Roberto Piazza: the Italian Coach of the Orange Team
Story of the Day
The Netherlands were a volleyball giant in the 90s' with Olympic gold (1996), Olympic silver (1992) and World Championship silver (1994) to go with a EuroVolley title they claimed on home soil in 1997.
In today's match they faced the hardest challenge yet and played against the rock solid Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Russia. The match was a 5 set thriller and despite valiant efforts, ended in the favour of Russia with the closest possible margin.
Italian head coach Roberto Piazza has been steering the The Netherlands' national team since 2019. The former volleyball player played professionally in the Italian league from 1987 – 1990, before starting his career as a coach. He has plenty of experience from coaching clubs in all the big leagues: Poland, Russia, Greece and currently Italy. In the last EuroVolley edition in 2019, Piazza and The Netherlands finished 10th.
We had the pleasure to interview the Coach, and the following are his answers to our questions.
You have been a head coach for the Dutch national team for two years now. What kind of work did you do together with your team to prepare for EuroVolley 2021 in the best way?
Roberto Piazza: "It is true that I have been the head coach of the Dutch team for two years, but in reality, we never played last year due to the pandemic. So somehow I stopped after my first season two years ago and I restarted again this year. For us, it's a new start, a new season, new players. It was like building the team from scratch. To prepare as well as possible, I based my work on our players’ abilities, our established relationship within the team, and my own abilities of understanding "how is it possible to improve our game?". This was our team's goal."
What are the main features of a good coach, in your opinion?
"I believe that the dream of a coach is to be able to be a spectator during the game and drink coffee. Meanwhile, the players follow the game plan alone. In some games, I have been involved very little but I have never experienced this feeling."
What would you steal from other coaches competing in Pool C?
"I can take little bits from every moment, not only from the coaches but from the players as well. In our life - if you want to learn something, you can do it every day. For instance, yesterday Spain had a great defence, and they had an amazing game. So I can learn from them as well, plus I speak with a lot of coaches every day because I think it is also important to have a good relationship with each other as a way to improve yourself through sharing information."
"Who are the players that can make the difference in this CEV EuroVolley edition?"
Roberto Piazza: "I think that all of my players can make a difference. Of course, some are more experienced, and they help the others in crucial moments, but overall everyone can make a difference!"