2015 FIVB World League

    Quote from Kaziyski

    I'm more and more convinced this WL format is a joke. Italians trashing Aussies with C squad, it's clearly visible Australia doen't belong in First Division.

    It's France fault. but if guest was from second group we would have more interesting matches.

    Good to have US Iran match in Los Angeles because there are lots of Iranians. Even it is called Tehrangeles by Iranians! :D

    Quote from Kaziyski

    I'm more and more convinced this WL format is a joke. Italians trashing Aussies with C squad, it's clearly visible Australia doen't belong in First Division.

    Australia won't win many sets this year, true, but you will change your mind about them by the end of the WL. Italy didn't "trash" them, and it wasn't a "C squad" - more like A+B.


    Quote from arman

    but if guest was from second group we would have more interesting matches.

    What do you mean?

    The A squad of Italy for the World Cup and European Championship will be Travica-Zaytsev-Anzani-Birarelli-Lanza-Juantorena-Colaci.


    Yesterday and today there were Travica, Anzani, Lanza and Colaci, so we call it "C squad"

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




    Quote from Mamdani

    The A squad of Italy for the World Cup and European Championship will be Travica-Zaytsev-Anzani-Birarelli-Lanza-Juantorena-Colaci.


    Yesterday and today there were Travica, Anzani, Lanza and Colaci, so we call it "C squad"


    so 4 out of 7 players are from starting six, and this is C squad? :lol:


    anyway, Russian from first match looked like from kindergarden and were much worse than Australia, so I wouldn't call Australia "a joke"

    Every squad without Kaziyski or Juantorena is a B squad :D Remove Zaytsev/Sokolov and is a C squad.

    Quote from chagrin

    Australia won't win many sets this year, true, but you will change your mind about them by the end of the WL. Italy didn't "trash" them, and it wasn't a "C squad" - more like A+B.


    What do you mean?

    I mean if Brazil weren't "host" of final 6, Brazil, Serbia and Italy should have fought more serious to qualify. (by "guest" I meant host! sorry.

    Quote from chagrin

    Australia won't win many sets this year, true, but you will change your mind about them by the end of the WL. Italy didn't "trash" them, and it wasn't a "C squad" - more like A+B.


    What do you mean?


    R u f***** serious :rolll: 6 debutants, reserve OPP's... only Travica is regular starter of all players in Adelaide. Vettori 2nd OPP, Sabbi 3rd, Lanza bench OH, MB's some random guys... and they trashed them, 2 easy wins...

    Quote from Kaziyski

    R u f***** serious :rolll: 6 debutants, reserve OPP's... only Travica is regular starter of all players in Adelaide. Vettori 2nd OPP, Sabbi 3rd, Lanza bench OH, MB's some random guys... and they trashed them, 2 easy wins...

    No, I was very serious. The huge drop in quality is from Juantorena to Randazzo/Antonov obviously, but I wasn't even considering Os... after all he is a debutant too! :D
    Vettori is a quality backup to Zaytsev, and the two of them were expected to play together sometime, to maximize the talent on court.
    It is unfair to consider Lanza, Anzani and Colaci third-stringers, after what they have shown in the last two years.
    Both coaches Berruto and Santilli played around with their players and Italy has the deeper roster. I'm not an international volleyball expert (yet) but I'm sure that Australia was without two key players. In these conditions, Italy beats Australia 99 times out of 100.


    Anyway, if I understood, you mean to say that there are National teams that deserve a spot in the first group more than Australia, don't you? It's hard to tell. My solution would be the Davis Cup system.

    I wonder if we are going to win any match this year. Last year we had record 10 errors per set, aka amateur level, this year Plamen Konstantinov is looking a bit like Martin Stoev to me.I hope they will prove me wrong right away.

    6 errors for the first set, 9 errros for the second and the third up to 8:7. Great legacy from last year of not practicing with the ball.


    Edit: Bulgaria attacks well, but has nonexistent block. Canada made some errors, and Plamen got specific with his instructions.
    Edit 2: We took the third set, thanks to Skrimov, thank God we have such player. Caanda looks way more professional than us, more balanced, less variation, better organization, while we are like from Emir Custurica movie :D


    Edit 3: We have special affinity for touching the net, they love it like a wife, so much touching all the time :rose:


    Edit 4: We have better attack, but the opposite errors are 16:23. 3 for the new set and it is the FIRST technical timeout.

    From this match we can conclude thay Bulgarian players didn't practice with the ball so far. I hope they start to ORGANIZE under Plamen, so far with him last year we didn't have a thing, called SYSTEM. Of course, no player, coach or evil federation boss is to blame. Blame Canada!


    My prediction before the game would've been 2-3 for Canada, they did it in four sets and took three points absolutely deservedly. It was clear Canada arrived in a better condition than Bulgaria, with more official games and no major missing players. No tragedy should be made, we lost to a better team right now. I am almost certain Canada will come again to Bulgaria in a month, we'll see what will happen then.


    The user Kaziyski mentioned here some time ago that Canada would be a world-class team if they had a great setter. Well, ever since Glenn Hoag started working with them I, personally, have considered them a world-class team, their progress is more than visible. I still think Joshua Howatson was (back when he used to play for Unicaja Almeria) their best setter ever, but truth be told, Tyler Sanders has improved a lot. I mean it. Watching Canada today, I can't say they have a setter problem. Sure, Hoag would use Simac, Soonias, his son as well, and then you have a ready team. What I don't see when I watch these guys is a more solid blocker next to Duff, Vigrass has a good attack but lacks block vision. I am really impressed by these guys, good job! I read in the Canadian Volleyball Source Magazine that the team was very disappointed with FIVB's decision not to promote them to Division I last year after the great 2013 WL they had had. They have kept their consistency and are now more than ready to make it there. A team that is very pleasant to watch!


    As far as Bulgaria is concerned... Where should I start? When the 37-year-old opposite, brought back to professional life this season, is your best player, then you know you have a problem and a hell lot of work to do. I am extremely curious how Bulgaria beat Serbia twice in Belgrade with Lyubomir Agontsev. Honestly, I have watched the guy once or twice before, for the pure reason that our league is not shown on TV (very rarely actually and only certain teams in certain sports halls). His distribution is not bad, but his sets are way too high. I hope it was because of the pressure to be a starter, at home, in his first official NT game, etc. He cannot play that fast to the sides, with the MBs he is doing great. But you cannot pretend to be a NT setter or to want your NT to stand a chance if you cannot speed up the ball to the sides. Penchev and Skrimov like faster sets, even Aleksiev can attack faster, there is no need for such high balls. Good that Vlado Nikolov could kill from almost everywhere and could thus fix the inaccuracy of Agontsev. He should be given further chances when we don't have the full team available, I would even rest Zhekov, who is currently recovering anyway, and invite Georgi Manchev, for the two lads are the only real alternatives to Zhekov and Georgi Bratoev. Speaking of the latter, he was one of the reasons Bulgaria came back to the game in the third set. He was not perfect, but he was OK. Skrimov struggled, but I cannot judge any attacker today because of the new setter and his high sets which allowed Canada to probably outnumber Bulgaria in kill blocks. Also, Bulgaria has never managed the art of triple block. Whether it was Stoev, Prandi, Stoychev, or Konstantinov, Bulgaria had and still has the worstly organized triple block among the top 10 or even top 15 teams in the world ranking. Last, despite all criticism in Bulgaria and even here sometimes, Aleksiev showed why he has a place in the NT.


    As I said, no big drama. More mistakes on the Bulgarian side, fewer by the Canadians. But the Bulgarian team needs to start winning sooner or later to regain their confidence.

    The problem is that they have been fairly consistent with the mistakes under Plamen, and many organizational one /where to stand to catch balls touched from the block, misunderstanding in reception, defense or counterattack/ and that we had some problems with the block in the beginning. We used to make much stronger teams than Canada to cry from our blocking and it should be a main weapon. Btw, did you like how Todorov has improved his spiking lately? No problem for him even with Schmidt on the block.

    Quote from majka.antosik


    so 4 out of 7 players are from starting six, and this is C squad? :lol:


    anyway, Russian from first match looked like from kindergarden and were much worse than Australia, so I wouldn't call Australia "a joke"

    My mistake because of the bad spellchecker of my smartphone. Actually I wanted to write "We cannot call it C squad"

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