After 50 years of absence, the French team returns with ambition

After more than 50 years of absence, the French women’s volleyball team participated from Friday in Thailand on Friday at the World Cup which it approaches with a final phase objective, nourished by a promising summer. This ambition to get out of the hen C by finishing in the first two will immediately go to the revealer since the Bleues are opposed to the opening (11am in France) to Chiang Mai (North) in Puerto Rico, their main adversary announced in a group that also counts Brazil, big favorite, and Greece.

“If we play our best volleyball, we are better. But you will have to be able and control the match ”estimates with AFP Cesar Hernandez, the Spanish coach of the French. This “Best volleyball”his players often proposed it this summer at the League of Nations (VNL), where they touched the qualification for the final 8 (9th) when they were aimed above all. And for the beginnings of Hernandez, successor after the 2024 Olympic Games (three dry defeats) of the Belgian Emile Rousseaux, who had released the team from the second European division to carry it in the world elite.

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It was under Rousseaux that the Bleues have won their first participation in the World Cup since 1974, even if the enlargement of 24 to 32 teams favored them. Their promising VNL, where they stood up to Brazil and the United States (2-3 each time), and beaten without trembling the Bulgarians (3-1) like the Dutch (3-0), gives them hopes. “But we know that in VNL we have not really met the big teams each time” nuances Captain Héléna Cazaute, who highlights the rotations carried out by the selections. “VNL gives us confidence yes, but we must not stay on our achievements” adds the French offensive leader.

A still young group

Cazaute judges that the Bleues have, under Hernandez, progressed “In all sectors of play”. A game that is also “More varied”. But the captain tempers, “The team must gain in constance” And in variety when the opposing counter is particularly high, like that of the very best in the world. “We are going in the right direction, we work well. I really believe in this team, still young. We must continue to grow, gain experience ”considers Hernandez, who according to Cazaute has instilled an additional competitive spirit to the team, in particular via the multiplication of games in training. The best ranked at the end of the season will be rewarded.

The League of Nations has also made it possible to densify the workforce, thanks in particular to the emergence of the Enora Danard-Selosse passer or the pointed Iman Ndiaye, best marker of the competition. “But the counters are reset,” warns the Spanish coach. And we have to expect to face more suspicious and better prepared opponents. ” The sign that the Blue has won a few stripes since the beginning of the summer.

The France program in the 1st round in Chiang Mai (in Paris hours):

August 22 (11:00 am) Puerto Rico – France
August 24 (2:30 p.m.) Brazil – France
August 26 (11:00 am) France – Greece

The group of 14 players

Passers: Enora Danard-Selosse (Mulhouse), Nina Stojiljkovic (Aydin/Tur)
Libero: Juliette Gelin (Milan/Ita), Amandine Giardino (Nantes)
Reception-attackers: Amélie Rotar (Alba Blaj/Rom), Sabine Haewegene (Chamalières), Maéva Schalk (Le Cannet), Héléna Cazaute (Milan/Ita)
Pointues : Iman Ndiarye (Kecial/TUR), Lucille Gicequel (Chiris/ITA)
Centrales: Amandha sylves (Cuneo / Ita), Fatomata Failed (Condues), Eva Eliares (Vays d’Aix Villes), Camille Massuel (Cannes)