Men's World Championship 2018

  • Matthias


    I thought you were exaggerating then the 17-14 point 2nd set and the following timeout by Giani made it pretty clear :aww:

    I wish I was exaggerating, but Kaliberda and Hirsch walk around with heads down, Fromm looks like he's about to start crying any minute and Giani seems to know that he's lost. There is not the slightest bit of life in this team :white:


    And at 0:2 down, they're officially dead. There is no way they can get past both Belgium and Estonia anymore.

  • And again...


    As I said before... Hirsch didn't convince me at all.


    :whistle:


    1/15. Good Lord. :whistle:


    I really want to comfort Kaliberda. He doesn't deserve Germany. :flower:

    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

  • And in a flash...


    Germany can now be ranked together with the likes of...Montenegro and Pakistan if FIVB ever updates the world ranking today. :whistle:

    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



  • Well you can't win if you just stick with what doesn't work at all for you. That's bordering on insanity. :white:


    Creativity and Execution are usually what can carry a seemingly weak team to some victories.


    Honestly. Giani should have tried something else...You'll never know when it works for you unless you try it. :win:

    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

  • I want to make clear that Giani is the last person to blame for this disaster. Makes as much sense as blaming Guidetti for the collapse of the women's NT. Germany simply doesn't have young players to replace its aging veterans. It was already a miracle for a country with subzero interest in volleyball to qualify both teams for the Olympics and win medals in world competitions for such a long time. Saying this as I can already see Giani being fired/forced to resign after the upcoming ECH disaster.

  • I want to make clear that Giani is the last person to blame for this disaster. Makes as much sense as blaming Guidetti for the collapse of the women's NT. Germany simply doesn't have young players to replace its aging veterans. It was already a miracle for a country with subzero interest in volleyball to qualify both teams for the Olympics and win medals in world competitions for such a long time. Saying this as I can already see Giani being fired/forced to resign after the upcoming ECH disaster.

    First of all I don't think women's team "collapsed" after Guidetti left. They're still among the top 6-8 teams in Europe and top 12-15 in the world.
    About men, I half agree. We certainly don't have the biggest pool of talented players and there are not many coming. But this hasn't been different in the past either and Heynen made much more out of what he had available by running the team so that the players could use their strengths. On the other hand Giani brings his system and wants to put all players in it even though it doesn't fit them. You could see today how many times they got blocked and how many serves they missed and it's been like that all summer. Power volleyball won't work with these players.


    Comparing to the bronze team 2014, there are still 3 players identic in the starting seven (Kampa, Kaliberda, Böhme) plus Fromm was regularly on court as well. Grozer is the biggest loss and Tille/M. Steuerwald are missed too, but that's no excuse going from 3rd place to not qualifying IMO.

  • I want to make clear that Giani is the last person to blame for this disaster. Makes as much sense as blaming Guidetti for the collapse of the women's NT. Germany simply doesn't have young players to replace its aging veterans. It was already a miracle for a country with subzero interest in volleyball to qualify both teams for the Olympics and win medals in world competitions for such a long time. Saying this as I can already see Giani being fired/forced to resign after the upcoming ECH disaster.


    Collapse of the Women's NT? What??? :white:


    I can't agree with your assessment totally. Sure there is a limitation regarding the pool of players but a coach has to find a way to make ends meet. It's not like Germany is rebuilding with young players as Matthias said.


    I'm maybe sensing the veterans who left for whatever they left for out of NT did not trust his system and that's why everything fell apart for Germany.


    He was at loss... A coach that cannot inspire his players to play til the bitter end is no good coach at all. Sorry. :down:

    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

  • Sidney Omg lol this is amazing :rolll: At least they can admit they were sh*t but yea I wouldn't expect to see this either

    (Turkish fed posted a picture of Dicle who screamed, jumped and smiled after Thailands 3-0 defeat :down:, which btw I dont know where they found that picture as she has a dead poker face everytime I saw her)

  • Heynen, in a post-match interview, was especially pleased with the (Belgian) team's block defense.
    He added they managed to "fatigue" the German team with the tournament's schedule and still considers the German team to have to the most individual talent.


    I saw the game "live" and have to say I've never seen the Belgian team play a better game (16 blocks in 3 sets, 2 main attackers scoring over 70%).
    Indeed, block-defense was way better than in last World League campaign (in part thanks to libero Stuer, now taking the starting spot).


    Let's see if they can confirm tommorow against Estland.
    The players are very aware the qualification is not yet sealed, they've had too many tough games against Estland in recent years.


  • Yeah, only then they will overcome Belgium in points.

    Thank you. I have the feeling they might easily do it, but old Belgium never ceased to amaze me for its ability to throw away matches, so... it might be a very entertaining match after all. The Belgians themselves know it, they scheduled Belgium-Estonia on the last day for a good reason. Too bad only one of them gets to qualify.

  • Thank you. I have the feeling they might easily do it, but old Belgium never ceased to amaze me for its ability to throw away matches, so... it might be a very entertaining match after all. The Belgians themselves know it, they scheduled Belgium-Estonia on the last day for a good reason. Too bad only one of them gets to qualify.


    We will see. IMO Belgium is clear favourite to get it, as they haven't lost a set through the whole tournament. I can see Estonia making it to the tie-break, but it won't change a thing :P


    Anyway, you still can be right, because volleyball is just about a specific match and Estonia can have "their" day tonight :box:

    Germany can now be ranked together with the likes of...Montenegro and Pakistan if FIVB ever updates the world ranking today. :whistle:


    It's 2 weeks already since World League finals have ended and still, they didn't manage to update the rank. I know it was a mess, but new points have to be allocated :call:

  • And Estonia takes the first set!
    Indeed, they are playing quite well. They collapse a bit in order to close the set.

  • Congrats to Belgium. In the end they have proven to be the best team in this round and very deservedly booked their ticket to WCH. Pretty amazing how Heynen always manages in very short time, to bring confident, well prepared and mostly succesful teams to the court.


    German team was a big disappointment. Not even the fact that they did not qualify (you could see this coming), but the way how they lost their matches is pretty troubling. Talking about the difficencies, i don't even know where to start. Tactics, individual performances, team cohesion, complete lack of leadership on and off the court, there are hardly any positive things to mention. :(

  • I have a question related to the stupid qualification system we have in CSV: the south american championship will be hosted in Chile and it will qualify 1 team for WCh, then few weeks later there will be qualification tournament to decide the other quota in Argentina.


    My question is, what happens if Argentina wins the first quota, will the second tournament still be held in Argentina but without the host nation? all this stupidity could be avoided if south american championship just gave 2 spots but whatever...

  • I have a question related to the stupid qualification system we have in CSV: the south american championship will be hosted in Chile and it will qualify 1 team for WCh, then few weeks later there will be qualification tournament to decide the other quota in Argentina.


    My question is, what happens if Argentina wins the first quota, will the second tournament still be held in Argentina but without the host nation? all this stupidity could be avoided if south american championship just gave 2 spots but whatever...


    That would be a bad idea if either Brazil or Argentina gets upset in the pool phase, they will have to meet in the semifinals then one of them is going to play in the bronze medal match and will never qualify to the world championship.


    It wouldn't be bad if thet have 3 slots but South America only has 2. :white:

    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

  • meanwhile, a few weeks ago, JPN beat AUS 3-2 in canberra, both teams qualified to WCh, besting TPE, THA, NZL.


    AUS played without edgar, anyone know what's up with him?


    JPN moved dekita to OPP, and both ohtake and takahashi didn't play, i wonder why, dekita didn't make much impact.