The way the Volleyball World Cup 2007 in Japan started seemed to meet Bulgaria’s greatest expectations: three wins out of three in their first matches, two defeats for both Spain and the US and a loss for each of Brazil and Puerto Rico. Bulgaria and Russia are the only teams undefeated after first part of the 11-round competition.

The tournament is also a battle for three places on the 2008 Beijing Olympics’ entry list. Claiming their spot at that competition is the main goal of Martin Stoev’s players in Japan, they won third place at the World Championship a year ago. Successive 3:1 wins over the European champions Spain, African champions Egypt and North America’s second power Puerto Rico, combined with the other contenders’ blunders, lifted Bulgarian hopes of winning the World Cup.

Coach Martin Stoev was still cautious and is not yet pointing at first place, maybe because his team is not so steady under pressure. Results from matches number four and five, against the US and favourite Brazil, would add to Bulgaria’s appetite for the top place.

After those matches comes a string of easier games against Korea (November 25, 8.05am on BNT), Australia (November 26, 8.35am) and Tunisia (November 27, 8.35am), followed by the derby game versus Russia (November 30, 9.35am) and a couple of almost sure victories against Japan (December 1, 12.30am) and Argentina (December 2, 7:05am).

“So far, so good,” Stoev said after the hat trick of victories. “We played three tough matches and now we have two more that hopefully we will win. It’s still early for conclusions and mathematics. There are eight games ahead, 11 matches in 14 days is a very difficult job. The most important thing is to keep on winning and then we’ll see.”

The Bulgarian team is not at its best, showing some hesitancy, according to the players. Against Puerto Rico they maintained their perfect start but were made to work hard for much of a four-set victory. Puerto Rico won the first set but Plamen Konstantinov, Matey Kaziyski and the rest of the Bulgarian team dominated the latter stages. Captain Konstantinov said: “We knew it would be difficult. They won against the US. They showed they are a dangerous side but most importantly we showed character in coming back after the first set and we wanted the victory more today.”

The same applied to Russia, the European Championship’s runner-up and ranked third in the world. On day three of the competition, the Russians were at first surprised by the determined Tunisians and lost their first set of the World Cup but then quickly found their stride to reach an easy 3:1 victory. Head coach Vladimir Alekno was a little bit upset: “All the other teams have said Russia is a strong team, but today our team lost concentration and did not keep motivated. So even if you are strong but you lose concentration, the result can be like today and you can loose one set. This was a good experience to learn how important it is to maintain concentration.”

The World and Olympic Champions Brazil suffered an unexpected defeat by the US on day one but quickly turned on the samba style with two convincing victories over Spain and Egypt before the upcoming matches against Puerto Rico and Bulgaria. “We don’t want to make mistakes again. It’s a good result but we need to improve a lot. Puerto Rico is playing very well and Bulgaria is such a powerful team so we need to fight against them in order to qualify for the Olympics,” coach Bernardo Rezende said.