2015 European Championships - Netherlands and Belgium

    Big congrats to Russia! Did not really saw that one coming given the circumstances. They still won it despite missing some key players! On the other hand, I expected more from the other teams like Italy and Turkey. They have ample rests between tournaments and I expected them to be more energetic and take advantage of Russia and Serbia's exhaustion but sadly, no.

    Quote from Matthias

    Turkish players regularly play against Kosheleva and Goncharova in NT and also in club tournaments, Dutch players meet them once a year at best. That is a big difference. I'm sure Dutch players tried as hard as they could to stop them, but if it were so easy to stop them they wouldn't be world class players because that's what sets them apart from other players.

    That might be right but not for Guldeniz for instance.
    Btw, it might sound absurd, but I really liked Marichev's management! Giving chance to a very inexperienced player like Ilchenko and especially when she is supposed to receive with only one player, a big risk but paid off well.



    I agree for a big part with you !!


    BUT,


    Totally idiots like Vermeulen and Goedkoop are not in charge at the federation anymore (Vermeulen is headcoach of men's team but it is a matter of time before the men will be fed up with him)...the people of the federation at the moment have not much knowledge of the game, but they are normal people.


    The girls have kicked out Vermeulen themselves...they forced the federation to do so. Besdies, the current bosses of the federation know really well Guidetti is gold for our team.

    Quote from Meatballs

    Btw, it might sound absurd, but I really liked Marichev's management! Giving chance to a very inexperienced player like Ilchenko and especially when she is supposed to receive with only one player, a big risk but paid off well.

    He pretty much had no other choice, given Scherban's injury and Pasynkova being completely out of shape.


    Speaking of Ilchenko, after Pankova she is now Russia's (at least) 2nd European champion in 2nd generation. Nikulina and Smirnova must be proud mothers today :heart:

    Quote from Arii15

    Any replay fo 3rd palce match TUR x SRB?? :sos:


    It's on air now on Rai Sport 1. Any replay for the final match?

    Quote from vava12

    It's on air now on Rai Sport 1. Any replay for the final match?


    quote]
    then wait till the end of bronze medal match they will most probably broadcast gold medal match too after bronze medal match finishes...they has been doing that since the beginning of f4..: broadcasting matches back to back

    Quote from Meatballs

    And you really like claiming Russia of having a boring game, Guidetti being a god, many more. I'm telling what I see and I love Guidetti as a coach and you know that very well. But today, he could make his team more ready than this. Seriously, what did Netherlands do to stop Kosha-Goncha duo? Nothing!


    Netherlands were unable to do anything about any "heavyweight" spiker in this tournament. Kasia "nothing-special" Skowronska and Valentina "the shame of European volleyball" Diouf both scored way too much against the Dutch. No wonder that the Duo was too much for them. Pankova's strategy was to (a) set into two or four only and (b) strictly deliver the ball on the net. The q was whether Holland can go the Italian way and work more on the service... but in reality Ilchenko and Malova outreceived(!) the Dutch and together with Pankova provided some solid defense. The latter component made the game fairly spectacular.


    I might be wrong of course but to me "the King looks naked" so far. Holland has won the silver by beating Italy in the third group round, which I can only explain by the lack of powerful opps/OHs in the Italian roster and the presence of a decent amount of idiocy among the Ita coaching staff. Otherwise, all those groundbreaking victories were registered against much weaker opponents. Italy were by far the strongest team that Russia faced in this tournament as they were able to come up with a working strategy and were in fact not that far from winning the QF (I assume the Croatia accident was partially due to a difference in motivation). The particularly impressive feature of the Italian team was that the OHs, 175 cm tall Bosetti ans 182 cm tall Del Core, never tried to score points Kosheleva-style, an option that 191 cm tall Buijs and 194 cm tall Nikolic have been exploring throughout their encounters with Russia, with a known outcome, and hopefully will try many times in the future.


    Btw, two years ago Guidetti's team was serving much better in the final but the common feature with today's Holland was incorrect blocking of the tall spikers. The Duo was confidently scoring from high "emergency" balls, the German block being nowhere near (proof). Another loss for the host team now in Rotterdam and then in Berlin was the bulletproof Rodriguez as a ref. Note that this time neither Marichev, nor Guidetti even attempted to argue/appeal.



    Quote from Meatballs

    I know Turkish girls stopped this duo, I think last year in WGP and actually with Guldeniz-Gözde duo playing as OH. I expected a much better defense-block thing from Dutch team.


    Let us be fair, the way the Turkish girls "stopped" the Duo wouldn't work at this ECh, due to the challenge technology. I don't want to sound pessimistic but if the technology is available at the European qualification in Ankara, then the Turkish team may struggle to qualify this time.

    INCREDIBLE! I've seen Goncharova smiling for the very first time during 1st set of final :lol:

    Quote from JoanaBG

    It's so weird and random. I guess Erdem's own mother probably wouldn't have selected her for the best line-up.



    I guess you guys see these awards as a part of the whole competition, which they strictly speaking are not. They are a part of the show, yes, and a very elegant tool to "please and appease", without interfering with the result of the game. The chaps in Holland/Flanders have organized a nice and civilized (=transparent) competition, with the only attempt of helping the local teams being the seeding. I haven't spotted a single point being stolen from Russia during the final. After that, the hosts are very much free to satisfy all possible demons they can think about. They want the top four teams to be represented - no probs, here comes a puzzled Turkish MB. They want the fans to be happy - OK, give an award to the Dutch opp. They want a display of tolerance - here's Buijs for you. They want to troll the mighty Vova - OK, gave Kosheleva a (sanctioned) cheese so the customs in Moscow get some entertainment too.

    RUS & ITA qualified in WC 2019.

    Quote from Meatballs

    I know Turkish girls stopped this duo, I think last year in WGP and actually with Guldeniz-Gözde duo playing as OH. I expected a much better defense-block thing from Dutch team.


    Oh you want to talk about last year's WGP? Natasha was completely out of shape, so obviously it's nothing big to discuss about.
    Oranges not stopping the russians ain't a big deal, they're just not experienced enough and don't have as strong serves as the germans did 2 years ago. In order to break russian reception you've definitely got to have serves that can disturb them, but overall Ilchenko and Malova did well.

    Big big big congrats to Russia, The Netherlands and Serbia, totally deserved medals given. I was too busy to adjust to write some comments and now I have a plenty of times.


    Russia - I think some user already mentioned it and I repeat it. Kosheleva on this level must be ILLEGAL. She's an awesome leader on court, always celebrating, encouraging her teammates and obviously her spiking is on a monster level. Obmochaeva played a very good match in the final, I saw her being completely motivated, wanting to win, hitting so hard and smiling :D The level of their play wasn't very high, only 2 balls to Zaryazhko was sort of disappointing if we consider how well she hits through the middle, but if I were Kosianenko, I would probably have done the same, I mean it was sufficient enough to beat The Netherlands with only 2 monster attackers, someone finds it boring and I did to for a while, however they grabbed the gold once again and that's what counts. Marichev has made some wrong decisions during the summer but I like his braveness, he's open to any new players, he discovered many young and inexperienced players from weaker teams, Dianskaya, Shlyakhovaya, Malykh, Isaeva, Malova in 2013, Fetisova, Bavykina, Shcherban and Podskalnaya last year, and Ilchenko this year. Not many other coaches would have given a chance to a totally inexperienced player in such critical moments. I'm content for Ilchenko, her performance against Italy was disastrous but little by little got a bit better. Anyway, well done russians, such a big pity that Shcherban wasn't in the medal ceremony. Oh btw did Orlova and Kuzyakina ever play for a second? :D I saw Lyubushkina replacing Kosheleva for serving, but not those two.


    The Netherlands - I loved how they played against Turkey, so amazing, they totally showed how to play volleyball as a team. Slöetjes has been such a huge surprise this year considering how long time she had been struggling with her shoulder injury. I'm so happy for her. And Stam-Pilon, I love this woman. Coming back to court after giving birth, changing her position, nothing would have been easy for her, but she did it very well. Buijs, Dijkema, Balkestein, Beliën did a great job as well. In particular Laura has become so much better under Guidetti's hands, I really hope she keeps her creativity in Schwerin.


    Serbia - This year has been so special to those serbs, a ticket to Rio and the BRONZE :D Not so shabby at all. Mihajlovic-Boskovic duo is such a bomb, probably the only comparable european duo to the russian one. Besides Maja is just a pleasure to watch, her sets are so elegant and creative. I saw Mihajlovic and Malesevic hugging her some moments, even her teammates love her sets. That's enough said ;) Malesevic was another big surprise as well, if she keeps playing this well, she will definitely maintain her spot as OH2. Rasic - always so consistent, Stevanovic not as good as she can be, Veljkovic, too bad that she can't be a slider. The only players I don't like from this team is Zivkovic, her sets are too boring.


    Tanya Kosheleva MVP in a row :super: She's just unstoppable, well, at least in European level :D

    Ok so I'm just reading this thread now after finding a phone charger and a rather big reception and afterparty :D Which was really nice because having a major tournament in NL meant that everyone had all their friends and family along. The reception easily had 200 people, more than at most matches in NL :lol:


    And of course the atmosphere and the level of noise in the stadium were incredible.


    Although it was a disappointment not to win, people are genuinely delighted with this result. The players realise they're not (yet) on Russia's level, but as several people have noted on here, they've only had Guidetti for a few months.


    And they REALLY like him, despite the fact that he works them far harder than his predecessors, because the results are obvious already and because he lets them just be normal. Case in point, last night everyone (Dutchies) went out (like properly out!) after dinner. But the other teams had to stay in the hotel, so the Russians were just sitting in their room smoking (they're non-smoking rooms and there was so much smoke you could smell it from outside, so someone will be in a lot of trouble :lol: )


    Bring on the OQT!


    Quote from Nostromo

    Well Russia swept Holland from the court clearly today. Maybe there is not so big difference between both teams, but what it was in the air before the match was unrealistic. The path of both teams to the final was so unbalanced, Holland winning a Poland exhausted after a long match against Belarus and without Werblinska, and Turkey with the disappointing level that this team showed in this ECH. And Russia winning two strongs teams as Serbia and Italia.


    Today Russia not only was way better in aspects of the game where we expect they are gonna be better but in key aspects for Holland as reception and defense.


    Goncharova had during the tournament ups and downs but we have to see that it was a long national team season for her, she showed a high level in grand prix finals and a good level in world cup with some falls in her performance. But it's normal, three months in a top level is a very tough thing to achieve.


    to me the only "unfair" path may be Russia meeting Serbia in SF
    other than that, I'd say the path of the Dutch team is quite hard
    they have Italy & Poland in the same group and they can easily advance as third place if the two other teams were in better shape
    Holland also beats Italy so they don't have to face Russia in QF
    Things like Poland having long match against Belarus & Turkey with a disappointing level aren't "controlled" by the host lol
    so Holland really played an amazing tournament and deserves this medal! ^^

    Quote from Emil

    Oh you want to talk about last year's WGP? Natasha was completely out of shape, so obviously it's nothing big to discuss about.
    Oranges not stopping the russians ain't a big deal, they're just not experienced enough and don't have as strong serves as the germans did 2 years ago. In order to break russian reception you've definitely got to have serves that can disturb them, but overall Ilchenko and Malova did well.

    LOL! Do you really read this forum seriously? Look what people wrote about Natasha until the final? Oh how Natasha is not performing well, oh how her performance dropped, oh how she had her peak and now being tired! And a miracle happened and Natasha played superb in the final game? The question is, is it really Natasha that outperformed or was it the Dutchies that underestimated her?

    Quote from powsoff


    Let us be fair, the way the Turkish girls "stopped" the Duo wouldn't work at this ECh, due to the challenge technology. I don't want to sound pessimistic but if the technology is available at the European qualification in Ankara, then the Turkish team may struggle to qualify this time.

    I buy your earlier comments and agree but I dont get what this last one has to do with the challenge system when WGP finals werent in Turkey. All I remember is, Neriman failed badly in that game, Guldeniz came in, Turkey received much better. But the key point at that game was amazing defense of Guldeniz-Gözde-Gizem trio who covered Koshaleva's attacks pretty well. Besides even Guldeniz attacked smart and did not hit Russian blocks again and again.


    I told it many days ago, no way that this dutch team could beat Russia or Serbia, not with this game, relying on Slöetjes and Buijs. They definitely need a back-up defensive OH that can receive well and defend such spikes.