2015 FIVB World League

    I agree with you. I hoped that our OHs would transfer to Europe to strengthen their receiving and attacking but they didnt.

    Quote from andrea

    Btw, did Ebadipour injure himself earlier? Has he recovered?

    he had some minor injuries in the league that he recovered.

    In the media guide of world league the teams' ranking is as before, so if this media guide is correct, the news from Russian federation was wrong. (that the number of matches won is more important)

    Quote from arman

    In the media guide of world league the teams' ranking is as before, so if this media guide is correct, the news from Russian federation was wrong. (that the number of matches won is more important)


    Russian media translated the information given by the FIVB:


    "New Team Ranking
    Meanwhile, the Board also ratified a Sports Events Council internal decision to modify the Round Robin team ranking criteria for all events starting with the World League to be based on the following:


    1) By the number of victories (match won, match lost)among teams of the same pool or group"

    http://www.fivb.org/en/Volleyb….asp?No=52000&Language=en

    oh thanks, I didnt see this, so the information on the media guide is wrong.

    Anyone else watching the Portugal - Netherlands match right now? NED won the first game 3-1 and now POR is leading 2-1 in the second one. Other than POR turning the game in the second set (from 17-21 to 25-23), pretty boring match overall. :S

    :sleeping: :sleeping: Can't wait for first division... But imagine how it was in past, we shouldn't complain anymore. Brazil or Poland should have travel to these countries to beat them for 3 points. Somtimes journeys were such exhausting that they couldn't play at their typical level, with all respect to these teams.

    Is anyone here even watching the WL this year? :gone:


    Some nice and tight battles between Finland and Belgium this weekend, with Belgium taking both wins in the tie-break. Some inconsistency in both teams here and there, but nothing really bothering. The first game, Coolman (MB) completely destroyed Finland's reception line with some great float serves. I only managed to watch today's game after the third set, so I can't say much. Sam Deroo finished the weekend with 47 pts total. :super:

    Quote from saishuu

    Is anyone here even watching the WL this year? :gone:


    Some nice and tight battles between Finland and Belgium this weekend, with Belgium taking both wins in the tie-break. Some inconsistency in both teams here and there, but nothing really bothering. The first game, Coolman (MB) completely destroyed Finland's reception line with some great float serves. I only managed to watch today's game after the third set, so I can't say much. Sam Deroo finished the weekend with 47 pts total. :super:


    The split between first and second division has reduced the interest of the forum in matches like this :thumbdown: since majority of users are only interested in elite level, this matches go unnoticed. I miss the old times when Finland, Argentina, France, Belgium, Canada used to play the big teams.

    Quote from LDvolley

    The split between first and second division has reduced the interest of the forum in matches like this :thumbdown: since majority of users are only interested in elite level, this matches go unnoticed. I miss the old times when Finland, Argentina, France, Belgium, Canada used to play the big teams.

    I kinda miss those old times too, but I like this new format as it allows for more balanced games between teams in a similar level. It doesn't hurt that more and more NTs are able to play in such a tournament as well. Even though those teams you mentioned are not in the 'elite' of the WL, most of them are still capable of performing just as good sometimes, so matches in the second division are equally interesting for me. At this point it's more interesting to me that they can play head-to-head with each other instead of continuously losing most of the time against the bigger teams like Brazil, USA, Iran, Russia and Poland.

    Watched matches from Tampere and I must share disappointment with Finnish NT. Can remember when was last time they were looking that vulnerable. Belgium won both matches with serve and defence, both matches had some spectacular rallies and defenses.. Belgium missed 4 out of 6 starters from last year (Depestele, Van den Dries, Verhanemann and Van de Voorde) but Deroo, Coolman and Verhees were impressive :obey:


    I saw Sammelvuo was speaking about Final Four but I'm quite sure they wont reach it with this display. Sivula as OH isnt bad choice in terms of offensive while he was terrible on reception. Ojansivu also poor display..

    Bulgaria's roster for the home games against Canada in Botevgrad. The list comprises 15 players, one will return to Sofia to join the rest of the NT. It will probably be an OH.


    Setters: Georgi Bratoev, Lyubomir Agontsev
    Opposites: Vladimir Nikolov, Danail Milushev
    Outside attackers: Todor Skrimov, Valentin Bratoev, Todor Aleksiev, Nikolay Penchev, Stanislav Petkov
    Middle blockers: Teodor Todorov, Viktor Yosifov, Nikolay Nikolov, Svetoslav Gotsev
    Liberos: Teodor Salparov, Martin Bozhilov


    There are 6 players who are on the Baku list, but will probably play against Canada. It's a good training option for sure. Needless to say that Canada is in good shape.

    Russia's squad for the away games in Poland.

    Setters:     Alexander Butko, Igor Kolodinsky
    Opposites: Maxim Mikhaylov, Pavel Moroz
    Outside attackers: Denis Biryukov, Alexander Markin, Sergey Savin, Evgeny Sivozhelez
    Middle blockers: Artem Smolyar, Andrey Ashchev, Alexander Abrosimov
    Liberos: Alexey Verbov, Alexey Obmochaev

    Why 3 MBs? what happend to Muserskiy?

    Argentina for games vs Cuba:



    Setters: Demian Gonzalez, Maximiliano Chirivino
    Opposites: J. L. Gonzalez, Federico Martina
    OH: Luciano Zornetta, Nicolás Bruno, Rodrigo Villalba, Cristian Poglajen
    MB: Pablo Crer, Martín Ramos, Federico Franetovich
    Liberos: Sebastian Closter, Facundo Santucci


    Overall the same squad that played for World Cup qualification, only changes are De Cecco out and Poglajen in. I think we'll see a more serious team next week vs Canada.

    Poland's roster for the matches against Russia.
    S: Fabian Drzyzga, Grzegorz Lomacz
    MB: Piotr Nowakowski, Marcin Mozdzonek, Andrzej Wrona, Wojciech Grzyb, Mateusz Bieniek
    OH: Mateusz Mika, Michal Kubiak, Rafal Buszek, Bartosz Bednorz
    OP: Bartosz Kurek, Jakub Jarosz
    L: Pawel Zatorski, Piotr Gacek


    14 Serbians in Brazil.
    S: Nikola Jovovic, Aleksa Brdjovic
    MB: Marko Podrascanin, Dragan Stankovic, Srecko Lisinac, Aleksandar Okolic
    OH: Marko Ivovic, Uros Kovacevic, Konstantin Cupkovic, Milan Katic
    OP: Aleksandar Atanasijevic, Sasa Starovic
    L: Nikola Rosic, Neven Majstorovic

    Thursday, thursday... Can't wait! Rosters look intersting. Good to see Biryukov in Russian team, Cupko in Serbian and Bulgarian is nice surprise because of presence of Aleksiev and N.Nikolov (although they was on Baku list and I thought we won't see them there). I'm really curious about Bednorz in our team, I was 90% sure that if any youngster get there it will be Śliwka. If we forgot about bog names from last season missing, I say we look strong.


    Quote from saishuu

    Is anyone here even watching the WL this year? :gone:


    Some nice and tight battles between Finland and Belgium this weekend, with Belgium taking both wins in the tie-break. Some inconsistency in both teams here and there, but nothing really bothering. The first game, Coolman (MB) completely destroyed Finland's reception line with some great float serves. I only managed to watch today's game after the third set, so I can't say much. Sam Deroo finished the weekend with 47 pts total. :super:

    Yup, I do watch! Deroo had some brilliant moments and I literally can't wait to see him in Zaksa. Though in first match, after two great sets from him, he just disappeared. Not his fault at all that Finns took the next two sets though. It really makes me wonder, you know, how it is possibile that Finns led to tie-break, from 2:0 to 2:2, and fu*ked this tie-break so smoothly. Really, Sammelvuo looks like he can't piece the guys together. WAY TOO DISAPPOINTING. I mean their performance generally. In front of fantastic Finnish fans. Was just nice to see Siltala having moments of glory both in defense and attack. And this little Hellenius, lol... poor guy is already our commentators' favourite :D


    Quote from LDvolley

    The split between first and second division has reduced the interest of the forum in matches like this :thumbdown: since majority of users are only interested in elite level, this matches go unnoticed. I miss the old times when Finland, Argentina, France, Belgium, Canada used to play the big teams.

    Yeah, greetings from Poland, Finns were always causing the trouble :P don't know where is that team now, they seriously battled with us once...


    Quote from Username100

    :sleeping: :sleeping: Can't wait for first division... But imagine how it was in past, we shouldn't complain anymore. Brazil or Poland should have travel to these countries to beat them for 3 points. Somtimes journeys were such exhausting that they couldn't play at their typical level, with all respect to these teams.

    What I just remembered is Puerto Ricans vs Poles 4 years ago. Didn't give these 3 points so easily then :D indeed, traveling was a tiring problem but sometimes... well, let's say some spectacular victories and defeats were priceless. Weakened Netherlands winning with almighty Brazil. There were moments, you know.

    "People wait all week for friday, all year for summer, all life for happiness."

    Edited 5 times, last by bella ().