European Championships 2015 - hosts Italy and Bulgaria

Quote from TimHH

For my part this is actually quite easy. Overall, i think there is a little lack of humility and respect surrounding this team, especially embodied by N'gapeth, which would leave me with a little hidden smile once they fail.

For pure volleyball reasons they have my highest respect for their exciting display of volleyball. There is no doubt about it. But still, i can't help myself from wishing their counterparts "good luck"......

At the end this is subjective so It's absolutely normal not to love them, but I wanna say that what you read as lack of humility I read as 'having fun of court with my teammates', and that to me it's really connected with their exciting volleyball: they won't be so exciting if they wouldn't have so much fun being and playing together...
As I said everyone has is own impression, I don't want to convince you but just to explain my point of view

And consider that our French 'cousins' are kinda our rivals in every sport (probably because of soccer), so I should hate them actually

Ah, when a journalist asked Piano what N'gapeth said him under the net during the matches, he answered kinda laughing "everything! How patient I had to be!"

Quote from deian1302

Why do you have so many negatives about Bulgarian NT ? Why not Bulgaria to play in the final against Slovenia ? Bulgaria has beaten many times France and i think that we are completely capable to do it again. Why so much ignorance of Bulgaria ?

I cant see any negative thing about Bulgaria here, someone thinks that France is stronger or likes France so says a Final with France is perfect. Where is sth against Bulgaria in these sentences?

And sth to Yavor, even if we think Bulgaria has improved a lot since WL, we should look at their opponent, France. Only one team beat them this year and among their victims is Bulgaria in the WL2 final in Bulgaria. So it is completely natural for people, coaches and expert to predict France in final. And these are named predictions which can be wrong, people are not Nostradamus.

Quote from arman

I cant see any negative thing about Bulgaria here, someone thinks that France is stronger or likes France so says a Final with France is perfect. Where is sth against Bulgaria in these sentences?

And sth to Yavor, even if we think Bulgaria has improved a lot since WL, we should look at their opponent, France. Only one team beat them this year and among their victims is Bulgaria in the WL2 final in Bulgaria. So it is completely natural for people, coaches and expert to predict France in final. And these are named predictions which can be wrong, people are Nostradamus.

Well, we read about how Bulgaria is the weakest quarterfinalist, how they are and should be a preferred opponent, how they rely only on the home factor, and how they are not a good team (despite the fact that, next to France, they are the only other unbeaten team at the ECH so far), so one cannot do else but wonder why people are showing no respect and are really neglecting their game, qualities, and performance so far. I understand Deian's amazement because this is exactly how it looks like, although I agree that no one really wrote anything "negative" in the true meaning of the word.

About the second part, yes, even Konstantinov and Vlado Nikolov said France are the favourites and we all agree this is true. I am not saying anything different. What I meant is that this could backfire and only help Bulgaria and any team in an underdog position. Even Slovenia, for that matter.

Overall, I don't really care, I am extremely happy with the way things have been running in Sofia.

Quote from Noncommittal

Belgium has taken the place. Slovenia can not qualified in every situation.

I think Slovenia can rise to 9th place in CEV rankings and qualify for the OQT if they win the ECH final? Slovakia is above Belgium and Slovenia but will lose tons of ranking points after this disaster.

my current calculation (including 2015 ECH and deducting 2011 ECH):
Russia 330
Italy 324*
Bulgaria 320*
Germany 318
Poland 318
Serbia 316
France 290
Finalnd 264
Belgium 264

and that's it

Slovenia 256*
Slovakia 252
Netherlands 242

teams with star (*) can get 0,2,4 or 6 points, basing on final ECH result, so Slovenia will stay as 9th ranked exluding Italy and won't play in Berlin like Slovakia

So Slovenia has lost the chance to compete at the OQT just because of Finland and Belgium have an inflated ranking from the World League?

If the FIVB wanted to calculate the ranking of teams based on their continental strength, they should only use the ECH ranking, where everybody can participate.

Quote from vabo

So Slovenia has lost the chance to compete at the OQT just because of Finland and Belgium have an inflated ranking from the World League?

If the FIVB wanted to calculate the ranking of teams based on their continental strength, they should only use the ECH ranking, where everybody can participate.

This is CEV decision not FIVB. And, European league is qualification tournament for World League, right? This is opportunity for the teams which don't partipate in World league get ranking points.

Quote from Noncommittal

This is CEV decision not FIVB. And, European league is qualification tournament for World League, right? This is opportunity for the teams which don't partipate in World league get ranking points.

True. Don't get me wrong, this is an excellent change since it rewards the last 4 years played rather than just the year before the Olympics, however I feel sorry for Slovenia not being able to compete in the OQT and rather see Belgium and Finland there.

Personally I don't underestimate Bulgaria because I am ignorant, but because this team does not have its best OH (Skrimov) and its best Opp (Sokolov). Let's try to put out from Italy Zaystev and Juantorena, obviously we are all going to underestimate Italy as well

No one is obliged to like our team. Even my wife said they play boring game this championship. Of course with full team and possibly Stoychev as coach /over the dead body of Lazarov - one more plus/ the team will be really attractive for the fans of power volleyball, but in this set of players the best part is the blocking /so the fans of blocking should like us/ France play much more attractive volleyball in the last years, it is normally to bе liked more from purely volleyball aspect. I just hope there aren't many people that don't like the team because it is Bulgaria, not because it doesn't play like Brazillians played football in the 60s.

The final standings up to the fifth place have been announced. I do not know which criteria have been applied because it is clearly not based on the results from the quarterfinals. Poland finished 5th (organizer of the 2017 European Championship), Russia 6th (qualify for the next ECH), Serbia 7th (qualify for the next ECH), Germany 8th. The Germans will have to enter the qualification rounds. Another interesting piece of information came out on the Russian volleyball media volleyservice.ru - link. Obviously the Russians have ended their worst European campaign. Even as USSR they had not recorded a worse finish, thus making this 6th place the worst in their entire history. Previously they had achieved two 5th places as Russia at the 1995 and 1997 ECHs (and didn't participate at the first ECH in 1948 ).

Quote from YavorD

The final standings up to the fifth place have been announced. I do not know which criteria have been applied because it is clearly not based on the results from the quarterfinals. Poland finished 5th (organizer of the 2017 European Championship), Russia 6th (qualify for the next ECH), Serbia 7th (qualify for the next ECH), Germany 8th. The Germans will have to enter the qualification rounds. Another interesting piece of information came out on the Russian volleyball media volleyservice.ru - link. Obviously the Russians have ended their worst European campaign. Even as USSR they had not recorded a worse finish, thus making this 6th place the worst in their entire history. Previously they had achieved two 5th places as Russia at the 1995 and 1997 ECHs (and didn't participate at the first ECH in 1948 ).

Probably won matches, points etc. like in group stage but I didn't check

Quote from raylight

No one is obliged to like our team. Even my wife said they play boring game this championship. Of course with full team and possibly Stoychev as coach /over the dead body of Lazarov - one more plus/ the team will be really attractive for the fans of power volleyball, but in this set of players the best part is the blocking /so the fans of blocking should like us/ France play much more attractive volleyball in the last years, it is normally to bo liked more from purely volleyball aspect. I just hope there aren't many people that don't like the team because it is Bulgaria, not because it doesn't play like Brazillians played football in the 60s.

Who said "I don't like Bulgaria"? We only talked about understimation due to injueries. On the contrary I love Bulgaria because, despite so many injuries, it have achieved semifinals and, personally, I've always loved this little nation who has been able, along decades, to grown up so many great players (Ganev idol of my childhood). I specifically feel sympathy for Bulgaria because it wrongly did not win as much trophies as it should have deserved in the past. Therefore, I hope a final Bulgaria-Italy and if we lose I'll be happy anyway for a nation which deserve a title (obviously I'd rather a victory by Italy, but against Bulgaria I wouldn't be so sad if we don't win)

is this a balkan thing? crovolley thinks everybody hates CRO, deian thinks we hate BUL. just because sometimes we don't pay attention, doesn't mean we are disrespecting a team.

i never thought i'd hate a coach more than rezende, but heynen has taken that prize now...

Quote from ossubtus

i never thought i'd hate a coach more than rezende, but heynen has taken that prize now...

Quote from YavorD

The final standings up to the fifth place have been announced. I do not know which criteria have been applied because it is clearly not based on the results from the quarterfinals. Poland finished 5th (organizer of the 2017 European Championship), Russia 6th (qualify for the next ECH), Serbia 7th (qualify for the next ECH), Germany 8th. The Germans will have to enter the qualification rounds. Another interesting piece of information came out on the Russian volleyball media volleyservice.ru - link. Obviously the Russians have ended their worst European campaign. Even as USSR they had not recorded a worse finish, thus making this 6th place the worst in their entire history. Previously they had achieved two 5th places as Russia at the 1995 and 1997 ECHs (and didn't participate at the first ECH in 1948 ).

Where is it announced other than wikipedia? I couldnt find it. It seems it is based on the results from the group stage + quarter finals.
I think Asian championship format is better and safer (mean teams choose their quarter final opponent by the result they get in the second group stage) than European one.

Quote from arman

Where is it announced other than wikipedia? I couldnt find it. It seems it is based on the results from the group stage + quarter finals.
I think Asian championship format is better and safer (mean teams choose their quarter final opponent by the result they get in the second group stage) than European one.

Volleyball.it announced it. I tend to believe them.

Quote from arman

I cant see any negative thing about Bulgaria here, someone thinks that France is stronger or likes France so says a Final with France is perfect. Where is sth against Bulgaria in these sentences?

And sth to Yavor, even if we think Bulgaria has improved a lot since WL, we should look at their opponent, France. Only one team beat them this year and among their victims is Bulgaria in the WL2 final in Bulgaria. So it is completely natural for people, coaches and expert to predict France in final. And these are named predictions which can be wrong, people are not Nostradamus.

I have nothing against Bulgaria. I just like how France is playing this year and IMO they deserve to be in the final. I hope against Slovenia.

Bulgaria, with so many injuries, be in semifinal is something very valuable. And if Bulgaria win the game saturday i will not be sad, especially because of Vladimir Nikolov.

Quote from ossubtus

is this a balkan thing? crovolley thinks everybody hates CRO, deian thinks we hate BUL. just because sometimes we don't pay attention, doesn't mean we are disrespecting a team.

i never thought i'd hate a coach more than rezende, but heynen has taken that prize now...

I liked Heynen when he began his work in Germany. He tried new players and had some good results. But after WCh i think he starts to think that he and his team is better than they are. Maybe after ECh he will be back to reality.

He is still a good coach and can lead Germany to another level, just needs to focus more on his work.

Quote from ossubtus

is this a balkan thing? crovolley thinks everybody hates CRO, deian thinks we hate BUL. just because sometimes we don't pay attention, doesn't mean we are disrespecting a team.

A very "delicate" case. Balkans consists of small countries and big nations. People can feel neglected there since there are still many legends about them with an emphasis on the adjective "wild". Mostly if someone didn't get to know sth tends to base on the stories instead of taking this effort and see for oneself.

Bulgarian team had very tough couple of last years and didn't manage to achieve medal though being very close almost every time. And I see people tend to laugh at them that they're pemanent citizens of fourth place and stuff. Somehow hurts since in a very early start of my interest in volleyball I considered this team as really powerful and always ready to win with the best (in times when I was frustrated like hell that we can't get a single win over Brazil they did it, like during WL 2006 and 2007 and yeah I know both editions won Brazil but I can also remember Bulgaria was the only one that beated them in finals). Now Bulgaria is different team having its problem and still trying to refer to its volleyball traditions. As long as they're fighting I will be standing behind them and they will be always my second pick in every tournament which Poland already leave.

As for Croatia unfortunately the thing is that we can't get to know this team closer since there are very little occasions for this. Remember? Easy to get the impression that people don't like sth they don't know well. And successes are quite a big driving machine to attract the fans. Honestly speaking I really bet Croatia will advance from group stage and I feel so sorry for Omrcen because as for such a great player this wasn't the happiest farewell with NT.