Men's World Grand Champions Cup 2017

  • I don't like the officiating of this match.


    Where did they even get this ref? :down:


    I truly feel frustrated for Italy. Every momentum they're getting is halted by bad calls.

    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

  • Vettori is showing some emotions in this game :call:

  • Giving playing time to others as this tournament is a lost cause and they don't care about result at all.


    We already had this topic for the women's tournament: european teams don't care at all about this competition. Both the USA teams used it to make experiments. I'm not surprised Tillie father is giving court time to his son. I can't remember the last time I saw Kevin playing with ZAKSA. January maybe? ?( Italy was supposed to use this tournament as a revange for the terrible ECH.

  • How this game went on for more than 2 and a half hours should not surprise everyone. If it's not the referee making the wrong decisions every now and then which forced pretty much Italy to challenge his calls then I don't know what it is... :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

  • Why am I entering anti- Mazzone group? (I'm not sure if there is a anti-Mazzone group maybe I should start a one) .Why is he favoured over other Italian MB'S?


    He has good connection with Giannelli, he's a pretty good blocker and most of all... he has a great float serve to top all that. He didn't get any ace but he stayed the longest in the service line. That is practically more than enough for any middle blocker to be considered for any selection.

    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

  • Why am I entering anti- Mazzone group? (I'm not sure if there is a anti-Mazzone group maybe I should start a one) .Why is he favoured over other Italian MB'S?


    There aren't so many options: italian middles are weak. I wish Cester didn't wasted 2 seasons on bench with Lube. He was the best italian middle when he was starter in Ravenna.

  • Why am I entering anti- Mazzone group? (I'm not sure if there is a anti-Mazzone group maybe I should start a one) .Why is he favoured over other Italian MB'S?


    Well, I don't think Mazzone is a great player (but that's true for mostly all our MBs...), but in the last two year and especially in the last one he often showed good thing (again, not great). I think the reason he was brought back after not participating to the WL (he didn't even make it to the 18 players list, back then) is that Blengini wanted to give Giannelli an MB with whom he can feel ok playing with imperfect passing. Other said he was called back to have a better block (?).
    Anyway, I'm still wondering why Candellaro didn't make it to the ECh and consequently the GGC, but for me Buti is the one that shouldn't be here. He simply doesn't belong to this Olympic Cycle, imho.


    he has a great float serve to top all that.


    I was a fan of his float serve, then the last year under Lorenzetti he jump served, and with the NT he came back to the float and for me it wasn't as good as before, but in the last matches I saw some improvement (in the ECh it wasn't that impressive for me, I expected something more).




    How this game went on for more than 2 and a half hours should not surprise everyone. If it's not the referee making the wrong decisions every now and then which forced pretty much Italy to challenge his calls then I don't know what it is...


    I've really no idea what are you speaking about :what: (but I watch the first to set on the phone and without comments, so I may have missed something).
    Don't get me wrong, I don't think the referee was great, but for me he wasn't pro-Japan, for example he missed at least once, probably twice that the ball touched the Italian ground. And also Japan had a lot of successful challenge. He also gave right away a yellow card to Giannelli for complaining after an unsuccessful challenge (and for me he was right to do so. I mean the referee, not Giannelli xD)


    If the match lasted that long it's because we didn't play very well, imho. Plus Japan fight quite hard! :super:
    I must say that I watched set 3 and 4 like an our later but 'live' for me (aka, I didn't know the result), and when I looked for the streaming and I realized the match was still live I was like 'Oh, please, don't tell me we are playing another tie break!'

  • If you've watched from the beginning to end... then you would know what I'm talking about.



    Basically... Japan could've forced a tiebreak or even win the game if Italy made a couple of challenge errors per set. That's how many the bad calls were during the game especially during set 3. Even Blengini got wary from challenging the ref calls during set 4 for probably the fear of making the wrong call too early in the set and losing all the challenges. :mirror: . And that proven correct. They even got carded for complaining "a little too much". :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

  • I saw that, but I also saw Japan calling a lot of successful challenges...
    And rarely the touch and the in/out were that evident, imho (they were mostly like: 1 finger touched, the ball that partially caught the line and similar).
    So, I would stick with "may be the referee wasn't the best on the market, but to me it didn't seem he was pro-Japan"



    Anyway, what is Blain position in Japan team?

  • Cester couldn't even overtake the disastrous World League Performer Candellaro in Civitanova... It is just hard to think he's going to change especially now that he's older.


    I don't know much about Anzani so I can't say he's better or worse than Mazzonne.


    I think the younger MBs have more potential so I think it is better to invest on them.

    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 think the younger MBs have more potential so I think it is better to invest on them.


    In fact I'm not very happy Ricci didn't got a single chance to play :(
    I'm crossing my finger for Polo and Galassi to grow up well (and Ricci as well, obviously).



    I forgot to say I was quite surprised how many tip balls landed on the Japanese court. They looked way more comfortable in digging great spikes and unpredictable flying ball.

  • Cester couldn't even overtake the disastrous World League Performer Candellaro in Civitanova... It is just hard to think he's going to change especially now that he's older.

    I don't know much about Anzani so I can't say he's better or worse than Mazzonne.


    I think the younger MBs have more potential so I think it is better to invest on them.


    Yes that was also a problem. Cester was better than Candellaro when given a chance but Blengini favoured the other one
    Mazzone is a good blocker must be some kind of joke.
    Mr. Blengini is the definition of overrated coach

  • Mazzone and Piano are tied for 3rd best score among all MB, with 27 points.


    Mazzone is the 3rd best MB overall, but him and Piano are tied for 1st with the amount of blocks (10 blocks)


    In the quaterfinal against Belgium, Mazzone was Italy`s best player with 10 points, attack 7/10 70%, and 2 blocks.

  • Mazzone is a good blocker must be some kind of joke.


    I think that blocking is the thing he does worst at the moment, but I read expert people writing he was chosen to implement the block.. While I had taken for granted it was for his connection with Giannelli for the attack.
    On the contrary, blocking is the thing that Piano does best – well, it's practically the only thing he does at competitive level and not even that well xD, and I said that being a huge fan of him. But, are we really so sure that Piano is such a better blocker than Mazzone?


    I mean, in general I'm not that sure we have so many better blockers among the MBs... If we don't count Birarelli, obviously. He is still our best MBs right now for me (but I agree that his time with the NT is ended).



    Anyway, don't take my words in big consideration, since I'm very poor in judging the blocking capabilities of a players unless they're quite impressive or incredibly poor.
    It's hard for me to make a ranking among the italian MBs just considering the blocking.


    Plus, the number of kill blocks doesn't always read truthfully the quality of the block during the whole match: for example, vs Iran Mazzone did 6 blocks and Piano 4, but my sensation was that we didn't block (or better, block-defend) very well. Actually, if hadn't read the numbers before watching the match, I would have thought Iran blocked more/better than us...