2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League

  • Brankica Mihajlović has been dealing with a knee injury for the last two weeks and it got worse in the match against Turkey. She's stayed in Belgrade to do some additional medical check-ups and get some more therapy and will be travelling to the Netherlands tomorrow. She'll be with the team, but it's not sure how much she'll play.

  • Korea still has a chance for a spot in the f6..seems they want to push for it till the end..i see it that way..(KYK's coming back to the team)


    Japan match will be tough and crucial for Turkey..they beat Italy's almost-team A..when they feel the game you have to show your best to beat them.Turkey is not a team that Japan couldnt beat..playing defense persistently could easily cause the inexperienced or inadequately-experienced players to make unforced errors more than its been so far.


    Thailand hasnt been playing well..Turkey could beat team as long as they dont make a serious change in their game


    i thought Turkey could beat Korea but now KYK is back..if Turkey makes more mistakes than expected/average then the match might progress in an undesirable direction, after,anything could happen

  • sitenoise, are you sure you have seen kwiek reducing his players to tears? i have never seen kwiek being an ass****e. maybe you are thinking of his assistant wagner pacheco, who coached the under-23 or under-21 teams, and who was a total dick, screaming at teenage girls like they committed murder?


    karpol was insane but he always said he never cursed his players personally.


    as for the fights involving cubans, you don't know the beginning of it. i have seen video of the cubans physically attacking a brazilian (male) assistant coach (maybe in the GP). also in the GP, two cubans got into a fistfight on the bench (maybe calderon and another girl?). those were the days...


    terzic is a funny guy, but i haven't seen him be a total dick yet.

  • as for the fights involving cubans, you don't know the beginning of it. i have seen video of the cubans physically attacking a brazilian (male) assistant coach (maybe in the GP). also in the GP, two cubans got into a fistfight on the bench (maybe calderon and another girl?). those were the days...

    I think it was Ramirez? Might be wrong tho.

  • I think it was Ramirez? Might be wrong tho.



    It was Ramirez vs Calderon -cant remember which WGP, but during the time when Italy was so dominant with Aguerro...

  • It was Ramirez vs Calderon -cant remember which WGP, but during the time when Italy was so dominant with Aguerro...



    GP 2008 in which Cuba was silver (lost to Brazil) and Italy was bronze.

  • about the first matches on Day 1,there are some nice matchups :


    Russia - Usa : Usa wins. could Russia win? why not ? but would be a surprising result


    Japan - Turkey : i expect a tough battle. id like Turkey to win :D


    Thailand - Korea : im confused. Both teams havent been playing well.its Thailand's home court, also KYK plays for the Korean team.i cant make a guess on Which team wins ?


    China - Brazil : considering both team's perf. so far Brazil is supposed to win it but China is getting closer to playing with its A-team (Yuan is last added to the team ).im sure They will play/try to play better than what they did play in the week 3. So It could be tougher


    Italy - Serbia : a nice match is in front of us. It could be tough considering Mihajlovic's current injury.which one do you think wins ?


    Germany - Belgium : seems to be a nice match. Germany could win in the end.


    Netherlands - Dominican Republic : Dutch team wins


    Poland - Argentina : Poland wins


  • terzic is a funny guy, but i haven't seen him be a total dick yet.


    There was this one time. WCh '06, Serbia vs Korea. It was a relatively uneventful match, smooth sailing for Serbia, leading all the way without much fuss. At a technical time-out Terzić just tells them to keep their focus, keep pounding the ball away like they're doing and don't try to be cute. RIght next point, Nikolić gets a perfect set, but for some reason she decides to tip the ball instead of spiking. To make things worse, her tip goes out. Terzić immediately calls a time-out and what follows is probably the most hilarious/disturbing scene featuring Serbian NT I've ever seen. He lashed out at Nikolić, but he was so mad that he couldn't even talk properly and instead kinda... hissed at her, all the while literally shaking with fury and having crazy eyes. For a moment it looked like he was going to slap her. But fortunately it didn't have any effect on the rest of the match and Serbia won easily.
    And when Nikolić ended her NT career, she called Terzić the greatest coach she had ever worked with and the main reason why she became a top player.

  • i did not know balkan people are super tall. i knew the dutch were officially the tallest people on earth, but not balkans.


    actually i think it's not official because there's not reliable stats on that, but south sudanese have got to be the tallest people on earth. have you seen them and how long their limbs are? if they were not such a poor country, they'd be world champions in volleyball and basketball, no competition! well, if it all depended on height...

  • Japan match will be tough and crucial for Turkey..they beat Italy's almost-team A


    Japan Fanboy here :roll:


    Japan beat Italy without Erika Araki, Sarina Koga, Miyu Nagaoka, Yuri Nabeya, (or Haruka Miyashita).


    I understand most people here don't follow/care much about Japan, or have a strong notion of who their "A Team" is, but it's why I like them and why I've said: If you can only win with a special 6 or 7 players--You don't have a team.

  • sitenoise, are you sure you have seen kwiek reducing his players to tears?


    Yes, although I don't know his name. It might have been at Rio, or the Quals. I remember thinking: "Half of those girls could beat the crap out of that guy" :D


    btw - I'm familiar with the dude who commentated the 2016 Qualification tournament. Painful.


  • Japan Fanboy here :roll:


    Japan beat Italy without Erika Araki, Sarina Koga, Miyu Nagaoka, Yuri Nabeya, (or Haruka Miyashita).


    I understand most people here don't follow/care much about Japan, or have a strong notion of who their "A Team" is, but it's why I like them and why I've said: If you can only win with a special 6 or 7 players--You don't have a team.


    wait, she is still on the team? i love seeing her play. will she be playing on VNL?

  • wait, she is still on the team? i love seeing her play. will she be playing on VNL?


    Nabeya and Miyashita have minor injuries and are not on the 18 member VNL roster.

  • Haruka Miyashita is one of the reasons I latched onto he Japanese team. I think she's one of the best floor defenders in the world. And she's the freaking setter! If you GoogleTube "Japan Legendary Masters of Defense" (or something like that) you get a bunch of videos of Miyashita


    I miss her terribly. I love me some defense