World Grand Prix 2009

    Big shame agianst Holland, amazing game against China and very average play and lucky win over Dominicana Rep. Very various offer by Polish players :D The game against China was the best game by Poland in last months. It was a real pleasure to watch it. And if Gajgał keeps playing on this level, Dziękiewicz may start to getting used to substitutions bench. I also liked Maj - if something happens to Zenik, she will be able to replace her ( Maj was one of the best Polish players in the last WCH, which were very bad for Poles). If we finish this year GP on the 7th place it will be a good resut, considering the squad we had to play (one more win and Poland could have been in the finals). For example last year was terrible. If I remember well, Poland won only one game in GP 2008.
    Good performance by Germany, which seems to be one of the favourites during ECH. I'm just little surprised with their defeat against Japan.

    The most important 3:
    POLAND-SZCZECIN-VOLLEYBALL


    5th place - Prediction Game - World League 2011 :D


    true. how i wish China could bring back veterans like Yang Hao, Liu Yanan, Zhang Na, and Ruirui Zhao. if they really wanted to have a very young team, what is Li Juan doing there? i do not know why but im already starting to hate the new coach of the Chinese team. Like Caprara of Russia, he wanted to change the style of Chinese women's volleyball. whereas Chinese quick plays were always one of the main reasons why a lot of teams (including Brazil and Russia) find it hard to play against them. then suddenly this Cai Bin guy has been adopting the American and European style of volley? weird. anyway, its just my opinion.

    Now that the preliminaries are over, some thoughts I have about the tournament so far:


    - Xue Ming and Thaisa are probably the world's best middle blockers right now. Both have many options in attack and are outstanding in block. Most other MBs are better in one domain than in the other, but those two are equally great blockers and spikers.
    - China and Japan: PLEASE give up backrow attacks and high balls and bring back the combinations and quick plays!!! China is using the middle blockers quite well, but they could do better with the rest of the hitters too. And Japan...just look at their statistics, the wing hitters regularly attack three times as many balls as the middles, and that is not good!
    - Russia has found a new star in Tatiana Kosheleva. In 2007 she was only a substitute, in 2008 she was not much in NT at all, she had a season with ups and downs in Zarechie, but now she is the best player of Russia. If she had played today she would be best scorer after preliminaries, and she is very high in the best spiker ranking too although she attacks much more balls than the other high ranked players. And what surprises me the most is that she played very consistently well in all matches, without any off matches.
    - Germany needs a better setter and a better attacker than Heike Beier. And a new libero, Tzscherlich is getting old...I hope Junior world champs Möllers, Petrausch and Dürr will play more important roles next year.
    - Dani Lins is a very good replacement for Fofao. Of course she doesn't yet have the "magic" that Fofao or Fernanda Venturini had, but she runs the team very well.
    - Natalia has also performed very well, it won't be easy for Paula and Jaqueline to be back in the team.
    - Russia must educate some receiving attackers!!! Urgently! The only one remaining is Safronova, and she is already 30 years old. Maybe Xenia Naumova and Viktoria Rusakova can play good roles in the future, but Russia's current reception scheme is not good.
    - I hope next year Cuba and Italy will be back, the overall level of WGP has been rather weak this year so far.
    - I hope Brazil will get a grip on themselves and stop losing concentration (and sets) in supposedly easy matches, then they should win the tournament. From rank 2-6 almost everything is possible, normally Netherlands and China should be on the podium but the other teams can always be good for surprises.

    I really don't understand why Poland had such a difficult groups. As somebody said GER and RUS had much easier groups...


    Can somebody tell me am I right :?: :


    There were six seeded teams: NED, RUS (1st and 2nd place in euro qualies); BRA and USA (were they 1st and 2nd in Pan American Cup last year or is it based on their ranking :?: ) and from Asia seeded are JPN and CHN (and this also must be taken from rankig because Japan finished after Korea in Asia Cup so if the seeding is based on Asian Cup Korea then should be seeded...
    So from this six teams 2 were in every group and the rest of the teams were just draw in the remaining spots...
    So why the European teams were seeded by Euro qualies and the others by ranking (like Japan)... :what:


    I really don't know if this is the right formula for Grand Prix :?: Because I can't find any other resonable explanation ?(

    World Grand Prix /new system: 3-0, 3-1 > 3 and 0; 3-2 > 2 and 1/:


    1.Brazil - 25 points.
    2.Holland - 23
    3.China - 21
    4.Russia - 17
    5.Germany - 16
    6.Japan - 15
    7.Poland - 12
    8.Thailand - 9
    9.USA - 9
    10.Puerto Rico - 6
    11.Dominican Rep. - 5
    12.Korea - 4


    :gone:

    The new system only applies for the World League. I wonder why.


    If the pattern of the last edition of the WGP were maintained the final round schedule will be the following:


    Day#1:


    Match #55 - BRA - RUS
    Match #56 - NED - CHN
    Match #57 - JPN - GER


    Day#2:
    Match #58 - NED -GER
    Match #59 - BRA - CHN
    Match #60 - JPN - RUS


    Day#3:
    Match #61 - BRA - NED
    Match #62 - RUS - GER
    Match #63 - JPN - CHN


    Day#4:
    Match #64 - BRA - GER
    Match #65 - CHN - RUS
    Match #66 - JPN - NED


    Day#5:
    Match #67 - NED - RUS
    Match #68 - CHN - GER
    Match #69 - JPN - BRA

    I think giving a world view...this Grand Prix was marked for to many ups and downs from the teams, to be honest I didnt like the level of it till now, but that alound some interesting and challanging games


    Brasil have many chances to win, has the strongest middles (physicly I mean), but still suffer a lot with reception.


    Netherland was coming really well making a lot of changes to rest their players, but didnt have a good last game today. But I think is the team with biggest possibilities to take this title from Brasil.


    China and Russia are always teams that can grow in a final round, although had to many ups and downs during the championship.


    Germany is doing a good work, impressed me for sure. They have a young but very hard working team. They fight all points. But still make some mistakes, specially with ball control I think, some balls that are easy in their hands and they loose some chances of making points. I can imagine if Grün were playing with them!!!! :box:
    But I think they can surprise.


    Japan will be at home, but, dont know, I dont think they will play strong enough to win the other teams..but lets wait.


    For those that didnt quali, well Poland started bad the championship, that lost to Thailand at home may have take their chances to quali next round, but the team definelty grow at the end of the competition. I think they used very well the Grand Prix as a preparation for the European Championship.


    I'm a bit disapoited with Dominican Republic, I think they could have made a better campain.



    BUT NOW WILL START FINAL ROUND..I THINK WE CAN HAVE SOME GREAT GAMES!!! :super:

    I think that this year should be that:


    Ranking FIVB:


    Brazil
    USA
    China
    Japan
    Russia
    Poland
    Korea
    Germany
    Dominican Rep.
    Holland
    Thailand
    Puerto Rico


    I week:


    Brazil
    Japan
    Korea
    Holland


    USA
    Russia
    Germany
    Thailand


    China
    Poland
    Dominican Rep.
    Puerto Rico


    II week:


    Brazil
    USA
    Thailand
    Puerto Rico


    China
    Japan
    Dominican Rep.
    Holland


    Russia
    Poland
    Korea
    Germany


    III week:


    Brazil
    China
    Holland
    Puerto Rico


    USA
    Japan
    Poland
    Germany


    Russia
    Korea
    Dominican Rep.
    Thailand


    :gone:


    The actual match schedule of this year's WGP is the following:


    Day#1:
    Match #55 - NED - CHN
    Match #56 - BRA - RUS
    Match #57 - JPN - GER


    Day#2:
    Match #58 - NED -GER
    Match #59 - BRA - CHN
    Match #60 - JPN - RUS


    Day#3:
    Match #65 - CHN - RUS
    Match #64 - BRA - GER
    Match #66 - JPN - NED


    Day#4:
    Match #61 - RUS - GER
    Match #62 - BRA - NED
    Match #63 - JPN - CHN



    Day#5:
    Match #67 - CHN - GER
    Match #68 - NED - RUS
    Match #69 - JPN - BRA

    I thought the groups were chosen by draw... and now I think it isn't (after this year's GP), after all there sooo many "coincidences" about the group formation :lol: . Don't forget that in Brazilian's pool there was three teams from America and only one from Europe (I thought it was going to be something like "BRA-USA-PUR-DOM"... and it was almost it!)


    Maybe they just pick the groups based on other things... being "home distance" (or maybe $$$ ?) one of them, for example.

    Quote from LothiePG

    I thought the groups were chosen by draw... and now I think it isn't (after this year's GP), after all there sooo many "coincidences" about the group formation :lol: . Don't forget that in Brazilian's pool there was three teams from America and only one from Europe (I thought it was going to be something like "BRA-USA-PUR-DOM"... and it was almost it!)


    Maybe they just pick the groups based on other things... being "home distance" (or maybe $$$ ?) one of them, for example.

    Yeah but shouldn't there be written formula somwhere on FIVB site. Some regulationsabout the drawing :?:

    One more thing I want to know is how FIVB manage to choose each team to participate each pool.


    For example,Brazilian've never come to Thailand's pool .Though I want to watch them playing so much.

    Quote from Rafalowski

    Yeah but shouldn't there be written formula somwhere on FIVB site. Some regulationsabout the drawing :?:

    Well, I think it should...
    In fact, I never really looked for it on the site, because it is very confuse and I don't have patience! But it should be there. Unless there are no rules at all :lol:

    when the groups were chosen nobody knew that USA would come to gp with te team B...so, if they had come with the team "A" Germany would has 3 great opponents Brasil (2X) USA(2X) Netherlands(1X)....so whe can't say that the Germany was in the most weak group..And still had Dominican that played very badly in this gp....So we can't say what group is strong and what is weak in the beginning of the competition

    Quote from B. Moreira

    when the groups were chosen nobody knew that USA would come to gp with te team B...so, if they had come with the team "A" Germany would has 3 great opponents Brasil (2X) USA(2X) Netherlands(1X)....so whe can't say that the Germany was in the most weak group..And still had Dominican that played very badly in this gp....So we can't say what group is strong and what is weak in the beginning of the competition

    I honestly expected that from USA. They did the same thing 4 years ago, because it is a great opportunity to test players, especially when you don't have a professional league at your own country. Also, most veterans take this time to rest or recover from injuries, because playing many years non-stop makes you need to stop at one point.


    Most teams aren't playing with their main players, which was expected and probably for the same reason USA didn't take their main team to the WGP.


    And I don't think that being in a hard group is a problem, even if they didn't classify they did good matches and also got more experience.

    I think Grand Prix should be just like is World LEague!!!I dont understand why the championships has different formulas!


    I mean...would aloud to have more female teams playing, and they would be playing all over the World, so, would be better to spread female volleyball, is less tiring for the players, since they have more time between weeks and for travelling, they play at home, and also, in male competition the final prize is much bigger then female!!!I really dont get that!!!


    For me...both should be the same!!! Is tiring the Grand Prix always in Asia! I think would be good for female if they played different places as the male do!

    Quote from jayverns

    true. how i wish China could bring back veterans like Yang Hao, Liu Yanan, Zhang Na, and Ruirui Zhao. if they really wanted to have a very young team, what is Li Juan doing there? i do not know why but im already starting to hate the new coach of the Chinese team. Like Caprara of Russia, he wanted to change the style of Chinese women's volleyball. whereas Chinese quick plays were always one of the main reasons why a lot of teams (including Brazil and Russia) find it hard to play against them. then suddenly this Cai Bin guy has been adopting the American and European style of volley? weird. anyway, its just my opinion.


    I dont know about Yang Hao, by the time she left the team she had lost a lot of her level of play. I remember watching her playing for Perugia after the Olympic year and she wasnt very good there. Even during the olympics she wasnty playing well at all. I like the young hui, she looks very good and she is very tall, although reception and defence are a bit weak, but she is only 17. I think thee greatest loss for china has been Zhou Suhong, and then Zhang Na the libero. If you look at the indidvidual best player categories, china feature in attack, and is nowhere in defence and reception!! This has NEVER happened as far as i can recall. They have moved form halways having the best defender and passer, to not even appearing on the list!!! They also now have a very weak rotation when the opposite is in the front court, because noone attacks quick slide like Zhou Suhong anymore.



    i know what you mean about Li Juan, i dont know why she is there at all!! I hear Laing Ping is forming a new team in china wiht Zhou, Feng, Zhao, etc - so if Zhou is available, why isnt she being asked ot join the team??????




    anyway.....we shall see!



    I think china will struggle in the final round. It will be a big test. THey dont seem to be able to have many different game plans at the minute and wiht the poor reception.....i dont know!! I am also hating

    eh Japan :down: unfortunatly i haven't seen the game(college started today :whistle: ) . i excpected Japan will win that one ;/ and it seems that Russia is finally in shape(judging by result with Brasil) so it will be very hard for Asian to win even a one match ;/


    eh and all my hopes of good result disapear when i saw that results ;(


    Anyone can support a team that is winning - it takes no courage. But to
    stand behind a team to defend a team when it is down and really needs
    you, that takes a lot of courage.