Friendly matches

  • Second friendly between Brazil and USA just ended and the Brazilians clinched another win, this time in 5 sets: 25/22, 19/25, 25/11, 16/25, 15/8. The game was not broadcast.


    Brazil played with Raphael, Renan, Lucarelli, M. Borges, Otávio, Isac and Thales. Murilo Radke and Raphael Araújo were the S/OPP subs. No clue as to who played for USA.

  • Why do you look down on all teams in general? How do you know for sure that there is no team which covered a larger distance than Brazil, for instance? And why do you think other top NTs work less than Brazil? :)


    True, the Brazilian men's NT has been an example to follow in some (only in some) aspects for years. However, with a reference to our previous discussion, results will show whether this kind of strategy will work out for Dal Zotto or any other NT coach. It didn't work for Bulgaria back then, proving that Konstantinov probably (but just probably) made a mistake. It didn't quite work well for Brazil in the WL either as they lost for the first time in years against Argentina and later failed to win another competition (the finals) at home. How that miraculously worked in 2016 at the Olympics is a PhD topic, as that was one of the weirdest tournaments ever. These constant, short-term travels around the globe SHOULD play a role, especially when we are dealing with an older team. However, they didn't have super important tournaments this year, let's be honest, hence the coach could easily rotate the squad and give some rest to certain players at times. Also possible during the WL intercontinental phase because Brazil played with no pressure in some games, knowing that they will host the finals anyway. They still qualified regularly, though, which is respectable.


    To sum up, Brazil didn't win the WL at home, scored some irritating (for the team, based also on the way they reacted) defeats during the Division I matches, won a pretty boring and extremely low-level South American championship (with a mixed line-up) without having to even face Argentina, and will compete in a meaningless tournament in Japan at the end of the NT season. Well, I don't see many reasons to brag, to be honest :) Compared to Brazilian standards, of course. No one denies the qualities of their players, they are still a top team and with some valid reasons as Olympic champions, so I don't see why a series of good wins, including in friendlies against US college graduates, would be granted as something exceptional.

  • Honestly it is not just me saying that, Bernardo and Ze Roberto have said that in the past many times that Brazil trains harder and more than anyone else. And that happens in club as well, from what I heard in Brazil their training sessions are longer than what they do in Europe.
    And I heard many Americans say the same thing that in Europe things are very slow when it comes to training and especially working out.


    I think this is cultural thing anyways, Europeans are used to be slower than the rest of the world when it comes to sport, you guys are more "old school" ..... in the Americans and Asia everyone is used to move in a faster pace.


    And I was not talking down on Bulgaria or anyone else, I just used Bulgaria as a recent example.


    I`m not saying one is better than the other, I`m just saying they are different.

  • Seeeeee, some people wants to think World League and Grand Prix are worthless tournaments and they don`t understand why even exists.


    But why teams are always playing so many friendly games? :whistle: And they all just played WL ....don`t they need rest after such a long and exhausting season???


    Now imagine if there were not WG or WL, these teams would have to play even more and more friendly games....

    Well, imho WL/WG is not the problem or at least only part of the problem. It is all the other stuff around it like ECH/WCH and the respective qualifiers, WC, OG, this Grand Champions thing, Club WCH etc....


    Of course, they are playing friendlies now as they want to be professionally prepared for a big tournament like ECH. But for sure thats no prove that players would be somehow underemployed without WL/WGP.


    My thesis is, that with a more reduced schedule, we would generally see a better level of Volleyball. Just look at recent success of cuban players on club level. Of course they are great players but imho the lack of an exhausting NT summer helps them to perform well in their clubs too.



    I can not judge whether there is a big difference on the workload but i am convinced that it is more about the quality and consistency of the work than the pure workload. It is pretty obvious that with such great and longtime coaches like Ze Roberto/Bernardinho, Brazil is leading in this perspective.

  • Italy-Ned 3-0 (plus a 4th set, but I didn't find out how it's ended – I guess that means Ned won xD Italy played with the bench, anyway)*


    Streaming (it was also live) on Nederlands Heren Volleyballteam Fb page (it should be the official one).
    And also on 'Federazione Italiana Pallavolo' FB page.


    Tomorrow second and last friendly match it's at 16.00.


    I only watched the third set (quite close but not amazing, imho). The titular (as in the sets before) were Giannelli-Vettori, Lanza-Antonov, Piano-Mazzone (best scorer with 14 points, 5 were blocks), Balaso Colaci. + Pesaresi on Anotnov for the back row and sometime Spirito for Piano to serve.


    There's who suggest Pesaresi may took Randazzo place in the ECh (Pesaresi also played as receiver in the 4th set, with Balaso again as digger), but I didn't understand if that could happen only if Randazzo condition aren't optimal.




    *EDIT: as I suspected Ned won the 4th set.
    But somebody should tell them that this doesn't mean they lost 3-1 :P It's still a 3-0 :rolll:


    Quote

    De eerste wedstrijd om de Gelderland Cup met 3-1 (21-25,16-25,23-25, bonusset: 25-20) verloren, maar in de laatste set ging ie lekker

  • Brazil beats USA again in 3-0 ( 25-21, 25-23, 29-27).


    USA started with Anderson,Holt,Russel,Shoji,Jendryk,DeFalco,Waten
    Brazil with Bruno,Renan,Maurico S, Mauricio B, Isasc, Brendle, Lucas Loh.


    They played in Chicago-USA. A lot of Brazilian fans in the arena.

  • Brazil just beat USA again, this time by 3-2 (25/23, 22/25, 23/25, 25/22, 16/18.)


    Brazil: Bruno, Rafael A., Lucarelli, Maurício B., Maurício S., Isac, Thales (e. M. Radke, Renan, Otávio)
    USA: Christenson, Patch, Jaeschke, Anderson, Jendryk, Smith, E. Shoji (e. Holt, not sure who else lol)

  • Otavio played superb. He's probably going to replace Eder at this point. Isac was okay. He had some troubles killing the ball. Renan played well in the fourth set. Thought they were still going to take the fourth set despite the uS Lead. Rafael got stuffed a lot. He still played well but he's not the player you can count on when serve receive is not ideal.


    Brazil still got some work to do especially when introducing new middle blockers and their coverage. Some of those loose balls were pretty much saveable.


    There was a funny moment when Brazil took out Bruno and put Renan in. Mauricio did all the setting. It wasn't bad but he was probably nervous to death and it showed. All his sets were really low. He even gave a "quick" set to Isac which was actually slow...: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

  • Otavio was MVP of the game, but I don`t want him or anyone to replace Eder. Eder is my eye candy. Isasc played better yesterday.


    Mauricio played great both nights, and Lucas Loh played yesterday than Lucarelli did today.


    Rafael Araujo got blocked a few times, but I wonder if was this his first game of the season playing for Brazil?! He did not play WL. He played well for his first game of the season.


    I wish Renan would play Champions Cup without Bruno,Wallace,Lucas,Lucarelli...just give Radke,Tiago,Lucas Loh,Joao Rafael,Otavio,Rafael Araujo the chance to play more.

  • I didn't know you were a fan of the USA NT? :rolll:


    I am cracking tf up right now :rolll: :rolll: :rolll:

  • Germany - Belgium: 3-1 (25-18, 25-23, 22-25, 28-26)


    Grözer (30), Fromm (15), Krick (12)
    http://www.volleyball-verband.…--3-1-sieg-gegen-belgien/


    This indicates how important Grözer is for this team.


    Remember, Belgium blew away Germany, without Grözer, in the WC qual in July (-16,-16,-17)
    http://www.cev.lu/Competition-…age.aspx?mID=30647&ID=976


    If anybody knows where to find complete stats of this game, I'd be very interested.


    Tonight, they play a second friendly game.

  • Any upcoming friendlies?


    See this.
    China vs Argentina and China vs Japan (twice)

    My favourite roster of Chinese (in 2022)
    male NT:
    S - Yu Yao-chen, Chen Lei-yang
    OP - Jiang Chuan, Dai Qing-yao
    OH - Zhang Jing-yin, Yu Yuan-tai, Liu Li-bin, Fu Hou-wen
    MB - Zhang Zhe-jia, Peng Shi-kun, Li Yong-zhen, Jiang Zhen-yang
    L - Yang Yi-ming, Yang Tian-yuan


    female NT:
    S - Yao Di, Diao Lin-yu
    OP - Gong Xiang-yu, Sun Xiao-xuan
    OH - Li Ying-ying, Wang Yi-fan, Wu Meng-jie, Zhuang Yu-shan
    MB - Yuan Xin-yue, Wang Yuan-yuan, Zheng Yi-xin, Liu Yu
    L - Ni Fei-fan, Xu Jia-nan

  • Brazil v Netherlands friendlies



    I'm a bit disappointed that we haven't had a game were Evandro actually starts as opposite right from the beginning of the match to the end - not sure this is a good idea in the long run...this year its been clear that the top teams have worked out the Lucas-Wallace-Bruno connection


    Kadu seems to be a good addition - good height as well for the outside. Passing definitely needs to get better.


    Not really happy about Bruno's consistency (or lack of).. Sometimes less manic setting and more focus is better - He could really learn from Tonuitti in this regard. Yes he has some spectacular plays but he also makes a lot of mistakes, and when the passing struggles, his lack of consistency becomes more exposed. Even with relatively good passing, Sometimes the outside hitters can never get the same ball twice, even in transition. He could be better in getting the best out of his hitters because sometimes they are made to look under par. This will definitely need to improve.


    His defence has been really good though...


    Still see Brazil in the last 4 at world champs - but France, Russia and USA are still ahead of them. Italy remains an unknown - but obviously home advantage will play a significant role- they could pull a Rio on everyone.


    Dutch team is still very 'green' - they need more experience.

  • France vs Serbia friendly


    France without Ngapeth because of minor abdominal injury and Serbia is finally with Petric.

    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

  • Italy and China are also having a friendly match.


    youtube

    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