Italian NT 2017


  • good observation ... :wavy:

  • Italy is preparing for the European Championship.


    I agree Egonu should play as OH, but I think that might be too late?, Novara will use her as OPP, once they have Piccini, Enright and Plak. But she should have played full time and OH in Club Italia but that did not happen and that was a shame. But yeah if Italy could have her as OH they would be golden.


    Diouf said she would never be back, but they all do that and then come back. Brakocevic is a good example.

  • i thought diouf had said she would never play for NT again? after she was cut from olympics?


    I think – I'm not sure – she said she wouldn't have with that staff... Also Lucia said the same.



    i wonder if they have given up on training egonu as a passing OH


    We all wonder that too. It's not clear. The fact Diouf – that was recovering from a back problem – is back may suggest that, but at the same time she may just become the second opposite, if she will prove to deserve it more than Sorokaite. Or may be there is an idea to try Sorokaite as OH with Egonu opp and Diou second opp.


    Imho if the GP would have went badly, we could have experiment with Egonu OH for the ECh. But now that we won the silver, the expectation (of the fans and of the team) for the ECh raised, even if we are aware we have a tough path ahed, having probably to meet Serbia or Ned in the qutaerfinal; considered that, you need A LOT of courage to switch to a system with Egonu OH, two receivers or two receivers and half (because at the moment she isn't ready to receive at high level...), and two terrible diggers on court if the opposite is Diouf and not Sorokaite.
    So after all I don't think Mazzanti will change (but I would appreciate his courage if he does), even if at the beginning of the summer he said that ofter the WCh qualification he wanted to try Egonu OH. I guess the fact Diouf wasn't available forced him to change the plan.


    I may have the chance to to attend a training session in the future, I hope I'll get some answer ;)



    are gennari, guerra and tirozzi coming back?


    Guerra and Tirozzi where in China too (in the final6 they were the two left on the tribune) and as they're still in the group for the ECh (which is exactly the same of the GP plus Diouf)
    Gennari won't be back, at least for this summer.



    Novara will use her as OPP, once they have Piccini, Enright and Plak


    I think she will play as opp too, but who knows, after all Plak can be a good opposite too...

  • Few considerations about the junior teams ;)


    This summer the U18 girls are rocking!
    Silver in the ECh (with coach Cristofani, not Mencarelli), gold in the European Youth Olympics Festival (I didn't find the whole roster yet but the titular of the final where Populini, Scola, Fahr, Kone, Battista, Mangani/Federica Carletti, Panetoni, so also players that weren't not even on the bench at the ECh), and finally the gold at the WCh this night.


    In this team there are players that in the future may become important for the NT as well: Pietrini and Lubian most of all, imho, and Pietrini is also favourite by the fact we don't have very strong attacking OH at the moment (while it may be more difficult to 'stole' a spot to the current MBs).


    The gold at the U16 ECh may allow us to think we can still be competitive in the next WCh; in this team the more promising is considered the setter Sofia Monza.


    On the other hand, the U20 of Cristofani loss few matches at the beginning of the WCh and so they could only fight for the ninth place, which the grabbed (the expectations were quite higher, though). In that team Pietrini played as titular (if I'm not wrong) and there were also Enweonwu (I don't remember if she played titular but it's possible since Piani had phisical problems), Lubian and Morello (I thought she would have played as titular too since she was the second setter of Club Ita).
    In this team there are interesting player like Piani (Opp), Melli (OH), Botezat and Mancini (MBs), Zannoni (libero); they were all titular in Club Italia last year (except Zannoni) and in the team that won the last U18 ECh (with Orro and Egonu) and I think they're all interesting players that may soon find space in A1 as titular, but I don't know if they may become better than the senior NT players (not soon, at least). Zannoni may be the most promising, as far as I read...


    Ps will we have an U20 ECh, this year? I didn't find news about it and the U19 is scheduled for the next season...


    So, overall we can be quite happy with our juniores summer :)
    We got a medal 4 times in 5 tournaments, and three times it was a gold!


    Curious to notice that with the exception of the U19/U18 WCh (boys ninth, girls first) the boys juniorest did the exact same path! Silver at the U19 ECh, gold at the U17 ECh and EYOF, ninth place at the U21 WCh (which we joined with the aim of winning a medal...)

  • Very popular excuse nowadays... I've always thought she was not a very smart girl, but I would have never expected she could risk her career by taking a prohibited medication like clenbuterol. So stupid OMG :hit: :aww:

    If she needs doping at that age, what is she going to do when she is older? So stupid. What will be the outcome? Will she be able to play in her club?

  • Food contamination but clenbuterol is a bronchodilator? Doesn't even make sense unless she has asthma or any breathing disorder. :whistle:

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

  • Thanks God we will have Pietrini in NT from next year, so she won't be needed anymore.


    Was she actually ever needed? I don't think so. What a shame Bonitta called this useless player, 3 opposites and an injured Gennari to play beside Lina in Rio. And of course without the all times best italian player Italy had the worst result in its history. I loved the way they got trashed by every single team. Pity the found ad anexperienced team like PR in the round phase, it could be a 0-6 against a NT used to play at that level.

  • clenbuterol


    It is also a performance enhancing drug used :down:

  • Will she be able to play in her club?


    Gosh, I hadn't thought of it. I guess she won't... Well, I guess that's a problem for Bergamo. But at least Battista will play (actually I'm not sure she is the first subs, though)



    Doesn't even make sense unless she has asthma or any breathing disorder.


    I think It doesn't make sense either, if she needed it for asthma I guess she would have been on WADA exception list or whatever (once the list was hacked and Birarelli name was in because he was on pain medication – in fact it happened during the World Cup that he didn't join for physical problem).
    Or Cattaneo would have simply explained that.
    If he said they suppose it was food contamination, that means she wasn't allowed to use it as a medicine...


    I honestly always have an hard time believing in food contamination, anyway.
    I may be – may be – believe it happened to Sara Errani (tennis player) since it was a medicine in her mother's pills and the dose was less than a single pill, but in Sylla case, I can't see how it could happen, unless she ate side by side with someone using an asthma device...



    It should be at least two year of disqualification, I guess (as for Orsi Toth).
    Errani only took 2 month as far as I remember, since they judged it was involuntary.

  • i wonder, is that the same drug that sheila ocasio was caught with at the pan am last time?


    lmao I thought you posted Sheilla Castro did that and I am like.... :wall: :rolll:

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

  • Food contamination but clenbuterol is a bronchodilator? Doesn't even make sense unless she has asthma or any breathing disorder. :whistle:

    Clenbuterol is a pretty "old school" drug in terms of doping. It also supports muscle growth and fat burning.



    I honestly always have an hard time believing in food contamination, anyway.

    And generally, you are probably right here.


    In case of clenbuterol, food contamination had already been proven. Clenbuterol is/was used in China in heavy doses for meat production. After a trip to China, a couple of years ago, a german table tennis player had been caught on clenbuterol. He could prove later, that staff members had the same, small, level of clenbuterol in their blood. Later tests with businessmen arriving from China proved that "theory".

  • I'm very disappointed, Sylla was one of my favorites considering all the passion she put on court, her humble background... guess we will never hear of her again in the NT.


    And I hope the rest of the team is not at risk of losing its WGP silver medal. The FIVB had been brutal in the past.