CEV U19 European Championship - 2016 | 8 | 27

    Thanks!
    Would be quite surprising if they reach semi finals, I think...

    Laola will show the matches from Hungary :thumbsup:


    German roster:


    S: Pia Kästner, Luise Klein
    OPP: Hanna Orthmann
    OH: Vanessa Agbortabi, Sindy Lenz, Gina Köppen, Pia Leweling, Elisa Lohmann (defensive specialist)
    MB: Merle Weidt, Sabrina Krause, Camilla Weitzel
    L: Sophie Dreblow


    Yeah, Captain Leweling is back in team :D

    The players to keep an eye on from Turkish team are MB Zehra Güneş and OH/OPP Tutku Burcu Yüzgenç.

    Our biggest young talent, Klara Perić(S) will not play at ECH U19, She got injured so she want to rest because She needs to be ready for her season in Pomi Casalmaggiore.

    Unfortunately I will miss Italy-Serbia this evening :(


    I think nobody will have an easy path to the semi, considering only the first two of the pools will get there. You can't afford to mess up any match...


    Italy has an interesting roster but will miss Orro, Egonu and Piani (the latter due to an injury, unfortunately).


    Which teams are the favorite?
    I read Russia, Serbia, Germany and Italy in our pool (Cristofani's words), and I guess Turkey on the other... Who else?


    To me, the strongest medal contenders were RUS, TUR and BEL. However, Belgians without Britt Herbots wont be very competitive so it could be either SRB or ITA depending on the winner of the match.

    Belgium has big trouble with Croatia who looked quite weak in the qualifiers and are missing their main setter, so Belgium might not be that strong. Judging from the stats both teams serve each other off the court in turns (or have passing blackouts...)

    Serbia for Top 4?

    That Serbia who qualified from additional tournament, failed in qualification tournament?

    Ok we won 1 point and that is very good for us because I don't expected a lot from this team, So every points is good :)


    Ema Strunjak(MB) was on fire today, top scorer on Croatian side. She will become big player if she continue like this.
    20 points, 13/9 69% in attack, 6 blocks and 5 as serve :thumbsup:

    What a terrible performance by German girls so far :down:


    They won the first two sets only thanks to Hungary's errors and attacking weakness, but now things are changing.


    I'm really worried about Hanna Orthmann :S She's supposed to be the biggest prospect in German volleyball, but she hasn't made any progress in the last year. She can't defend anything, and her attacking is so wild without control. She can hit hard, but she misses the court way too often.

    Yeah, the main problem of Orthmann is her basic volleyball skills, obviously she will learn and improve it but thus far her defense is embarrassing. Unfortunately I see this problem from many young players these days. Coaches should focus on teaching basics before attacking and blocking, that's the first step to be a good player. As for her attacking motion, it kinda reminds me of the Brazilian Natalia Pereira.

    Italy throw away a five points advantages (14-19 to a deserved 19-19 for Russia, even if their 15th point was a gift by the referees) in the first set vs Russia and eventually lost the set :(

    In all matches that I watched so far, teams gave away big leads. Russia was leading 22-14 in 1st set vs Germany yesterday and let them come back to 24-24, Serbia almost did the same today after leading 21-13.


    Overall, I'm scared of the level of play. All teams are technically weak, bad in reception and defense, very simple construction of the game (= high balls left and right, almost no middle attack except for a few players).


    German girls are really bad. And I mean REALLY bad. Their serving in some moments lets them win some sets, but their level in play is even weaker than the other teams. Both MBs can only block, they don't exist in attack. Orthmann hits as many balls out as in, Agbortabi couldn't keep her good shape from the qualification tournament, Dreblow is unusually shaky. The only positive surprise is the good performance of Gina Köppen.

    Quote from Matthias

    Overall, I'm scared of the level of play. All teams are technically weak, bad in reception and defense, very simple construction of the game (= high balls left and right, almost no middle attack except for a few players).


    The reception is indeed really weak, but I think that is still kinda normal at this age, considering how difficult it is at any level and how fast the serve improves in the same period (and let me add that there weren't so many serve mistakes, compared with the efficiency of the serve, for what I've seen).


    About the defense, it didn't seem that bad to me, but may be my problem is that I take Egonu inexistent digging skills as paragone :lol:


    About the construction of the game, I positively noticed that when the setter can't set, the team still generally managed to offer a good set to the wing spikers.
    On the other side, I noticed that when the ball is reachable by the setter but far from the net, the setter often sets with a bagher.
    Still, you're kinda right about the MBs.


    Another things I noticed is the often poor level of the attack on difficult balls: it's often an error or an easy-to-dig spike...




    Quote from Matthias

    In all matches that I watched so far, teams gave away big leads.


    This is also true, still I was quite annoyed by Italy giving away the first set :P
    For the record, in the second set it happened the exact same thing in the opposite way, with the difference that Italy couldn't close the set when it came to the point-to-point situation.



    For Italy –at least for the parts of the matches I managed to watch – imho the best player so far is Lubian, Mb nr 5, born in 2000.