I also worry about that. But in the club competitions, there are several tall players like Ashileva, Andrushko and another Markova (?) who will be allowed to play by 2009. Their heights are 195 cm and above. There is also Gromova, Koshileva and Pasynkova who are above 190 cm. I wonder why Caprara has not really utilized these talents that much. Karpol recently said that he worries of the future Russian Team because for the past years, no stars have been produced. And I totally agree with him. After 2008, I cannot take to see Fateeva, Sarfronova leading the Russian team - it will be the end of my favorite team. I hope the future will still be bright for them.
Russia National Team for Olympics
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I also worry about that. But in the club competitions, there are several tall players like Ashileva, Andrushko and another Markova (?) who will be allowed to play by 2009. Their heights are 195 cm and above. There is also Gromova, Koshileva and Pasynkova who are above 190 cm. I wonder why Caprara has not really utilized these talents that much. Karpol recently said that he worries of the future Russian Team because for the past years, no stars have been produced. And I totally agree with him. After 2008, I cannot take to see Fateeva, Sarfronova leading the Russian team - it will be the end of my favorite team. I hope the future will still be bright for them.
Well, I think after 2008, Gamova would be the one who would lead the team assuming that Sokolova, Artamonova, and Godina would retire after the Olympics and I think Safronova would not have a chance to lead the team because she would retire also or Caprara would call younger players and try to invest more time on them. I think the player who should have become the star Karpol was talking about is Merkulova but her performance was not of "star player" level. Andrushko can be a star player someday. By the way, how old is Andrushko? I hope she is still young so she still have the years to stay in the team.
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I forgot to add this. Russia should call tall players; players who are more than 190 cm tall. I believe that Russia's technique works best with very tall players. One of the known and signature strengths of Russia is the team's height advantage to any team. This is an asset of Russia so the team should utilize this. The star players of Russia today are very tall. Artamonova is 191 cm tall. Gamova is 202 cm. Sokolova and Godina are 193 cm and 196 cm tall, respectively. Being tall is a niche of Russia so this should always be considered when choosing new players for the team.
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i think in years to come if caprara still chooses player dat r 190c. below..china will beat russia in height advantage..bec Chen is choosing more big tall players that are 190cm or more
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I also worry about that. But in the club competitions, there are several tall players like Ashileva, Andrushko and another Markova (?) who will be allowed to play by 2009. Their heights are 195 cm and above. There is also Gromova, Koshileva and Pasynkova who are above 190 cm. I wonder why Caprara has not really utilized these talents that much. Karpol recently said that he worries of the future Russian Team because for the past years, no stars have been produced. And I totally agree with him. After 2008, I cannot take to see Fateeva, Sarfronova leading the Russian team - it will be the end of my favorite team. I hope the future will still be bright for them.
Right! No new stars are nurtured these four years especially spiker. Honestly, the star players in Russia is not young anymore. Arta, Godina & Soko must retire after OG and I think Safronova will retire too, only Gamova can lead the team. Who can replace the star players? I agree that Fateeva will follow the road as Safronova, Fateeva can still stay at the team, but she could not be the core person. Maybe Kosheleva and Andrushko can take the responsibility, however they need some times to train.
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Right! No new stars are nurtured these four years especially spiker. Honestly, the star players in Russia is not young anymore. Arta, Godina & Soko must retire after OG and I think Safronova will retire too, only Gamova can lead the team. Who can replace the star players? I agree that Fateeva will follow the road as Safronova, Fateeva can still stay at the team, but she could not be the core person. Maybe Kosheleva and Andrushko can take the responsibility, however they need some times to train.
I think that Andrushko plays the same position as Gamova, she will not make receptions, right?? if that's so, only either one can play on court. Russia is really lack of players with good receptions after OG 2008
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Well, Andrushko has to learn how to receive because if she cannot then she and Gamova cannot play all at the same time. She was born in 1985 so she is quite very young. There is also Ashileva whose height is 206 cm. I wonder why she is not being called. She is the leading scorer of her team. Maybe she can substitute Gamova for the hitter-non-receiver position. And her height has to be utilized. Another player I want to see after the Olympics is Kosheleva. She hits really good. I see in her so much potential. And she does not hit the ball against the blockers' hands like Fateeva and Safronova. She certainly hits better and stronger. I also hope to see Pasynkova. She was born in 1987 or 1989 so she is really very young and at her age, she is already doing very good. So in the future, I hope to see Andrushko, Pasynkova, Kosheleva and Ashileva as the main players of Russia. Fateeva can be the substitute all her life like Safronova.
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Well, Andrushko has to learn how to receive because if she cannot then she and Gamova cannot play all at the same time. She was born in 1985 so she is quite very young. There is also Ashileva whose height is 206 cm. I wonder why she is not being called. She is the leading scorer of her team. Maybe she can substitute Gamova for the hitter-non-receiver position. And her height has to be utilized. Another player I want to see after the Olympics is Kosheleva. She hits really good. I see in her so much potential. And she does not hit the ball against the blockers' hands like Fateeva and Safronova. She certainly hits better and stronger. I also hope to see Pasynkova. She was born in 1987 or 1989 so she is really very young and at her age, she is already doing very good. So in the future, I hope to see Andrushko, Pasynkova, Kosheleva and Ashileva as the main players of Russia. Fateeva can be the substitute all her life like Safronova.
may i ask who Ashileva is?? Can someone provide some information about her here?
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Actually her name is Nelli ALISHEVA, not Ashileva
She's a tall left-handed player from...I believe Dinamo Yantar, but I'm not sure.
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Oh I am sorry. I mixed the letters. But yes she is playing with dinamo yantar with zhitova i think. If you look at her statistics, she is doing really good. she gets most of the team's attacks and her percentage is usually between 40-50. caprara should have called her rather than the small players.
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Oh I am sorry. I mixed the letters. But yes she is playing with dinamo yantar with zhitova i think. If you look at her statistics, she is doing really good. she gets most of the team's attacks and her percentage is usually between 40-50. caprara should have called her rather than the small players.
How old is she?? is she young??if she is, Russia will et more powerful if she becomes one team member of the NT.
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She was born in 1983. So she is already 25 years old. Imagine if Caprara has gotten her to the National Team 4 years ago together with Merkulova and Borodakova, she will already be playing like Gamova now, or near Gamova. I totally agree that height is the strength of Russia. You just cannot put small players in the team who will attack with high balls especially if you do not have setters in the league of Fofao and Lo Bianco. If you do that, you just cannot win. Besides other teams are already using tall players. China's attackers are becoming tall - 190 cm. The Cubans are also becoming tall - Carcases, Calderon. And here is Russia --- the attackers are becoming smaller and smaller. So sad. It is making me depressed.
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She was born in 1983. So she is already 25 years old. Imagine if Caprara has gotten her to the National Team 4 years ago together with Merkulova and Borodakova, she will already be playing like Gamova now, or near Gamova. I totally agree that height is the strength of Russia. You just cannot put small players in the team who will attack with high balls especially if you do not have setters in the league of Fofao and Lo Bianco. If you do that, you just cannot win. Besides other teams are already using tall players. China's attackers are becoming tall - 190 cm. The Cubans are also becoming tall - Carcases, Calderon. And here is Russia --- the attackers are becoming smaller and smaller. So sad. It is making me depressed.
Is she really performing very good in her club?? Anyway, she is already 25 years old. Imagine if Caprara tells her to enter the national team, she can only play for the team for 4 years and most likely these years Gomova will be playing. Thus she can only be a substitute. It is really difficult to provide an opportunity for her to gain experience on court. Thus I think Caprara gets Andrushko instead of her because Andrushko is younger and Andrushko is also performing well in her club. She will still be playing in the national team even after Gamova retires. and there will be time for Andrushko to perform on court but that is not the case for her.
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She is the main scorer in her team and her attack efficiency on the average is high similar to that of Andrushko. And half of the attacks or a third of the attacks of the team would come from her. This is only based on statistics I got from http://www.volley.ru. Well if I were the coach, I would have gotten her as a substitute for Gamova and use Andrushko as an attacker-receiver much like what happened to Godina. Giving exposure to Fateeva was not the best investment. She just cannot deliver as a substitute for Gamova. In most instances when she is asked to play for Gamova, she just cannot score. The team further sinks deeper like a ship instead of providing some sparks or momentum. The exposure should have been given to Andrushko, Ashileva and other taller players. I wonder why Caprara thinks of her as a good player. Well maybe if she plays with not so high balls and with a brilliant setter like Italy and Brazil, she can be that brilliant. But not with the Russian style with high balls and slower plays.
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She is the main scorer in her team and her attack efficiency on the average is high similar to that of Andrushko. And half of the attacks or a third of the attacks of the team would come from her. This is only based on statistics I got from http://www.volley.ru. Well if I were the coach, I would have gotten her as a substitute for Gamova and use Andrushko as an attacker-receiver much like what happened to Godina. Giving exposure to Fateeva was not the best investment. She just cannot deliver as a substitute for Gamova. In most instances when she is asked to play for Gamova, she just cannot score. The team further sinks deeper like a ship instead of providing some sparks or momentum. The exposure should have been given to Andrushko, Ashileva and other taller players. I wonder why Caprara thinks of her as a good player. Well maybe if she plays with not so high balls and with a brilliant setter like Italy and Brazil, she can be that brilliant. But not with the Russian style with high balls and slower plays.
Maybe spiking not so high balls is what Caprara likes. I feel that Caprara is changing Russia's traditional spiking. He trys to convert very high balls to quicker combination and attacks. It is good overall, i can really increase the attack threat to others. But i think Caprara has to train high balls too because it is to be used when the reception is bad. I think why Fateeva is trained by Caprara because she can make quicker attacks, and the taller ones may need a higher ball. Maybe if there are tooo many tal players on court, they will move too slow and the defense willl be a big big problem..
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Well, there is nothing wrong with such idea by Caprara. It is noble indeed considering that Russia has been criticized for its slow and predictable plays. However, Caprara has been unsuccessful at achieving that. It has been four years but nothing successful. All is see Fateeva being blocked for a million times. Though I would have to commend Kulikova because I think she adapts well to the mid-high/lower sets given by Sheshenina. At the end of the day, Russia plays would revert back to high sets because first, reception is not perfect and second, the setter is good but not that brilliant and not that used to the ways and plays like that of Italy and Brazil.
Russia has tall players and these players should be maximized and used especially for the outside hitter positions. For me the reason other teams are using those quick and faster sets is because the players do not have the height advantage. If you have all the tall players in world, why bother giving low sets if you can score with high sets and powerful attacks. Besides, this has been the niche and the strength of Russia. This is where it plays best. Russia is Russia and you just cannot convert Russia to Italy or Brazil. It just will not work.
However, to clarify, I am not saying that Russia continues to use those slow and predictable plays. It can make quick, fast and combination plays through the middle players and the opposite - just like the Sokolova-Titchenko-Belikova/Morozova combo in Karpol days. But of course it must maintain the high sets and powerful attacks of its outside hitters.
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Well, there is nothing wrong with such idea by Caprara. It is noble indeed considering that Russia has been criticized for its slow and predictable plays. However, Caprara has been unsuccessful at achieving that. It has been four years but nothing successful. All is see Fateeva being blocked for a million times. Though I would have to commend Kulikova because I think she adapts well to the mid-high/lower sets given by Sheshenina. At the end of the day, Russia plays would revert back to high sets because first, reception is not perfect and second, the setter is good but not that brilliant and not that used to the ways and plays like that of Italy and Brazil.
Russia has tall players and these players should be maximized and used especially for the outside hitter positions. For me the reason other teams are using those quick and faster sets is because the players do not have the height advantage. If you have all the tall players in world, why bother giving low sets if you can score with high sets and powerful attacks. Besides, this has been the niche and the strength of Russia. This is where it plays best. Russia is Russia and you just cannot convert Russia to Italy or Brazil. It just will not work.
However, to clarify, I am not saying that Russia continues to use those slow and predictable plays. It can make quick, fast and combination plays through the middle players and the opposite - just like the Sokolova-Titchenko-Belikova/Morozova combo in Karpol days. But of course it must maintain the high sets and powerful attacks of its outside hitters.
I cannot agree more.
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I really hope that at this point in their training in Croatia, Caprara is giving focus on improving the attacks of Borodakova, Alimova and Merkulova. If there is one thing that I really fear for this team, it is these three players. This is their first time to play in the Olympics. Also, their plays are not consistent. Since Artamonova is there, thus reception will probably improve and more possiblity for quick or slide plays, I hope that these three will perform well. Alimova seems not to connect well with Sheshenina. Alimova seems to play well with Akulova. Their plays during WGP07 were quite impressive. But Alimova's performance last 2007 seemed to deteriorate and vary. Borodakova's attacks are below average. I hope she can learn or master the Titchencko-Tebenikhina-Sargsian slide attacks. If she can do that, she can contribute a lot to the team. As to Merkulova, she is terrible in blocks so she must do well in the attacks. With her height, I hope she will be more consistent and more powerful. I will forgive her for her slow blocking but I cannot forgive her for her lousy attacks.
If these three perform well plus the powerful quad of Gamo-Soko-Arta-Godi, chances will be greater. I cannot wait for the Olympics.
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I really hope that at this point in their training in Croatia, Caprara is giving focus on improving the attacks of Borodakova, Alimova and Merkulova. If there is one thing that I really fear for this team, it is these three players. This is their first time to play in the Olympics. Also, their plays are not consistent. Since Artamonova is there, thus reception will probably improve and more possiblity for quick or slide plays, I hope that these three will perform well. Alimova seems not to connect well with Sheshenina. Alimova seems to play well with Akulova. Their plays during WGP07 were quite impressive. But Alimova's performance last 2007 seemed to deteriorate and vary. Borodakova's attacks are below average. I hope she can learn or master the Titchencko-Tebenikhina-Sargsian slide attacks. If she can do that, she can contribute a lot to the team. As to Merkulova, she is terrible in blocks so she must do well in the attacks. With her height, I hope she will be more consistent and more powerful. I will forgive her for her slow blocking but I cannot forgive her for her lousy attacks.
If these three perform well plus the powerful quad of Gamo-Soko-Arta-Godi, chances will be greater. I cannot wait for the Olympics.
One more thing Caprara needs to think about is the physical condition...as we all know the substitute of Russia are much more weaker than the start six....Caprara should do something on the start six so that they will not easily get tired even there are lots of matches...I am really lack of confidence of the substitute players in Russia...otherwise the physical condition may lead to a great fluctuation in the Russia team, like WGP 2007, Russia wins China by 3-1 in the first day but lose to USA 3-0 in the second day..
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The team really has lots of things to prepare. If there is one thing I am happy about their terrible 2007 performance, it is the fact that they will again learn to identify their weaknesses and prepare better and stronger tactics knowing that they no longer are number one. Had they been number 1 this 2007 in tournaments, I am pretty sure that they will tend to lax and underprepare for 2008. After 2006 victory, the team seemed to be overconfident especially the coach. Now that they are in the bottom, there is no other way but to go and reach the top.