FIVB Women's U18 World Championship - Argentina

  • Wow, German girls surprisingly reach quarterfinals after their 4th consecutive tie-break match :white: OH Emma Cyris with 31 pts and over 50% in attack :super:


    That was really good, again with great fighting spirit, but this will not suffice against Turkey, one of the top favorites of the competition. Anyway, a place in the range of 5 to 8 is nothing we are allowed to complain about :) .

  • So far in the tournament, Italy's Elena Pietrini is proving that she will be a remarkable OH in the future. One of the bests both in receiving and attacking :super:

  • So far in the tournament, Italy's Elena Pietrini is proving that she will be a remarkable OH in the future. One of the bests both in receiving and attacking :super:


    It is not fair! Italy has already many young talents that can play 2032 OG :white: :rolll:

  • So far in the tournament, Italy's Elena Pietrini is proving that she will be a remarkable OH in the future. One of the bests both in receiving and attacking


    Yes, I haven't had the opportunities to watch her playing yet in this tournament, but she is considered to be one of our best promises and I believe she may make it to Tokyo, especially because we need attacking OH (if we don't switch Egonu; and the quality of Pietrini may be a reason not to do that...).


    Next year she will finally play in Club Italia, but unfortunately this year it will be in A2 while imho she would have deserved a chance in A1 as Egonu, Orro or Piani at her age.
    Anyway, it's probably better for her to be titular in A2, and in a team which is mainly committed to make young girls improve, than on the bench on a A1 team. Even if in a small team she could have made it to the court...


    Still, we need to remember that being top in the juniores doesn't necessarily mean being top in the seniors, but I'm really crossing my fingers about her. Both because I like her and because we need a player like her in the NT (more than a MB as Lubian, for example, or an opposite as Enweonwu).


  • Yes, I haven't had the opportunities to watch her playing yet in this tournament, but she is considered to be one of our best promises and I believe she may make it to Tokyo, especially because we need attacking OH (if we don't switch Egonu; and the quality of Pietrini may be a reason not to do that...).


    Next year she will finally play in Club Italia, but unfortunately this year it will be in A2 while imho she would have deserved a chance in A1 as Egonu, Orro or Piani at her age.
    Anyway, it's probably better for her to be titular in A2, and in a team which is mainly committed to make young girls improve, than on the bench on a A1 team. Even if in a small team she could have made it to the court...


    Still, we need to remember that being top in the juniores doesn't necessarily mean being top in the seniors, but I'm really crossing my fingers about her. Both because I like her and because we need a player like her in the NT (more than a MB as Lubian, for example, or an opposite as Enweonwu).


    How about liberos? This position has always been the strongest side of Italy. What do you think liberos from young generations?

  • I'm sorry, I don't know very well the juniores liberos!


    Among the young-but-not-so-young we have Parrocchiale (1995), Spirito (1994), Zannoni (1998), De Bortoli (1997) who are quite good/promising. I read great things about Zannoni but I haven't watch her play very much...


    The first two will stay in Firenze and Busto as titular; Zannoni is unfortunately stay as second libero in Novara, De Bortoli will stay in Club Italia but this year in A2.

  • I`m surprised Batista is just a bench for this team. I would think she would be a starter once she even got some playing time with Bergamo. but I guess is a "good" thing once there`s even more girls "better" than her at the moment.

  • Watching the JPN v SER match. When one of the Japanese girls serves an ace they all group up, hop once, and do a two-handed point toward their bench. Pretty cute. Way more sass, more life than I've ever seen from Japan.

  • Japan player #1 was clearly unhappy about the outcome of the match against Russia. #5 didn't take it well either. Poor girls. Ya win some and ya lose some. Russia's OH was crushing.

  • Italy and Turkey won in straight sets, it's gonna be (I hope) an interesting semifinal! I read Turkey is very strong and complete and should be considered as favorite, let's hope we can manage the match ;)


    Vs Perù we won quite easily too but our game wasn't as flawless as vs USA, imho, and we also served way better (14 aces vs the 2 we did with Perù!), but I read Mencarelli was the one to ask the girls to be conservative on serve vs Perù, so I hope that's the main reason for this difference.


    Congrats to Russia and Rep.Dom too! But it would have been nice to see Argentina in the semi, the hall is really crowd!
    But it's just my impression or there are two games in the same moment in Rosario? On the live streaming I also heard referee whistles and exultation not coordinate with what I'm watching.. O.o

  • Italy and Turkey are both playing really well and are undefeated. This should be a good one.
    Turkey and Russia final 4 U20 and U18, this shows how much talent Turkey has, and show the problem on their development is ( as we all know) when they turn pro.


    Russia and D.Republic should be interesting and is nice to them D.Rep in the semi-final.


    I see Russia as favorites to win it all, they have Gamova on the bench :box: I already see it, Gomva is working her way up to become head coach of the senior team.

  • UMBELIEVABLE!!!!!!! OMG I'm so thrilled, I'm like desperately crying, I can't believe we won after being behind 18-24!!!! :dance6: :dance6: :dance4: :dance4: :woohoo: :woohoo:



    Such a tough match for us: even if in the first and in the 4th set we played better at the very beginning, we always (in all the 4 sets!) found ourself chasing Turkey that seemed in control, and every set more in control than the set before!
    And every time, patently, not losing faith despite being behind, we managed to reach Turkey and even pass them in the most important moments!


    After being 2 sets ahed I knew the match wasn't over yet AT ALL, but when we managed to come back after losing 18-12 I was really feeling we could close the match in the third set (in fact we had 3 match points, and 2 very very close to be scored).
    When we found ourselves AGAIN losing 18-12 in the 4th I was still believing we could win it, but not even in my dream I would have thought we could do that at 18-24! 8o I'm so delighted!



    I wanna compliments with Turkey for the tough opponents they were, and especially with my amazing girls; Morello, Lubian and Pietrini are my top three (I think before the 4th set Turkey digged Pietrini only twice, and only once effectively!); also the bench was always handy when called in: Peruzzi and Tanase in to serve, and they scored an ace (and both did that both times, if I'm not wrong!); Kone in for Fahr, and she scored the only ball she was given and did a massive block after a fight point during Italy come back in the 4th.
    Hearts for everybody :heart: :heart: :heart:

  • What a nice upset, Dominican Republic will be playing for Gold.


    It's really hard to believe: the DomRep played all but sensational in the group phase, but kind of exploded in the ko phase, and eliminated top favorite Russia in just three sets. That is an unexpected and interesting final against Italy, despite the last are favorites, nothing is sure...

  • Wow, congrats Rep Dom! A 3-0 victory is definitely a surprise (as they said themselves)!



    BTW, Italian declarations about Turkey:


    Mencarelli (coach):

    Quote

    We played against a very strong team as Turkey


    Lubian:

    Quote

    It was a very difficult game against a great opponent who deserved to be at this match, the same way we deserved it


    Turkey's coach declaration about Italy:

    Quote

    Italy didn’t win because they are better than us, they won because we did a lot of simple mistakes


    Thanks for the credits :thumbdown: (to be clear, may be it's true, but imho the congratulations for the winning opponents are a must-do when deserved!)
    And notice that we did 32 errors, Turkey 25. And 2 of our mistakes were on our 3 match points of the third set, like they did 3 mistakes on theirs 6 set points of the 4th.



    Ps Pietrini spiked with 64% :white:

  • Although I do think Italy deserved to win I can also see where the Turkish coach comes from. I mean Italy could have made more errors overall ( btw mistakes and errors are not the same thing, horrible sets are not errors f.e.) Turkey was the one who couldn't close a set after being 18-24 Up! That's something very unusual so the coach will be very angry of course. I think he means that match should have gone to a tb at least and I agree with him. Match was merely gone because of scoreboard pressure rather then Italy being amazing in the final set at least. Regardless Italy is a deserving finalist imo since they were overall a bit better and played a more stable game. I really liked one of Italian MBs a lot but can't remember her name anymore. Turkey in the other hand seems to have found a pretty good Opp prospect finally.

  • Turkish OPP is a good player but a badly behaved girl. She got a red card (deservedly!) for a totally stupid "celebration" (see here at 2:02:45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAraVzy8Yn8 ), and towards the end of the set she kicked the ball in the direction of Italian players after not being able to defend. Obviously the referee didn't see that, otherwise he should have sent her off the court because it was in the same set as the red card and IMO worth another punishment :down:


    I really don't like it when players at that age show such behavior. It's good to play with emotions, but respect towards the opponent must never be lost!