2017 FIVB World League

  • Bulgaria is so bad. Polish are not even sweating

  • No he isn't, and if he will have the ok one day I think he will have to wait 2 years (if I recall well Leal was naturalized this year as Brazilian, and he will have to wait 2 years).

  • I really didn't like Italy today :S (despite they lost second and third set only 23-25, and also if they would have won it)
    USA played better but to be honest I wasn't in love with their game either...


    Our fight spirit hasn't arrived in France yet.


    I agree. No one played great, but USA did better and won.
    I'm glad we took 3 points in straight sets. Going around the world with guys like Patch, DeFalco and Langlois, that just finished their college careers is meant to make them get experience and confidence.


    I liked DeFalco and Patch. I see Torey over Langlois and Muagututia for the tourments to come (of course if Russell, Sander and Jaeschke won't be rested).


    Ben has a long way to go. I can see he has room to improve a lot and became a very high level opposite, maybe even something more. He is athletically and physically gifted, so it's all up to his technical and mental improvements. Today he was consistent when it mattered, but still struggled out of system. He showed fighting spirit and liked it. Good for him he will be playing in Italy next season, there's no better place to grow as a volleyball player. Let's see what level this guy will reach. :D

  • Patch is the real deal. Just need consistency with his serving.


    But I need him to grow out of his hair first.. He looks like a Namek alien from Dragon Ball Z with that. :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

  • And Poland is underperforming once again. after beating World Number 1, Brazil. :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

  • The 4th set in Japan between Korea and Slovenia was so weird that it probably deserves a separate analysis. Neither team wanted to win it, it seems. After the convincing 3rd part (something like 25-13), Slovenia destroyed the Koreans at the beginning of the 4th when they had a 13-8 advantage. The match was practically almost over. Kovac rested his opposite Gasparini already in set 3 and Stern started the fourth set from the first point. The score seemed to have relaxed the Slovenians and Kovac changed Vincic with Ropret. This decision/attitude paid off and the Koreans made a run of 8-1 points to take the lead at the second TTO at 16-14. Ropret, by the way, looked totally unprepared and made a mistake after mistake. And still, Korea almost failed to do what any good team would - punish their opponents. They also started making mistakes, their head coach was late with the time-outs, Slovenia woke up a bit, but got nervous, the refs made mistakes (I don't know why there was no Challenge system, I guess they don't use it in the lower divisions, or maybe just not this weekend in Japan). Slovenia's attitude cost them a point, although it should be a lesson learned if they want to do better in a few weeks in Australia.


    By the way, I read about important missing players in the Korean roster, I should say I don't know the Korean opposite. But it is truly impressive how often you can go full power in the very same way and get stuffed severely on a number of occasions without thinking twice.

    The lineup of Korea this year is probably their weakest lineup in years even the korean fans have the same thoughts as mine. Almost all of their important players are not included, some are injured as well.


    *EDIT* Finally USA won!

  • Another 3-0 win. The youngsters are growing. :dance6:


    I hope FIVB will shut down that useless chat board: it was all along about homofobic comments on Ben Patch and his hair. :down:

  • Another 3-0 win. The youngsters are growing. :dance6:


    I hope FIVB will shut down that useless chat board: it was all along about homofobic comments on Ben Patch and his hair. :down:




    Agreed! Not just homophobic, but a lot of racist comments on there as well. Someone called him the N word. I was so disgusted.

  • I'm looking forward to watch Lyneel tonight: he's in amazing shape of course, but I'm pretty sure the season spent in Italy helped him a lot. The same happened with Tillie.

  • I'm just mad at the russian coaches for not taking Yaroslav, Kobzar and Pavel. These guys can't play fast without great defense. Yaroslav is quick from what I've seen and not taking Kovzar who's lije with the team for how long and Pavel who has much bigger potential than Kovalev. :down:


    Honestly, Russia needs agile players in the OH position. Biriukov is old and the guy who replaced Kliuka is just the exact player like Volkov. Yaroslav i like his energy. They should also try out some of the youth players and develop them early


    Anyway wtf happened to Kliuka? Russia could've gotten a fighting chance if they atleast have him. Injured?


    Jesus at Russia's libero. Thank God he is a cutie pie or else I would've degenerated in million pieces already because of his performance. Completely unacceptable. They should've won considering the match was close because of USA's errors. :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

    Edited once, last by Rains_of_Castamere ().

  • Serbia is hard to beat when they play good and as Podrascanin said in press conference, that was their best game this summer


    still I can't understand Kolakovic for not playing Manavinejad, he is on fire right now, not saying that could change the final outcome though.

  • This Russia team playing this weekend is just terrible, once the WL is just so not important for Russia next season they should simply choose not to participate and let another team that wants to play and win take their spot.


    Vettori, :thumbdown: he is just not national team material. With Zaytsev out he is getting one more chance to prove himself, but he just can`t, he just too chicken.


    Bulgaria vs Canada on right now :box: Antiga is already doing a great job with Canada. Too bad Maar is not getting to play much X(



  • I will never understand people trying to push Vettori over and over into the NT like he's some kind of rare flower ready to bloom.


    He played ONE great NT match (match, not even the whole tournament) in his entire life, that was 2013 ECH final Italy-Russia, and we didn't even win it.



    About this year's WL... I'm not really sure what France and Brazil are trying to accomplish. Let the young guns develop. If not now, when?

  • He`s a great CLUB player, but not every player that plays well in club can play well in the NT, unfortunately Vetori is one of those cases.


    about Brazil YES, and I said it before, in Tokyo they will have the oldest roster ever, almost everyone will be over 35. I think Renan is scared to play with the younger ones and get bad results, and this would not look good for the "new team" without Bernardinho. And Brazil is qualified for the Finals, which makes even less sense to play with the Olympic Champions,


    about France NO. They are all still really young, Negpaeth for example is what 24 or 25? and they have new faces, Clevenot and Boyer for example. And look at their roster almost everyone is born in the 1990`s, that`s a young team.

    I will never understand people trying to push Vettori over and over into the NT like he's some kind of rare flower ready to bloom.


    He played ONE great NT match (match, not even the whole tournament) in his entire life, that was 2013 ECH final Italy-Russia, and we didn't even win it.

  • He's isn't great at club level as well, just decent. He had just one strong season in his career: 2015-16 with Modena and they won everything in Italy. The previous seasons Petric and N'Gapeth carried the team by their own, Vettori showed up few times.

  • What about France-Italy? I had to leave after the first set, where no one was playing well, expecially France was really quite and not showing its usual fire.


  • About this year's WL... I'm not really sure what France and Brazil are trying to accomplish. Let the young guns develop. If not now, when?


    Not sure about Brazil, but France is building once again Lyneel's confidence (the guy didn't play for NT regularly in the last years, struggling with injuries).
    Clevenot is having his chance. Boyer took the opposite position. Most of the team that was in Rio de Janeiro is young enough to make 2 more OGs cycles.
    They don't need to go around the world with an all-rookies team IMHO.