Malkia Strikers' bench exude confidence ahead of Red Star friendly

Malkia Strikers boss, Luizomar de Moura says their last leg of preparations in Serbia, where the team is set to play two friendly matches, will help them tighten any loose ends ahead of competition. 

The national women's volleyball team is in Belgrade, Serbia after a two-month long training camp in Brazil in readiness for the Women's World Championships set for Netherlands and Poland from 23 September to 15 October. 

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For their final preparations, sponsors Mozzart Bet have organised friendly matches against Red Star Belgrade on Saturday 17 September from 5pm (6pm EAT) and the Serbian national team on Sunday same time. 

In their first friendly match, Malkia Strikers face a team that boasts the title of the most successful Serbian women's team. 

Red Star who are the defending league and Cup champions are expected to give the de Moura's charges quite the competition if their history is anything to go by. 

Under the tutelage of Ratko Pavličević, the team is home to former national team outside hitter  Ana Živojinović and the Serbian national team B opposite Tara Taubner among others. 

They have won 28 national championships and 18 national Cups in addition to numerous European champions league ,Cup and Challenge Cup appearances. 

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"Our main objective is to perform well at the Worlds. We will be facing high level teams that are superior in ranking. Our focus, however, is on the two matches that can propel us to the second phase. These are matches we must win to make history. 

The Serbian matches give us a picture of the kind of competition to expect from the teams that come from Europe and help us prepare for our first match," offered Moura. 

He continued, "We are grateful to be in Serbia after two months in Brazil as this camp gives us the exact conditions we will be playing in while at the Netherlands.

In those two matches, we will be careful to avoid any costly mistakes that can lead to us losing points. We have to give these games all our attention and hope the players can implement what they have been learning in Brazil." 

His assistant Paul Bitok is convinced that the team's preparations have been adequate for the targets they have for the championship and the final push is to get results that inspire confidence ahead of action in Netherlands. 

"We take these matches in Belgrade as part of our world championships competition since the conditions are the same. We have had the best preparations and are ready to go. 

Against Red Star we will be hoping to pick a win as that would set the mood for the players before facing Netherlands in the opener at the competition-proper," Bitok said. 

He continued, "I believe these players are now used to this level of competition seeing as we played ten friendly matches in Brazil. The technical team is hoping that the players put everything they have learned into play for victory as that would be a huge morale booster for the championship." 

The former African champions are drawn in a tough looking pool A in a draw which split the 24 participating teams into four first round pools of six teams. Malkia Strikers are pitted against Cameroon, hosts Netherlands, European champions Italy, Puerto Rico and Belgium