Men’s Road to Rio creates a lot of ifs, ands & buts

Lausanne, Switzerland, May 9, 2016 – If it happens and the teams from Germany appear to play as expected, it will be the “Olympic showcase” in Turkey this week for the US$150,000 Antalya Open with a lot of “if’s and buts” being used to discuss the scenarios on the “Road to Rio”.

With Germans Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik meeting the qualification requirement of participating in at least 12 FIVB World Tour events since the start of the process this past week at the Sochi Open in Russia, the competition for the 15th and final spot from the international circuit is presently a fight between two teams from the European country.

Markus Bockermann and Lars Fluggen are currently No. 15 with 4,400 points for their best 12 finishes while Erdmann and Matysik are 170 points behind with 4,230 points.  With Fluggen missing the last three FIVB World Tour events after being injured early last month in a Qatar Open semi-final, Bockermann can only watch as Erdmann and Matysik have racked up points with a second-place in China (Fuzhou) and the Sochi ninth.

With both teams entered in the last four FIVB World Tour qualifying events in Turkey, the United States (Cincinnati), Russia (Moscow) and Germany (Hamburg), there is a good chance the two could meet along the way.  With Erdmann and Matysik in their eighth season of participating on the FIVB World Tour together, the pair has never played Bockermann and Fluggen in a FIVB or CEV event.  Fluggen did defeat Erdmann and Matysik once with a different partner (Sebastian Dollinger) at a 2014 FIVB event in The Hague.

“All these tournaments are important now,” said Erdmann Monday as he is preparing for …

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