Women's World Grand Prix 2017

  • A lot of people here are probably new to watching volleybal based on their criticism of KYK. All you see is service errors with KYK's jump service?? :cursing: I remember times KYK aced 6 times in a row at Fenerbahçe. Combination of how reliable she is, her aces, her reception, how much she can hit in 3m line and what an amazing team player she is has always made her the best to me. Sure her level might have dropped a little but KYK definitely has a minor injury if you noticed she couldn't jump to every ball like she usually can. I have watched her for years and know if she is just tired, she surely has an injury and on top of that these Korean setters are truly horrible.

  • Some people like to think Kim is the one and only good thing Korea has ever had and once she retires Korea will just fade away, but that won`t happen. Korea has always been among the top teams in the world. They have competed in every single Olympics ( expect 1980). In the late 90`s and early 00`s they were really good and stronger than they are now even with Kim, they won bronze 1997 GP, 2000 OG lost 3-2 16/14 in the quater-final, 5th place in 2004 OG, 6th place 2002 WCH, 4th place 1994 WCH, 4th place 1999 WC.


    And the reason their level dropped has actually something to do with Kim. Since she became this huge power player the Korean game turned into her as been the center and main weapon offensively only while everyone else is just a supporting cast, and the actual problem is that the Korean teams decided to adopt the same strategy, they have the foreign player in the team playing Kim`s role, they are responsible for scoring throughout the whole game, they get like 70% of the sets, and everyone else plays as supporting cast. And this type of game is all that this new generation of Korean players knows how to play. Including the setters, they only know how to set to one player only and just ignore everyone else, just do a basic and simple game. And the same goes for everyone else. Look at Kim Hee-Jin, she was much better when we first saw her than she is now, she has not improved at all, and that is because in the Club she plays as supporting cast, same thing for Park Jeong-ah, the twins and so on...


    Watching the Korean League is pathetic, it is like a tennis game. There`s basically only 2 players on the court playing against each other.

  • Some people like to think Kim is the one and only good thing Korea has ever had and once she retires Korea will just fade away, but that won`t happen. Korea has always been among the top teams in the world. They have competed in every single Olympics ( expect 1980). In the late 90`s and early 00`s they were really good and stronger than they are now even with Kim, they won bronze 1997 GP, 2000 OG lost 3-2 16/14 in the quater-final, 5th place in 2004 OG, 6th place 2002 WCH, 4th place 1994 WCH, 4th place 1999 WC.


    And the reason their level dropped has actually something to do with Kim. Since she became this huge power player the Korean game turned into her as been the center and main weapon offensively only while everyone else is just a supporting cast, and the actual problem is that the Korean teams decided to adopt the same strategy, they have the foreign player in the team playing Kim`s role, they are responsible for scoring throughout the whole game, they get like 70% of the sets, and everyone else plays as supporting cast. And this type of game is all that this new generation of Korean players knows how to play. Including the setters, they only know how to set to one player only and just ignore everyone else, just do a basic and simple game. And the same goes for everyone else. Look at Kim Hee-Jin, she was much better when we first saw her than she is now, she has not improved at all, and that is because in the Club she plays as supporting cast, same thing for Park Jeong-ah, the twins and so on...


    Watching the Korean League is pathetic, it is like a tennis game. There`s basically only 2 players on the court playing against each other.


    I don't agree with you at all. Neslihan was the same figure for Turkish NT as KYK for Korea. She was scoring almost 25-30 points every match but still it did not prevent Turkey to raise top players like Neriman, Gozde, Eda, Naz and so on. Now Turkey's game does not rely to Opp at all. It is not KYK's fault that Korea can not develop good players that can help her. Playing with a players such as KYK indeed should increase the performance of attackers since the opponent block will always focus on KYK so that you will have less pressure on blocking. That's what happened to Natalia in FB last season. You clearly see that her level is not the same in NT when she doesn't have a intimidating OH like KYK :whistle:

  • I just don't get the KYK hate. She is the focal point for the Korean offense, because she is that good. I love Saori Kimura, but often times when you put the numbers side by side, KYK out passed, and spiked better with points and percentages. That surprised me and made me want to watch her more.


    She may be tired, I mean she doesn't get a ton of rest because she is one of the best players in the world for her club and her national team. All players can have off games, you just don't like it in the final.


    When the stars play well, the rest of the team is enabled (belief of winning) to support them. Opponents focus on one player, therefore the middle is more open for single blocks. When they have an off day, can the rest of the team bring enough support? In this case, I need to score to help us win because KYK is a little off today. On a team with multiple stars like Brazil, it is not hard for someone to pick up the slack. However with single star teams, it may be too difficult a task to overcome.


    The other part is game plans by teams and their opponents. Poland made good strategic choices and executed on them. They had played already twice and had video on what had worked and had not worked.

  • Zhu is all about spiking. I don't care a bit what other players say. The only one skill player I like is Kosheleva, since she brings something more in the game like passion and emotion.

  • Zhu is all about spiking. I don't care a bit what other players say. The only one skill player I like is Kosheleva, since she brings something more in the game like passion and emotion.

    You made a strong case why your opinion should be ignored :box: , your bigotry serves no purpose but to disgrace whoever you are trying to defend

  • Zhu is all about spiking. I don't care a bit what other players say. The only one skill player I like is Kosheleva, since she brings something more in the game like passion and emotion.


    I thought you liked also Hooker :whistling: She is one-skill player as well.

  • So can anyone tell me, will Poland play in group 1 next year ? (Sorry, I couldn't follow the thread in the past weeks...)


    Poland, Germany, South Korea and Argentina from group 2 :)

  • I thought you liked also Hooker :whistling: She is one-skill player as well.

    Blasphemy! To Karch-haters, she is the best player in the history of this game, by far. :lol: :gone:


  • Poland, Germany, South Korea and Argentina from group 2 :)

    But I think Germany will be placed on the elite group next year, not as one of the 4 "challengers"

  • God, I still hope this announced restructuring will turn out to be some kind of belated April Fools joke. While I'm not against expanding the format to 16 teams, everything else about it is a big mess.
    Some teams are bound to have crazy schedules, like going from Poland to Korea to Argentina back to back. Could you imagine that? :wacko: Not to mention that it's simply too long, drawn out and exhausting. I bet there will be lots of outrageous tanking and B/C teams stuff.
    I wouldn't be surprised if they started changing it in 2019 already. :rolleyes:

  • setters are the first ones to be criticized and last to be praised


    Amen to that. As I try and educate myself in watching volleyball I'm going to watch setters more. Someone here offered a nice and concise set of skills to look for: Athleticism (I may call it 'Elegance'), Precision, Deception. The first two are easier to spot and seem independent of the opposing team. That third one is trickier, and the opposing team can influence it. This is what the Poland v Korea game looked like to me: one team had figured the other one out. The Korean setters struggled with skills 1 and 2 but Poland put the clampers on any hope of them redeeming themselves with #3. (Poland looked like they were in a groove offensively as well. So ... 3-0)

  • God, I still hope this announced restructuring will turn out to be some kind of belated April Fools joke. While I'm not against expanding the format to 16 teams, everything else about it is a big mess.


    No, that's not a joke. I can't find the schedule but there were some rumors that pool with Brazil, Netherlands, Poland and other team will be played in Poland.
    And Poland is going to fight to get the '7 years spot'.


    Btw, there will be 2 groups, not 3.

  • I really can't see how it's going to work in the long run. They'll definitely have to make some adjustments in 2020 because it's the Olympic year with too much going on already. Perhaps they'll go back to the core 12 teams that year or something.


  • No, that's not a joke. I can't find the schedule but there were some rumors that pool with Brazil, Netherlands, Poland and other team will be played in Poland.
    And Poland is going to fight to get the '7 years spot'.


    Btw, there will be 2 groups, not 3.



    I found the schedule but I am not sure the source is trustworthy as it was posted on Ig. But if the first team in the column is a host that means Serbia will host 3 weeks. :D

  • The first column is not the host.
    FIVB has sent invitations for teams to host the tournaments. Poland wants to host the pool with Brazil, Netherlands and South Korea.