play to go to the Games as second point, where he competes with Stephen Boyer (currently injured), finishes with 12 points. That’s one less than Yacine Louati, the man at the end of the second round, where he scored three points in a row.