European Championships 2015 - hosts Italy and Bulgaria

  • Finland put up a good fight I have to say, great defense and quick plays. They also showed good skills by fooling our block many times, Italy took the advantage after the half of the sets, except the last one that was fought till the end. Against Russia it will be harder, I hope anyway we can make it, maybe not with an excellent game as the team is tired but fighting till the very last ball. C'mon guys, I believe in you :super:

  • The german team will have to show "cojones" tonight. It is for sure getting nasty in Sofia but thats exactly what they wanted and i don't want to hear complaints afterwards.


    They can't play much worse than in the first match and i stay by my words from before tournament that if both teams play their "normal" game, Germany should win. No excuses this time, they just have to perform, everything else is not acceptable :teach:



    .....unfortunately I coudln't see them live thanks to an injury,

    Hope its nothing serious, dude. Get well again soon :drink:

  • I'm pretty sure we will never see the Netherlands at the Olympics again. The main problem is that there's absolutely nothing behind this generation of players. But this is a problem true for half of Europe, starting with Germany, Finland, Belgium... they can all end up like Spain. So the future will have the same countries as nowadays, unless another genius coach can create a team out of nothing. Bulgaria is also in big trouble.




    Also there still is an enormous amount of drama in the current Dutch NT, too much pride and entitlement- not sure what is it about, they have maybe two players of world class level and everyone else is an amateur at best.


    Would you have said the same thing about France 10 years ago? About Italy at the beginning of 80s or Serbia 10 years later? World (and situations) changes continously. A nation like Holland which have brought out players like Blangè and Zwerver, I don't think it will never come back to its glorious past

    Per un pir, un pam un persec per na brogna e na rumleina, nuetr'a sam d'la Ghirlandeina nuetr'a sam da rispeter





  • Let me get a few sentences on the topic as well. Let's start with the Netherlands.


    Sure, we've seen Dutch teams with better players, no question about it. We know their main problem is the lack of decent MBs in this formation, Kooistra could've made a difference. Bulgaria played at a good level against the Netherlands and no matter how, with or without interruptions, the Netherlands were close to winning. Forget the game with Heynen (not Germany). We also know they can be inconsistent, but they beat the Czechs and made Bulgaria sweat, so you can't say they were weak in the group stage. They had insane reception numbers (plus a great performance at the net - kill blocks, serves, and attacks) in most of the match vs. Bulgaria which, if not else, says they are not a bad team at all. Hence, the Slovenian defeat to the weak Belgium and the overall performance of the Netherlands made the latter favourites, in my opinion. However, they simply couldn't repeat what they had done two days earlier. Yes, I doubt we will see them soon at Olympic Games.


    Now you are going to say: "Yeah, but this Bulgarian team is inconsistent, they also beat the Czechs in five sets". With all the injuries and problems they are facing, Bulgaria might be an inconsistent team, in fact, they are most of the time, but it is not a reason to look down on what their opponents achieved. The game versus the Czechs could be scrutinized from many aspects, the Czechs weren't really that great, but no one can convince me Vermeulen has done a bad job building this Dutch team. I think they burned out, mostly emotionally, just before they had to face Slovenia. Which maybe was a coach's failure.


    I am not among the people underestimating Slovenia. They have been a very pleasant-to-watch team over the last years and with Giani they already made a step forward. What their problem appears to be, however, is that they rarely shine in those important matches. Even the occasion they had against the weakened Belgians was an obvious example. A combination of promising youngsters and some decent players, the Slovenian team seems unable to make a more remarkable tournament. Maybe now or one day they finally will, who knows, but it was mainly the reason I thought they wouldn't succeed against the Dutchmen. But they are surely not a team to be underestimated.


    We'll also know whether Heynen's carrying out was reasonable tonight, not before that. Apart from Poland, which he desperately tried to avoid, he coudn't move much else but land on Bulgaria in this part of the tournament. I know it will be a different match now, although I hope it won't differ much, but what was the reason for the Germans not to be relaxed on Friday as well? Who guarantees them better volleyball? Choosing the host side is always risky and the home factor makes Bulgaria no less dangerous opponent than, quite honestly, Italy. But I have to agree with you, the Bulgarian team is hampered by injuries and problems, so had it not been for the home factor, one of our weapons, Bulgaria would've had more tourble reaching the latter stages. But exactly thanks to the audience I would put Bulgaria on par with Serbia and Italy as teams one would prefer, although for Germany it was either Bulgaria or Poland, so it surely makes sense. Last, no one can convince me Germany will play under less pressure than Bulgaria tonight.


    There's also a rumour that Wijsmans is trying to get some administration done, in order to play in the olympic qualification tournament in January.

    What are the administration problems? If I am not mistaken, he has played years ago, when he started his career, for the Belgian NT, and has never been part of any other NT for that matter. Can he not just freely play for Belgium again?


  • Would you have said the same thing about France 10 years ago? About Italy at the beginning of 80s or Serbia 10 years later? World (and situations) changes continously. A nation like Holland which have brought out players like Blangè and Zwerver, I don't think it will never come back to its glorious past

    France put the right people in the right place (federation, coaching, promotion).
    The Netherlands apparently accepted job applications for the nearest clown academy.


    It's a country where men have an average height of 1.81, which means an enormous pool of young athletes to push into volleyball at a young age. And the result?
    The ONLY appearance at an U19 world championships is a 9th place in 2003. Even if they started right now, it will take a decade to create a new generation, and it will not have a single connection with the current team simply because there isn't a single player worth teaching anything to the youngsters right now. Kooy is the only Dutch player that is somehow in world class level and he's already 27.

  • France put the right people in the right place (federation, coaching, promotion).
    The Netherlands apparently accepted job applications for the nearest clown academy.


    It's a country where men have an average height of 1.81, which means an enormous pool of young athletes to push into volleyball at a young age. And the result?
    The ONLY appearance at an U19 world championships is a 9th place in 2003. Even if they started right now, it will take a decade to create a new generation, and it will not have a single connection with the current team simply because there isn't a single player worth teaching anything to the youngsters right now. Kooy is the only Dutch player that is somehow in world class level and he's already 27.


    Ok, but who knows? Things change, perhaps Holland will have another golden generation one day (maybe 30 years, who knows?)

    Per un pir, un pam un persec per na brogna e na rumleina, nuetr'a sam d'la Ghirlandeina nuetr'a sam da rispeter




  • So far it looks like this is going to be a very difficult match for Poland. They don't look good at all. lets see if they will survive this. Slovenians on the other hand look very determined....

  • Never have I previously seen an opposite taken out from zone 4. Mitja Gasparini must have issues with the attack from position 4, at the end of each set Giani takes him out for a point (he switches to attack from 2 immediately after that) and lets Alen Sket in. This is weird. I guess he really sucks at that position. On the other side, Sket could play only for a couple of points like this.

  • Slovenia! :O If they want to win, they have to close it right now. Otherwise, I think we will see the same script than Estonia x Serbia yesterday.

  • Never have I previously seen an opposite taken out from zone 4. Mitja Gasparini must have issues with the attack from position 4, at the end of each set Giani takes him out for a point (he switches to attack from 2 immediately after that) and lets Alen Sket in. This is weird. I guess he really sucks at that position. On the other side, Sket could play only for a couple of points like this.


    It's beacuse he have some problems with movement before spike :) but it's weird :thumbsup:

  • It's beacuse he have some problems with movement before spike :) but it's weird :thumbsup:


    Team USA partly did this as well, when Murphy Troy played opposite. Completely messed up spiking approach from pos. 4.

  • On a side note.. Law of Volleyball: whenever a match between two teams of different levels goes to 5th set, the higher level team ALWAYS wins. This never fails! it's much more frecuent to see an upset in 3 or 4 sets.

    This is actually very, very true! Good point!

  • Can't compare Slovenia and Estonia, two different teams, Slovenians are much stronger


    Sure, I agree, Slovenia is much stronger. However, I'm not comparing the team, but the situation. The "cindirella" leading 2-0 against the powerhouse. There is also big pressure for the slovenian side in order to close the match. For these teams, it is really hard to complete the upset.



    Now, I'm watching some mistakes that Slovenia werent doing in the first two sets.


    In the other hand, I have just noticed France is still unbeaten in this year :white: