Congratulations to Russia. A bronze medal is nothing to be ashamed of.
2008 Beijing Olympic Volleyball Tournament
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USA wins the Olympic GOLD!!!!!USA - Brazil
20 - 25
25 - 22
25 - 21
25 - 23 -
GOLD FOR THE US MEN!!!
It was an amazing game. Both teams played wonderfully.
Though it has a lot of service errors but the rallies are simply spectacular!
Brazil's blocks are amazing and so is their defense.
What a sweet revenge with the women's loss last night.
It was nice to see Lloy Ball end his career with this GOLD. Truly, they deserve it.
FOR MY MVP:
Clayton Stanley is the man
Finally, I saw Clayton show some emotions (as he was quite for most of their games in Beijing).
EDIT:
The men offered this victory to Coach Mccutcheon and his family. Hugh, as previously announced, will be taking months off from coaching to concentrate with his family.
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Gottlib, I really don't understand what you mean by giving Spain as an an example, may be you mean 47 millions is the same as 7 millions???
About the good russian attitude towards the bulgarians - you said it yourself bulgarian players playED in Russia. You know very well why they don't play there anymore.
If you say that Matej Kazijski was the best player for the bulgarian team in Beijing (I wish this was true) but it means that you watched some other games.
As for the setter who doesn't need to be blocker. Come on! Show me one coach who will give up on a setter with such a block. It doesn't matter whether the killing block is made by the setter or the MB. It's still a point. Besides the opponent is expecting a good block by the MBs so their setter always trys to put his players against the "weakest" man on the net - the opponent setter. And if that guy makes a good block, that's a hudgde advantage.
You may be mistaken me for some other bulgarians who say their team is the best. I don't. But I try to be positive. If I wanted to be negative it was the easiest thing to prove you that may be Zhekov is not the best, but there is one even weaker setter... -
Nice match,a new world champion
Go,Go ,Stanley,great serves!
I hope he will get the honor of MVP -
Finally we have a new team as the number one in the world. The US team improved so much, and the level they show is just impressive.
Loiy Ball and Stanley are very cold and amazing players. Nothing to say I guess. The best team has won.
Who is retiring for sure from both teams? Does anyone know?
I noticed the Russian players were happy in the podium. Although I was not hoping for the bronze before the OG, that made me content. We have a fine future ahead, I am sure.
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Who is retiring for sure from both teams? Does anyone know?FOR THE US TEAM:
Ball, Hoff ---> not joining next olympics. For some obvious reasons
Guys like Gardner, Salmon and Lambourne will be in their mid-30's in London...But now that they won the Gold, they might still play in London.
Priddy, Lee, Millar, Stanley, Rooney, Hansen, Touzinsky will form the core in London.
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Display MoreFOR THE US TEAM:
Ball, Hoff ---> not joining next olympics. For some obvious reasons
Guys like Gardner, Salmon and Lambourne will be in their mid-30's in London...But now that they won the Gold, they might still play in London.
Priddy, Lee, Millar, Stanley, Rooney, Hansen, Touzinsky will form the core in London.
So you will still be a strong team. It's like Brazil, without Ricardo it is not the same, but it still competed in high performance against all top teams in the world. Unless your new setter totally sucks, that is.
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[ Unless your new setter totally sucks, that is.
I know what you mean. I hope Hansen improves. He has 4 years to improve.
It'll be a tough task to follow the amazing setting by Lloy Ball.I think Brazil will still be strong. Though i understand that Heller, Gustavo, Giba, Anderson plus their libero might retire.
But im looking on Russia as the best team in the coming years.
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I know what you mean. I hope Hansen improves. He has 4 years to improve.
It'll be a tough task to follow the amazing setting by Lloy Ball.I think Brazil will still be strong. Though i understand that Heller, Gustavo, Giba, Anderson plus their libero might retire.
But im looking on Russia as the best team in the coming years.
I was only assuming about your new setter. I didn't even know his name, so I wasn't implying he is bad, but it seems to be you don't like him much?
As for Brazil, I think they didn't bring in new talents for the last few years, so depending on how things go, I think they are going to have some problems. Anderson won't make any difference, but if Gustavo and Sergio retire, I see a difficult road ahead of Brazil. As for Giba, I never thought he was the best player in the world, like he is considered, but he is definetely a good player, and will be missed - not by me, of course.
EDIT: I hope you are right.
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Congratulations to USA, I was not able to see the match, but they played great the whole tournament. And these players are great Olympic Champions!
I know what you mean. I hope Hansen improves. He has 4 years to improve. It'll be a tough task to follow the amazing setting by Lloy Ball.Hansen is already a great setter. Voted 5th best player of the french championship (and 2nd setter) by fans.
He replaced Pujol in Poitiers and you will find no Poitiers's fan to say that Pujol is better. (personally I think he is more reliable than Pujol)Right now, I believe that Hansen is a better setter than Zhekov or Grankin. But you're right, you don't follow a player like Ball just like that ! But I think he is ready to became the leader of the NT, and will be quickly fully doing the job.
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Congratulations to USA, I was not able to see the match, but they played great the whole tournament. And these players are great Olympic Champions!
Hansen is already a great setter. Voted 5th best player of the french championship (and 2nd setter) by fans.
He replaced Pujol in Poitiers and you will find no Poitiers's fan to say that Pujol is better. (personally I think he is more reliable than Pujol)Right now, I believe that Hansen is a better setter than Zhekov or Grankin. But you're right, you don't follow a player like Ball just like that ! But I think he is ready to became the leader of the NT, and will be quickly fully doing the job.
You shouldn't put Grankin and Zhekov in the same sentence. Zhekov should be compared with Sheshenina.
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Congrats for USA!!!
A player like Ball really deserved to finish his career as an olympic champion. He is a great setter and a person. I absolutely agree with most of the forumers that Stanley is the MVP - no doubt.
And about the bronze medal Congrats for Russia!
It is a great achievement although I now they wanted more - at lest a final. But next time may be it will happen coz in the team there are many young and talented players with bright future. I expected them to win this match but not so easy as it seems form the result because I couldn't watch it. I just thought that Italy will fight more but may be Russians have played so well that Italians had no chance. -
I know what you mean. I hope Hansen improves. He has 4 years to improve.
It'll be a tough task to follow the amazing setting by Lloy Ball.I think Brazil will still be strong. Though i understand that Heller, Gustavo, Giba, Anderson plus their libero might retire.
But im looking on Russia as the best team in the coming years.
It's pretty clear that Hansen will improve playing in Russia, without any doubt!! Almost the whole team of Olympics champions plays in our championship.
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Gottlib, I really don't understand what you mean by giving Spain as an an example, may be you mean 47 millions is the same as 7 millions???
About the good russian attitude towards the bulgarians - you said it yourself bulgarian players playED in Russia. You know very well why they don't play there anymore.
If you say that Matej Kazijski was the best player for the bulgarian team in Beijing (I wish this was true) but it means that you watched some other games.
As for the setter who doesn't need to be blocker. Come on! Show me one coach who will give up on a setter with such a block. It doesn't matter whether the killing block is made by the setter or the MB. It's still a point. Besides the opponent is expecting a good block by the MBs so their setter always trys to put his players against the "weakest" man on the net - the opponent setter. And if that guy makes a good block, that's a hudgde advantage.
You may be mistaken me for some other bulgarians who say their team is the best. I don't. But I try to be positive. If I wanted to be negative it was the easiest thing to prove you that may be Zhekov is not the best, but there is one even weaker setter...I meant that a country without good volleyball tradition can win when there is a TEAM. Spain doesn't have any good tradition but they could. Why can't Bulgaria? Only because of referees? I agree that there were mistakes in Moscow final, but Spain didn't give up like Bulgarians.
They don't play in Russia because of their low level. Who replaced Zhekov? Loic de Kergret... I think we can't compare them. Now there are many Americans and they've just wom Olympics.
I don't say that the setter mustn't be blocker. Ball is excellent setter, blocker too. He is more talented. It's true that Zhekov has good block, I saw that. But we won after blocking many times your MB and OH. So, he is guilty. -
Congrats for USA, Congrats for every team in this competition, they make a wonderful matches.
I don`t want to comment why one or other team can or can`t make more.... Every team have bad moment
FIVB World Ranking - Men before OG:
1. Brazil 248.0p
2. Russia 195.5 p
3. USA 174.5p
4. Bulgaria 150.5p.
5. Serbia 111.8p.
6. Poland 95.8p.
7. Spain 91.5p.
8. Puerto Rico 88.8p.
9. Argentina 87.5p.
10. Italy 84.0p.
and so on ....FIVB World Ranking - Men after OG:
1. Brazil 313.00 p.
2. USA 257.00 p.
3. Russia 255.50 p.
4. Bulgaria 195.00 p.
5. Serbia 145.55 p.
6. Italy 131.50 p.
7. Poland 129.55 p.
and so on... -
I was only assuming about your new setter. I didn't even know his name, so I wasn't implying he is bad, but it seems to be you don't like him much?
As for Brazil, I think they didn't bring in new talents for the last few years, so depending on how things go, I think they are going to have some problems. Anderson won't make any difference, but if Gustavo and Sergio retire, I see a difficult road ahead of Brazil. As for Giba, I never thought he was the best player in the world, like he is considered, but he is definetely a good player, and will be missed - not by me, of course.
EDIT: I hope you are right.
Well Ruskii he has the makings of a great setter. Ive seen him in quite a few number of games (even at OG versus Japan) and he's promising. He is just shorter of Ball ..He is 6'5 while Ball is 6'8.
Russia as one of the future best teams..They are already now.. Its a very good team. I bit my nail during their semis game. I was like, "Russia is
)They are USA's kryptonite (while USA is Brazil's).
Congratulations to USA, I was not able to see the match, but they played great the whole tournament. And these players are great Olympic Champions!
Hansen is already a great setter. Voted 5th best player of the french championship (and 2nd setter) by fans.
He replaced Pujol in Poitiers and you will find no Poitiers's fan to say that Pujol is better. (personally I think he is more reliable than Pujol)Right now, I believe that Hansen is a better setter than Zhekov or Grankin. But you're right, you don't follow a player like Ball just like that ! But I think he is ready to became the leader of the NT, and will be quickly fully doing the job.
Yes Armel. I think Hansen is a great setterl. Promising at that. But i know that with the strong leagues that he is in now, he will definitely improve.
I remember him in WL 2007(Poland) when he was the primary setter for USA. He performed pretty good then (They were 3rd). Thats what actually he needs to have..more playing time in International games.
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congrats for usa team. i must also say usa team is a good team. but today's loss is mainly because brazil was so bad. if usa is on the normal brazil level they should have won easily 3-0.
in brazil there is no single player that played above average. rezende insisted on worst playing ones. anderson is a very good opposite and good receiver. why he didnt try anderson? why not fuchs?
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hansen is a very good setter and it's better than most others. ball's main advantage is he is playing the same guys in club seasons too.
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Congratulations for USA team
..You were better today than Brasil ..Brasil out, I hope that level of men volleyball will be steady edited by Justyna: It is international forum, not Polish