"Cuckoouuuuuuuuuuu!
"Barely arrived in the mixed zone, Laurent Tillie has fun shouting in the dictaphones of the journalists waiting for him.
The coach of the Blues has a smile despite the defeat in the final set against Brazil (3-2) on the night of Saturday to Sunday: for the first time, the French volleyball team will play a quarter-final at the Olympics despite a failed start to the competition.
A meeting against Poland that the future ex-boss tricolor wants to approach with relaxation.
Speaking of bonsai, Formula 1 and Novak Djokovic.
Did you erase the ghost of Rio with this qualification?
LAURENT TILLIE.
We were afraid to find him (smile).
There is a lot of happiness, because we had to go looking for it.
It's a real feat, and especially a titanic fight when you see the scores and the duration.
You had to win at least two sets.
We were always behind, we made 1-0, 1-1, 2-1 and then 2-2.
We hesitated between putting it to rest or trying to take the tie-break.
Finally, we said to ourselves that we were going to try to win this place.
So.
We are in the competition, we are survivors and we want to think that the next game and that's it.
We don't think of anything other than keeping our level, our desire to play, regaining recovery and dynamism.
And we'll see where we end up.
Which feeling dominates between the disappointment of the defeat and the satisfaction of the qualification?
We are still in the competition.
We hit rock bottom after Argentina and the United States… We don't think so.
Worried about losing that momentum during the quarterfinal?
(He cuts) Did you see how it goes in sports?
Have you seen Djokovic?
Have you seen the Chinese Olympic champions (Editor's note: volleyball) who certainly do not come out of the pool?
We want to stay in the flow.
We don't want to talk: just recovery, a bit of weight lifting, a bit of volleyball, seeing who we're going to play, preparing for the match, etc.
We don't have time to have emotions.
We had emotions for ten days, the week in the village and the first three games.
How is a second set won 39-37 after eleven set points from the bench?
It's a little harder to live with (he smiles).
I just tried to recalibrate on the block and free up for service.
After that, you have to have enough humility to let the players play.
They know volleyball better than I do, and they're on the court too.
There is no point in talking too much.
Does your team need the irrational in these kinds of situations?
We are not necessarily looking for him, he comes because we do the right things.
The irrational comes when you have a constant level of play, when you systematically do the same things on easy situations that you can control.
If we start to want to play irrational, we lose 3-0 quickly.
The irrational came about because we were solid and constant, which we did not have against Argentina and the United States, even if the United States had taken our throats and atomized because they played very, very well.
When we don't have the Brazilian solidity of the block or the attack, we need the irrational to foil, to put us in confidence and to change the rhythm of the match.
As they say, the flies change checkmarks.
The players seemed tired, how to fix them before the quarter-final?
It will go through rest, cold baths and a little tonic workout tomorrow.
A booster of strength, but not too much.
We have to see what time we're going to play.
What is certain is that you should not stay in bed and sleep.
We are Formula 1, we have to adjust them in Formula 1. We have to keep this level of intensity.
"You have to have patience, and we are in a country of patience here, we see how they do with the bonsai"
Do your players still have room for improvement?
We progress by playing.
We saw better things on the block at the end of the game, better things in attack.
We are on a good pace.
The substitutes are ready to return, even if they have made a difficult comeback, and bring two points, three points or a set.
It may be played on the bench.
Honestly, a team and a player improve not through training, but through matches.
What does this qualification bring to French volleyball?
Experience cannot be bought and it cannot be decreed.
You have to have patience, and we are in a country of patience here, we see how they do with the bonsai.
An athlete, a team and a federation feed on history and continuity.
From the start, it was the Olympic Games.
Everything else shoots with it.
How are you going to approach this quarter?
There is no calculation to do, we will certainly (Editor's note: it's mathematically done) play Poland, moreover they are waiting for me there you see (he points to Polish journalists). We know it is the best team in the world. There we have no calculations to do. The Olympics are the only competition that we play without calculation, because we see incredible tensions.
