Situations like this is where we (are going to) miss Brakočević. I wonder if she'll ever get resigned to a limited role on the team. It would be fantastic, but I somehow doubt it...
And Malagurski too.
2015 European Championships - Netherlands and Belgium
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What???? Bujis second best OH ????????
Trust me, this Holland will not be the same in Ankara! You can't win with two players, yes Russia can, but that is Kosheleva and Goncharova! You have to play with your MBs if you want to be good team. It is easy for good blocking team to block two players...
And they will not have home crowd
...and they were amazing, bravo Holland fans 
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For me, the positive surprises were Germany who once again showed that a team is more than sum of its parts, Belarus with some interesing and yet relatively unknown players and Hungary who were just happy to be there and yet managed to take it a step further.
The negatives were Bulgaria - the same reason as Germany, just in the opposite direction, Czech Republic with very boring and uninspired performance, Azerbaijan who once again showed that they are a team without any vision and structure. Maybe you can count Belgium in too, but it's probably a case of finding your real level after several years of upwards trend.
And there are teams like Romania that simply are going nowhere and sinking deeper despite having strong players and relative success in the past. -
Awards are ridiculous as always...
My team:
Ognjenovic - Goncharova
Rasic - De Kruijf (so that Ned gets an Award, else Zaryazhko)
Kosheleva - Malesevic (or Mihajlovic still better than Buijs)
MalovaIn my opinion you should only consider the important matches to decide who gets the awards. For Russia that was Ned and Ser, for Ned the games agains Ita, Tur, Rus. It really doesn't matter much how good they played against weak teams...
Compare to the Russian and Serbian players the Dutch attackers are not much more than average. -
Germany is for me the biggest surprise because they showed good performance not like before in this year.
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Well Russia swept Holland from the court clearly today. Maybe there is not so big difference between both teams, but what it was in the air before the match was unrealistic. The path of both teams to the final was so unbalanced, Holland winning a Poland exhausted after a long match against Belarus and without Werblinska, and Turkey with the disappointing level that this team showed in this ECH. And Russia winning two strongs teams as Serbia and Italia.
Today Russia not only was way better in aspects of the game where we expect they are gonna be better but in key aspects for Holland as reception and defense.
Goncharova had during the tournament ups and downs but we have to see that it was a long national team season for her, she showed a high level in grand prix finals and a good level in world cup with some falls in her performance. But it's normal, three months in a top level is a very tough thing to achieve.
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Congratulations to Russia. Superb performance.
They destroyed Dutch team in all elements today. I can't believe my eyes, seeing Russia defending like today
About Dutch team: today they got destroyed. But, during the tournament they showed a great performance.
I don't understand some reactions...it seems a few users hardly can say a positive note about our team.
Do you remember Dutch team only one year ago at WCH in Italy?? That disastrous level was the start of the summer, only 5 months ago.
In only one summer, Guidetti transformed a disastrous team into what we have seen this tournament.
The difference 2014 < ---> 2015 is almost incredible. All players improved their level significantly !!
It is impossible to bridge in one year the huge gap to teams like Russia and Serbia. These teams are still much ahead of Dutch team. I myself never thought Dutch team to be serious opponent for Russia/Serbia in the final.
But let me say this: let Guidetti work for some years with this group and I'm confident this team could reach stable position in top 5 in Europe. (the potentially best hitter for the near future, Plak, is still substitute).
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Ned 's award shouldn't have been from Buijs but Stam.. She was the best libero overall
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What???? Bujis second best OH ????????
Trust me, this Holland will not be the same in Ankara! You can't win with two players, yes Russia can, but that is Kosheleva and Goncharova! You have to play with your MBs if you want to be good team. It is easy for good blocking team to block two players...
And they will not have home crowd ...and they were amazing, bravo Holland fans When will you stop repeating that Dikema should have used MBs more? If she had good reception she would do it. We all know what it should be done to make your wings score easier
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The question is whether or not Guidetti will get confirmed as a coach if the Dutch NT doesn't make it to Rio. Knowing the level of idiocy and incompetence in modern Dutch volleyball federation, I wouldn't be surprised to see him leave right after a disastrous OQT.
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The question is whether or not Guidetti will get confirmed as a coach if the Dutch NT doesn't make it to Rio. Knowing the level of idiocy and incompetence in modern Dutch volleyball federation, I wouldn't be surprised to see him leave right after a disastrous OQT.
What does make you think that Guidetti will not be confirmed after non-qualification for Rio?
Details please, because you seem to know a lot about the people in charge at our federation?
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When will you stop repeating that Dikema should have used MBs more? If she had good reception she would do it. We all know what it should be done to make your wings score easier
You didn't watch game against Turkey or you just want to replay my post ??
She doesn't use mbs even when they have good reception it is that hard to understand or ? -
What does make you think that Guidetti will not be confirmed after non-qualification for Rio?
Details please, because you seem to know a lot about the people in charge at our federation?
The Netherlands is a country of tall people, aka virtually no problem in finding tall players, a long tradition of volleyball and the holding Olympic champions in 1996. They could have easily remained in the gotha of volleyball powers, even not as a major team.
What do we have left of this? A men's national team of players that hate each other and their coaches that collapsed to the point of unable to qualify for the ECH. Men's volleyball is dead. This while Belgium, Finland and several other countries with ZERO volleyball tradition have risen.
Women's team was carefully demolished from the inside, just look at any video of the first days of Guidetti at work and you'll see that the previous coach had absolutely no clue on what the hell he was doing, technically and strategically. Now they put a good (just good, not great) coach and the results are already starting to get back.
I have no doubt that if they don't qualify to Rio, some idiot with lot of influence and a big ego will start complaining and replace Guidetti with another incompetent coach that will put them back on the same level of the men's team.
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A big applaud to Russia! Today's games are as I exactly wrote yesterday. Serbia & Russia are far ahead of other teams in Europe right now.
Coming back to Russia playing a boring game which is repeated a million times here, Netherlands played also a boring game, relying only on Buijs & Slöetjes. Did you see a game where Robin was the top scorer, no. And if you will tell me that its about receiving, how the hell do you expect Russian setter to play with middles when they are receiving with only two players???? You guys are lacking objectivity here.
Btw noone criticized him but why did not Guidetti take a precaution against Kosheleva and Obmachaeva duo? It's so simple, they will get %90 of the balls. I saw that Dutch girls made very good double blocks, but why the hell their defense was waiting so far in when Kosheleva hits over the block, long, close to 9 meter? On the other side, Marichev simply resolved Netherlands well, they served great and with that Dijkema kept setting to Buijs & Slöetjes and Russia stopped them with triple blocks. Guidetti should have been better prepared for this final.
The only team that could play a game, fairly with more variation was Serbia because they had better receiving and great attacking middles.
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Ned 's award shouldn't have been from Buijs but Stam.. She was the best libero overall
With her performance today it was hard getting her that prize... the russian serves showed her up
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I'm so sorry I lost both matches today.
Watching the score from the final, probably Netherlands collapsed under pressure. Just guessing...
I'm really happy for Kosheleva on the other side. She is the best european player so far. So dominant. Without her Russia would be lost.
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Btw, looking to OQ in Ankara, I'm really curious of Guidetti's choices in Vakifbank since Robin, Slöetjes and Buijs are all players of Vakifbank. If she plays with Hill, Rasic and Sheilla; then Dutch players will lack match condition for the olympics qualification, but if she plays with them, Vakifbank might be harmed as well. It will be a dilemma and a though decision for him choosing between Vakifbank and the dutch NT.
I'm glad Eda got an award, not that she deserved it but considering she skipped NT for 2 years and got an award in the first tournament she is back, I hope she is more motivated now to play!
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Btw noone criticized him but why did not Guidetti take a precaution against Kosheleva and Obmachaeva duo? It's so simple, they will get %90 of the balls. I saw that Dutch girls made very good double blocks, but why the hell their defense was waiting so far in when Kosheleva hits over the block, long, close to 9 meter? On the other side, Marichev simply resolved Netherlands well, they served great and with that Dijkema kept setting to Buijs & Slöetjes and Russia stopped them with triple blocks. Guidetti should have been better prepared for this final.
You really like blaming coaches don't you?
You can make a million video analyses and tactical schemes, actually PLAYING against Kosheleva and Goncharova is something you can't prepare. They are exceptionally skilled players who play not only with power but also with intelligence and vision. Many times in the final they played balls that showed they see exactly the holes in Dutch defense. And when they play like today, no preparation in the world can stop them, not with the player material Dutch NT has available.
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You really like blaming coaches don't you?
You can make a million video analyses and tactical schemes, actually PLAYING against Kosheleva and Goncharova is something you can't prepare. They are exceptionally skilled players who play not only with power but also with intelligence and vision. Many times in the final they played balls that showed they see exactly the holes in Dutch defense. And when they play like today, no preparation in the world can stop them, not with the player material Dutch NT has available.
And you really like claiming Russia of having a boring game, Guidetti being a god, many more. I'm telling what I see and I love Guidetti as a coach and you know that very well. But today, he could make his team more ready than this. Seriously, what did Netherlands do to stop Kosha-Goncha duo? Nothing!
I know Turkish girls stopped this duo, I think last year in WGP and actually with Guldeniz-Gözde duo playing as OH. I expected a much better defense-block thing from Dutch team.
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Turkish players regularly play against Kosheleva and Goncharova in NT and also in club tournaments, Dutch players meet them once a year at best. That is a big difference. I'm sure Dutch players tried as hard as they could to stop them, but if it were so easy to stop them they wouldn't be world class players because that's what sets them apart from other players.