Germany finishes ninth, Brasil is World Champion!

The German team finished the World Championships in Japan on rank 9!! For the players a dream came true so there was a lot of screaming, jumping, hugging and celebrating on the court after the victory against the US-team!

The final top 12 in Japan:
1. Brasil, 2. Poland, 3. Bulgaria, 4. Serbia&Montenegro, 5. Italy, 6. France, 7, Russia, 8. Japan, 9. Germany, 10. USA, 11. Canada, 12. Puerto Rico.

Germany reached final round!

The German team is where they dreamed to be: in Tokyo! Although they lost all their matches in the second round (0:3 against Italy, 1:3 against Bulgaria, a very close 2:3 against the USA and a 1:3 against the Czech Republic when they were already qualified) they made it to play for rank 9-12 in the World Championships! To play for rank 5-8 three more victories would have been necessary. Their first match in the final round will be against Puerto Rico on Saturday!

Germany beats France and Pampel is back!!

A great surprise was the victory today against France. Christian played amazing and his entrance changed the story of the match. With the fourth success in the fourth match and only two sets lost in the whole tournament Germany is now first in the group B and they can take at least the points of two victories into the next round. There Italy and Bulgaria will be two opponents, the other two teams from group C qualified for the second round will be found on the last first-round-day tomorrow. Germany will have to play against the Olympic Champion Brasil

Germany reaches next round!

With three victories in the past three days Germany is already qualified for the next round. After having played a little nervous in the first match against Australia they played two great matches against Cuba and Greece. Tuesday and Wednesday can play without any pressure against France and Brasil.
After having seemed a litte tired and exhausted in the preparation matches Christian had lost his Starting-Six-position to a very good playing Jochen Schöps. Now he has recovered, is doing great in the pracitces and ready to give his best as soon as the team needs him on the court.

The World Championships 2006 in Japan!

For the first time after12 years the German men's national team is participating at world championships! Saturday morning they arrived in Tokyo and are now practicing in the NEC sports-center and trying to recover from the yet lag. Today, they are playing against the US-team. Friday 10 o'clock (Middle European Time) the tournament will start for the Germans with the first match in group B against Australia. They had not been lucky in the drawing and got a really strong group with Brasil, France, Cuba, Greece and Australia and will have to play against the other very strong group C, if they reach the 2nd round. But still they are optimistic and try the get a good start into the tournament.

The preparation matches before the departure to Japan showed positive tendencies but also, where some more work had to be done. The got 3rd in the tournament in Paris, behind Serbia and France but again in front of the Czech team. The coach Moculescu had to decide about the final team going to Japan and nominated the following:

Frank Dehne and Simon Tischer; Ralph Bergmann, Stefan Hübner and Norbert Walter; Björn Andrae, Marcus Popp, Robert Kromm and Mark Siebeck; Christian Pampel and Jochen Schöps; Thomas Kröger.

Since last saturday, there is one our when you can talk about the world championships, the Germany team or just about volleyball in our chat! Every day from 8 till 9 pm: WM-talk:

To login as a guest, just click on "LOS" without filling in any login data!

Germany beats Italy 3:2!! Christian Top Scorer und best spiker of the tournament!

Germany wins the qualification tournament in Naples. In the last match they won against the Italia national team in a thrilling 5-set-match. Both the German headcoach Stelian Moculescu and the Italian Montali played the match mostly with substitute players. The match finnished thanks to a great block by Eugen Bakumovski. Christian entered only for one service but easily won the Best-Scorer-List with an 11-point advantage (click here to see the rankings) and also won the Best-Spiker-Ranking with 75% in the whole tournament (click here to see the rankings). Björn Andrae was Best Server with 5 aces!

Foto: Sabarz

We go to JAAAPAAAAAAAN!!!!!!! Germany : Spain 3:0 (25:20, 25:14, 28:26)

For the first time after 12 years the German men's national team is qualified for a world championship! They opend the door with a 3:0 against Spain, and the Italians pushed them trough with their victory against the Ucrainian Team! Again, Christian played an amazing match with 21 points and 86% in attack. Again he reached the perfect 100% (8 points with 8 spikes) in the first set, plus one ace and two blocks, and it was his block that finished the close third set.

Tonight they will celebrate a little bit, but not without thinking about the match tomorrow against Italy.

LIVE in Naples for the German volleyballradio: Barbara and Diana!
Foto: Sabarz

Pampel extraterristrial!! Germany : Ucrain 3:2 (34:32 20:25 25:17 27:29 15:11)

Did it! Made it! The Germans won the important first match at the qualification tournament in Naples, but it was soooo thrilling! The German reception hat big problems with the Ucrainian services and that could have ended badly, if there wasn't Christian. He scored unbelievable 39 points and reached the 100% in attack in both the third and the fifth set.

Tomorrow they will play the second match against Spain. From 17:30 all German volleyball fans can listen to the match LIVE in Internet on www.volleyballradio.de, when hopefully Pampi&Co will make the second step towards Japan!