Women's World Grand Prix 2017

    Congrats to DOM. They surprised me. I enjoyed the match a lot and was impressed by their play. That Match Point attack was beautiful, and was a resounding exclamation point for how they played, and endured, the whole game.


    I'm concerned about Koga not playing for Japan. I think she has trouble with tall blockers, but shucks, that's pretty much every team in the world outside of Asia!


    I hope Martinez is okay. That was a courageous dive for the ball. As I've said, if you're over 5'10" (max 6'), those kind of moves can cause damage.

    I just realize that Puerto Rico that is playing here, in Group 2 of WGP 2017, actually attended the Rio OG (a forgotten participant) while the Dominican Republic that's playing in Group 1 here couldn't qualify for the Rio. Just an absurd fact that resulted in some unreal WR affecting the skewed real strength of several teams :D a real life fact!


    It will be funny to watch if the CZE team eventually beat PUR here :D and BUL already bt KOR.


    Update: Yes, CZE did beat PUR 3-1


    For a small country which is not a wealthy one like DOM, being able to raise a women's team this strong is quite commendable. Volleyball is a much resource-demanded sport, to be able to raise a good team really demands lots of factors incl. the financial supports, directly (funding) and indirectly (like the domestic competitions etc). In the DOM case I guess the natural talents that mainly help it to elevate that nation into the Top-10 level (based on the WR).


    “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

    Edited 2 times, last by samsara ().

    Brayelin Martinez is fine, minutes after the game she posted on intagram that she's fine and thanked everybody that was worried about her health; and later in night someone posted a pictures of the whole dominican team including Brayelin having dinner!, i hope she's able to play against thailand.


    Yonkaira Peña and Rivera couldn't replace Brayelin in this game after her injury because they are resting due to minor injuries; Jeoselyna Rodriguez is an opp i think she did a decent job replacing Martinez.


    It was a exciting game, and they deserve that win!!!!!

    Quote from samsara

    it's strange to see the head coach being nearly silent throughout the time-outs.


    Not to belabor the point too much but it's interesting, and important, to me. Those familiar with USA Basketball may know the LA Lakers coach Phil Jackson style--often characterized as "Eastern Style". He would call timeouts and often not speak to his players. I've watched many JPN NT games where Manabe would call a timeout at a critical seeming moment, like after being tied 20-20 and the other teams scores three points in a row, and he would say little to nothing to the players. I consider that respect, and consider it a great motivator. What's he really got to say anyway to a group of girls who presumably have their lives dedicated to what's going on and that he hasn't said already? I don't speak Japanese but I've seen it a lot, from Manabe and from the NEC Red Rockets coach, when he does say something it looks like no more than "If they hit the ball to our side of the net, hit it back. Lets Go!"


    Lang Ping doesn't say much to her players either. Let them talk amongst themselves. I dig that!

    How are you folks watching replays? My Hola VPN with Chrome doesn't work, even for replaying a match I just watched live. And that unblockyoutube site someone posted only works on my iPad, won't work on my laptop.


    I'm going to hunt down and punish these FIVB people if they don't make these games available for the world to see. And by 'the world', I really mean 'me', with my own sense of entitlement, but I do hope others are able to enjoy!

    U must hunt down NBC Sports. The reason we can`t watch on youtube in the US it is because they bought the rights to broadcast the games. Of course they only broadcast the USA games and with 1 day delay basically.


    http://www.nbcsports.com/live

    Quote from sitenoise

    How are you folks watching replays? My Hola VPN with Chrome doesn't work, even for replaying a match I just watched live. And that unblockyoutube site someone posted only works on my iPad, won't work on my laptop.


    I'm going to hunt down and punish these FIVB people if they don't make these games available for the world to see. And by 'the world', I really mean 'me', with my own sense of entitlement, but I do hope others are able to enjoy!

    Quote from sitenoise

    How are you folks watching replays? My Hola VPN with Chrome doesn't work, even for replaying a match I just watched live. And that unblockyoutube site someone posted only works on my iPad, won't work on my laptop.


    I'm going to hunt down and punish these FIVB people if they don't make these games available for the world to see. And by 'the world', I really mean 'me', with my own sense of entitlement, but I do hope others are able to enjoy!

    Try getting the Zenmate extension for Chrome and then changing your location to Romania. It seems to be working for me today.

    Quote from saishuu

    The hell is going on with Argentina :wall:


    Argentina seems lost without Yamila Nizetich. She is like "the motor" of this team
    Piccolo had an awful match, specially in reception . Really disappointing


    Argentina does not have good receivers, and setters are not so good enough to change the way of a match.

    Quote from rbdfabio

    U must hunt down NBC Sports.


    Those guys are why we don't have Olympic replays. Grr :cursing: I should have known. How sad.

    Quote from bobaas

    I didn't follow japanese league so much, but isn't it Nakada's style to do it that way? It is very strange, but we don't know how they divided their roles. Maybe she is this type, which prefers do not talk to players during the match for whatever reasons, lol.


    sort of like kiraly-morrison in the USA team? kiraly just gives the "new agey" encouragement and morrison gives the technical notes... : -)

    someone said before that CAN beating ARG was an upset. not really... in the recent PanAmerican Cup, CAN finished 6th (lost to CUB for 5th) and ARG lost to COL for 7th place, and finished 8th. and COL was playing without their 2 best MBs, without moreno, montano and coneo. basically their only starter was the setter. i don't know ARG players well, but i thought fresco would be their big hitter, but apparently she's not as good as i thought she would be.


    DOM hairstyles have changed since the PanAm Cup, brayelin had blue braids then, now mambru has the colored braids.


    just started watching the match, great rally here at 10:10.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPbaHZbOy4Y


    happy to hear DOM was able to beat JPN, they usually have trouble with their fast, very precise and technical style of play, and get frustrated when the ball keeps coming back. they are getting better at staying in the rally... i remember how at the WCh 2014, DOM beat ITA and gave CHN lots of trouble, but couldn't beat JPN.


    PUR players have so much talent. i wish they would get better coaching, better support etc. both karina and fefa are world-class.

    I did :lol: I tried it today and it worked for some reason

    Quote from ossubtus

    this OPP, horikawa, is very impressive. surprised to not see sakoda, miyashita and nagaoka. they were very good players.


    Sakoda retired ;( I like Horikawa as well. She's getting court time because Nagaoka is on the injured list. Miyashita shows up

    Quote from sitenoise

    How are you folks watching replays? My Hola VPN with Chrome doesn't work, even for replaying a match I just watched live. And that unblockyoutube site someone posted only works on my iPad, won't work on my laptop.


    I'm going to hunt down and punish these FIVB people if they don't make these games available for the world to see. And by 'the world', I really mean 'me', with my own sense of entitlement, but I do hope others are able to enjoy!

    Try Opera. You can activate a build in VPN in this browser. I have no problem to watch the replays or a match live with this browser.