Brazilian NT 2017

Quote from rbdfabio

And how bad is Gabi`s injury?

Not bad. I don't know exactly what is the injury, but it seems she will be fully ready until the last competitions of the year (Grand champions cup and South American championship).

I forgot to mention, Thaísa will be back after she recovers from all the injuries she's having.

Jaque retired? Mari Paraíba declined?

We will miss Garay, Dani Lins and Thaísa really bad. On the other hand, we'll watch other players showing what they got. Let's see.

Honestly, I like Mari Paraiba but she does not have NT level.
Jaque did not retire, but Zé Roberto said she needs to get her shape back before she can possibly come back to the NT in the following years.

I'm confused which Gabi who is hurt. And Rio Gabi as a Libero? And which Gabi for OH?

Quote from Maxwell

I'm confused which Gabi who is hurt. And Rio Gabi as a Libero? And which Gabi for OH?

Gabi from Rexona has a small injury.
Gabi from Nestlé will play as libero in the NT, but It seems that she will keep playing as OH in her club.

Thank you. Gabi from Nestle as a Libero? She is slow. I can see Gabi from Rio being a good Libero one day when she is not hitting.

Joycinha is playing at a very high level but why does she is not invited tho?

I hope the 4th quarter of 2018 Garay and Thaisa will be back on court.

Sheilla might be playing this season. She has been really silent about her offers. Maybe she will return to Rexona SESC if they can afford her since Minas and Osasco already has their OPP.

Quote from akitoakie

She has been really silent about her offers

She offered herself to Minas (she bought a new apartment across the street from the club), but they prefered to keep Hooker.
I think this was probably the only thing she had in mind (to play in Minas again), but now I really don't know...she might end up in Brasília (as her husband lives there), but they have a smaller budget right now...

Quote from Maxwell

Thank you. Gabi from Nestle as a Libero? She is slow. I can see Gabi from Rio being a good Libero one day when she is not hitting.

I really don't think she is slow. She might not have the best reception but her defense skills are pretty good.

this is my first post!
Been following brazil womens volleyball since time in memorial and i believe that ze roberto will produce younger yet caliber player that will give China serbia and usa a run for their money...

I do believe that brazil must keep up wih the trends that serbia and china presented in the recent rio olympics... strong and young beast players and players that live up the height.. not necessarily tall such us 2.02 gamova but not really small like 1.80....

The following are the persons whom i would love to see in major competitions in the coming years!

Libero:
Fabi - still Is the queen of brazil
Leia - i dont know but does she have injury? Her reception isnt good this season
Suellen - how i wish she loses weight for her to catch balls easily, but seeing her in italy, she is just wow!
Gabi (from osasco) - awesome defense and foot work, with good leadership skills

OPPOSITE Hitters:
Rosamaria - should be converted to outside swing hitter where she is good at! She had an awesome season with minas just before the jacque and destinee hooker entered
Lorenne - too bad, she is from a low budget team though playing on a titular role... i see her off the block spike effective against volleyball giants russia serbia and china
Natalia - i never taught she would be good at this, but her training with bernardino only shows that she can make it big at a foreign superliga. Atm, she is the leader of brazil nt... and i really believe in her passing, her servixe really improves and she is not afraid to spike even if milena rasic, zhu ting, maja, kimberly hill is blocking her on the other side of the net....
Paula borgo - i hate it when i first saw her videos against pinheiros where she scored 25 points and was benched to ana bjelica... osasco coach should consider that brazil needs a stable opposite. She has the height, the spike advantage.. i saw in the last games she wasnt really used by her coach... but whenever ana bjelica playd bad.. she played at her best...

Middle blockers
Ana beatriz correa (bia of osasco) - i like her energy and her spiking kills/percentage is the one to watch if you consider her recent stats at kobe world championship.. more experience and she'll be a monster blocker
Mara - i see her drive in the sport but sometimes she is not consistent, she should be more confident... i played mang times in youtube her blocking vs thaissa..
Thaissa menezes - the queen! But at the moment she should be more careful with her plays, if she wanted to make it again at tokyo 2020!
Juciely - she is the epitome that age is just a number. At 1.84m, she can kill balls like a 20y.o...

Setter:
Roberta ratzske - i hope ze will choose roberta as titular setter roberta she has the height, effective passing and digging...
Naiane - i see her as cute but i hope she increase more in height... her setting is also commendable...
Juma silva - mvp of 2015 junior world championship..

Outside hitter:
Fe garay - i know for a fact that fe is going to marry this year! I believe she can still make it at tokyo if ze will not be able to produce stars like her, mari, paula, jacque
Tandara - come 2020, she'll be 32 but that isnt a problem, the way she spike is so powerful! Even powerful with fe garay sometimes but she should do a homework on her passing.. i read in one articleshe is overweight.. i still have high hopes with her
Drussyla costa - breakthrough brazilian star of 2017! Her defense, spike and mind in every game is highly recommended.. i believe she studies every opponent they had...
Edinara brancher - i dont know what happened to her in the junior NT but i saw some of her game, she is very trainable at 1.86m..
fernanda tome - another fe but taller, her spikes are also powerful. I like her height advantage...

Good post and thoughts. But no mention of Gabi (Rio) as an OH. Nor Carol (Rio) as MB. I'm still not sure why Gabi for libero. I need to go back and watch her from that angle and not as a frustrating to watch OH. But does it appear that Ze doesn't think that Leia and Suellen can fill the libero spot? Isn't Suellan in her late 20s? I think setters are another open position.

Quote from Maxwell

Good post and thoughts. But no mention of Gabi (Rio) as an OH. Nor Carol (Rio) as MB. I'm still not sure why Gabi for libero. I need to go back and watch her from that angle and not as a frustrating to watch OH. But does it appear that Ze doesn't think that Leia and Suellen can fill the libero spot? Isn't Suellan in her late 20s? I think setters are another open position.

Yes, i forgot to mention gabriela guimaraes sir but if you check in the recent games gabi has been overshadowed by drussyla... if only gabi is a like 1.88 she can block any opponen within her arm reach... i like her powerplay of arms during a spike.. its very gabi when u watch her spike.. however she has been blocked almost all of the time during the finals game... it was monique who delivered even at age 30, against milena and lonneke sloetjes...

Regarding carol, her blocking skilla are excellent however her spiking skills is almost a problem.. saw one stat she only made 3 spikes out of 16! Thats lame or maybe just a bad day for her bjg her level significantly droppedzzz

Just to note: i only consider the persons i previously listed in terms of their age and experience at the moment... and as to how they played the game...

Regarding adenizia... i dont think there's space for her in the nt anymore...

Do you have updates from julia bergmann? Cant find any gideos of her in youtube...

I think with natalia in mind also with drussyla, tandara, bia roberta leia and another middle blocker...brazil can still go along against china serbia and usa. I just hope our players levelled up their serving skills... as their reception skills has always been above average...

I have been watching Brazil Women NT since 2007 and in my opinion, the best team that they have was the 2008 team -- with the golden triangle of Mari, Paula, and Sheila. Mari and Paula was and still is the best OH-duo Brazil has ever had. Paula is so dynamic, getting called the Giba of the female NT. And Mari was just a beast. She was one of the first female players whose not afraid to hit hard over the top of the block. Sheilla was simply outstanding. She then you have the MB duo -- Fabiana and Walewska as well as Thaisa who were as good as they are in attacking as in blocking. And then the libero, the amazing Fabi who was simply the best female libero of that era. And of course, the legendary Fofao. The cute petite but experienced and intelligent setter who changed the game, alongside with Takeshita.

There are so many young players in Brazil and with the right amount of training and exposure, they will give China and Serbia a run for their money.

And one thing also, Brazil has always been one of thise good-passing teams.

Paula vs Bjelica.

Paula and Helo last season finished the season as the 2 best scores. No wonder why one went to Osasco and the other to Rexona. A lot of people were surprised Helo barely got to play this season, Bernardo did not even use her in the 5-1. Late in the season she got to play a little and did not do so well, but of course, after spending all season on the bench.

Paula - A lot of people were saying last year Ze Roberto should let her play in the Grand Prix and maybe even take her to the Olympics to back up Sheilla. Of course Ze Roberto had his mind set on Sheilla, and did not care about anyone else. But this season in Osasco, Paula was the starter and Bjelica the backup. Paula started really well, but all of the sudden her level dropped, I have no clue what happened. Bjelica go to start and she did a really good job, not always perfect, but it is not fair to say she played bad. Just look her performance in the World Championship, against Vitra she played at the same level as Boskovic. The problem in the Superliga was Luziomar, he had Dani Lins setting all the time for Tandara and not enough for Bjelica.

Paula was supposed to be the new OPP in the NT, after this season, I don`t know anymore.

Gabi is short 1.80cm, but remember Garay is 1.79cm and her height has never been a problem. Gabi is only 22 and she will just get better.

Setters will be Roberta ( unless Ze Roberto creates a problem with her, same thing he did with Claudinha,Fabiola and Macris), Naine will be playing in Baueri, I think Ze Roberto sees Naine has his "project", he will try to get her ready for 2020. I do like Macris a lot...but Ze Robeeto does not, he will cut her really soon.

I think Adenezia has a place in the team, she was the best blocker in Italy with 101 blocks, 2nd place got 62 blocks. That shows what I great blocker she is.

I was talking about the Brazil NT at VolleyTalk, I posted this over there so I will just post over here as well.

Brazil`s results.

1994 World Championship - Silver Medal.
1995 World Cup - Silver Medal
1996 Olympics - Bronze Medal
1997 WGCC - Bronze
1998 World Championship - 4th Place
1999 World Cup - Bronze Medal.
2000 Olympics - Bronze Medal.
2001 WGCC - 4th
2003 World Cup - Silver Medal.
2004 Olympics - 4th
2005 WGCC - Gold
2006 WCH - Silver
2007 World CUp - Silver
2008 Olympics - Gold
2009 WGCC - Silver
2010 WCH - Silver
2011 World Cup - 5th
2012 Olympics - Gold
2013 WGCC - Gold
2014 WCH - Bronze
2016 Olympics - 5th.

Brazil did medal in every single major tournament since 1994. With the only exception in 2002 7th place,2004 4th place, 2011 5th place and 2016 5th place. (They did not play World Cup 2015).

In the Grand Prix, they only failed to finish among the Top 4 in 2001,2003 and 2007 ( Did not compete in 1997). 18 medals, including 11 Gold.

2004 Olympics they were considered favorites to win, but collapsed in the semis.
Favorites to win the 2006 and 2010 World Championship, loosing both times in the 5th set 15-13. And favorites in the 2014 edition as well.
Favorite in 2007 World Cup, but they were stunned with a 3-0 loss to Italy.
And were among the favorites in Rio as well.

</article>

Height right now is a determiner wherher who blocks most and who does not.. height is power in the net..

Carol is 1.83cm and she got 10 blocks against Volero and they are all over 1.90cm.

Quote from Mkmalaluan

Height right now is a determiner wherher who blocks most and who does not.. height is power in the net..

I don't think having Gabi (Sesc) in the NT is a big problem. She would just be a second option attacker. Her main responsibility would be defense and reception. She would have the same responsibility as Jaque had before. In the grand prix and Olympics, she was used as a false opposite allowing Garay or Natalia to be freer in attack during the inversions. A team can't all just be full of attackers otherwise the plays would be obvious. No reception means it would just go to the OH or opposite making the players well marked by the opponents.
I agree that height is important but it's not really everything in volleyball. Brazil was never the tallest team, only Thaisa and Fabiana can really be considered tall, but their 2x olympic champions. The important thing for Brazil now is to develop group cohesiveness because I think that was one main reason why the previous generation was really successful. They had an amazing team chemistry and it was all about teamwork.

Brazil's downfall imo is that they couldn't produce a Zhu Ting player.

Sheilla used to be the best Opposite so when reception gets bad the ball goes to her but a lot of teams shut her line shots down pretty well. Still having her the focus of the block was fixed if one of the OHs get that once in a Jaque moment in the London Olympics. Too bad it did not happen in Rio.

The problem lies on the OHs not being capable of having that moment consistently so once the reception is broken. Everything else now depends on the setter. Unlike in other teams, they have Zhu or Foluke who the setter can call whenever they are ready for the attack. I wonder how pretty bad the pressure was on Dani Lins. She cannot get the middles running. It even hurt them that Thaisa wasn't herself back in Rio.

I like Fe Garay, Gabi and Jaque but they are defensive OHs. Natalia and Tandara. I like them too but they are at their best when they are not receiving. But I would rather have a tall left side attacker who can throw bombs with or without a good first ball. Especially now that their middle blockers Thaisa and Fabiana are probably both out. God knows even if they have perfect reception, I don't know how they can attack with the middle blockers that they have right now. With the other teams getting taller and playing faster. I just feel more doubt with the female brazilians. I hope they can prove me wrong.