Julius Thole / Clemens Wickler Germany (1) def. Martins Plavins / Edgars Tocs Latvia (7) 22-20, 15-21, 15-13 (53)
Clemens Wickler, Germany - “We couldn’t imagine that before the tournament. We are just giving everything in every match and the crowd has just been pushing us. With this crowd behind us, we just have to get in to the flow. We played the Norwegians twice, won one and lost the other. Hopefully we can win another one and just keep it going.”
Julius Thole, Germany - “The feeling is unbelievable. Plavins is a great defender, but Clemens showed he’s a top defender as well. It was a team effort; our chemistry was great, and we managed to remain calm even when things weren’t going our way. We’ll focus again and talk to our coach, Martin, who has always great ideas, and see how we approach this game. We’ll definitely try to find a way to beat them.”
Edgars Tocs, Latvia - “There was a good game from both sides and the best team won, they were better. With such a wonderful crowd you cannot be bad. It was good rallies, good defense, good blocks, good attacks. We hope they win so we can tell we lost to the champions. It was difficult, we haven’t played at night in the stadium. It was a different feeling. The ball at one moment gets lost in the air. It feels like you’re in a jar, you look up your head starts to spin. We got experience playing in the crowd under pressure and you can win money or lose money, like poker. It gets on the nerves, bluffing, showing what you’ve got. It will make us stronger as a team for sure.”
Martins Plavins, Latvia - “It was a good tournament for us, our friends were here supporting. We grew as a team for sure because we played all matches in three sets and we feel we could beat all the teams. This is our first year as a team, so we will practice hard in the winter to win such games like this. We are happy about the season, about everything. The most important thing we are happy about is we see we have a chance for Tokyo. Fifth for us in the World Tour Finals is good.”