FIVB VNL Challenger Cup

  • It is Colombia, not Columbia. It is a common mistake. Columbia is the name of a river between USA and Canada and many cities in the States.
    Colombia is the southamerican country :thumbup:


    You are right, this is worsened by the fact, that in German this country is called Kolumbien with 'u' - maximum confusion guaranteed.

  • Now the semis are clear: after three set wins Bulgaria (against Puerto Rico) and Peru (against Hungary) cleared the remaining berth and order.


    Bulgaria vs. Peru
    Colombia vs. Puerto Rico


    Bulgaria seems to be the favourite not only in the semi, the other semi Puerto Rico vs. Colombia might be more interesting.

  • This Puerto Rico team seems very weak unfortunately. No reception, no power in attack.


    Colombia leading 2-1 in the semi right now.

  • thanks, saishuu, right now there's nothing streaming... just a black screen....

    Yeah, both games aired earlier tonight. Both games tomorrow (final and 3rd place) should be broadcast tomorrow too. Same goes for the men's tournament.

  • The big final for a berth in the VNL is now Bulgaria vs. Colombia. Since Bulgaria was very strong so far (lost no set so far in this tournament), they are still the favourites, despite Colombia was in the other pool and they didn't play each other so far.

  • Why is Leyva not in the roster of Peru? With her, Peru played decent matches before :teach:


    Also Greta and Renata are not in Hungarian roster? :white:

  • It is quite strange because Hungary isnt playing with the same roster which won the Golde League some weeks ago. Bulgaria is also missing some key players and Peru too.
    I read Kazakhstan was replaced by Australia because some kazakh players didnt get the visa. So, FIVB called Australia ($$$) :whistle:

  • I have a feeling a lot of teams in this lower division didn't take this competition seriously.


    But you also have to wonder just how worthwhile taking part in the VNL would be for a lot of these 2nd/3rd-tier teams. It's five weeks of constant travelling around the world, which is costly and probably a big logistical difficulty for federations that are underfunded and inexperienced at planning on this level. And all that when your player pool is already limited and you cannot accommodate the almost certain injury and fatigue issues; the public interest at home is already low and losing almost all the matches to much stronger teams would certainly not help it... I can see why many teams would want to stay out of it.

  • I see your point Joana. Teams like Hungary, Peru, Puerto Rico rely on only a few players and clearly they can not survive ın a competition for 5 weeks in a row :hit: Bulgaria will be a good asset to VNL next year assuming Vasileva, Rabadzhieva and Nikolova will all play there

  • I just tuned in. Don't know anything about it but that I've read here Bulgaria is the favorite?

  • funny, saishuu, 'cause i was just watching COL x PUR when i checked the board and saw your message... i don't know some of these BUL, i only remember kitipova, gergana, nasya and ruseva... the others are new to me. karakasheva's movements remind me of emilya nikolova, except she's a rightie... [i can't keep track of all the BUL names after they get married or divorced... ]


    i love amanda coneo. always thought she had a great future from the moment i saw her for the first time in the GP about 2 years ago.

  • I think both Colombian OHs (Coneo and Margarita?) are actually surprisingly good! Rizola is cracking me up in some timeouts too. In the second set, when Colombia started to choke, he said "don't come to me with these stank faces! my stank face is worse than all of yours!" :lol:


    As for Bulgaria, I don't even think this group of players is doing anything special. Rabadzhieva, Vasileva and Nikolova are definitely missed.