After the Olympics - what now?

Quote from Russkii

There is simply no Russian National Team to speak of. We will be struggling to beat the likes of Kazakhstan from now on. That's where we stand.

By the way, the level of women VB is already pitiful, now with all those changes I just wonder how it's gonna be. Russia and Italy competing to see who is worse. Serbia and Poland were never that good, and will just get worse. Brazil without the setter is just a good team. China is a has-been. The US isn't looking too good either. Cuba seems like a young team, maybe they have something to show.

Anyway, Brazil will probably take advantage of this scenario, but only because it's less bad than the other teams, which are just awful.

is it that bad with Russia?? well they wont be world champion in the nearest future but i think they will be like 7-8 team in the world .

the level of WVB isnt bad but OG was one of the worse turnament i have ever seen. really only BRazil was in their optimal shape . other team can play lot more better specially Serbia Poland Russia overall european team . CHina didnt show the best volleyball they have .

Quote from Russkii

There is simply no Russian National Team to speak of. We will be struggling to beat the likes of Kazakhstan from now on. That's where we stand.

By the way, the level of women VB is already pitiful, now with all those changes I just wonder how it's gonna be. Russia and Italy competing to see who is worse. Serbia and Poland were never that good, and will just get worse. Brazil without the setter is just a good team. China is a has-been. The US isn't looking too good either. Cuba seems like a young team, maybe they have something to show.

Anyway, Brazil will probably take advantage of this scenario, but only because it's less bad than the other teams, which are just awful.

Just because a team looks good on paper with all the big name players doesn't necessairly mean they will perform well on the court. I have seen things like this happen many a times. I don't know if you are familiar with the American sports team, the New York Yankees. Every year it appears they have all the best players at every position. And every year they fail to win the championship. They have all-stars at every position, but they lack a good team chemistry and that is why they fail to win. It all depends on how the team is able to play together. So as for volleyball, I wouldn't count out teams because they don't have all great players.

that is a generalization. russia does not equate to volleyball; it does not mean that russia will lose its key players that volleyball specifically european volleyball has declined.

italy have many "old" players. but knowing the country, they could have a pool of talents to replace the likes of aguero, gioli and secolo. 2009 would be a good year to try out their new talents and probably a better back up setter than ferretti.

russia will lose its stars. that's given.

poland practically lost only glinka. she could be easily replaced by podolec. which means that not both glinka and podolec would be receivers which i think is a horrible idea because the team's reception becomes sucky which disables the involvement of their middles in the attack. liktoras' retirement is negligible...

turkey is a team to watch out for. the reception of esra and seda's attack. enough said.

i don't have much to say about serbia. how serbia played in the olympics is just disgusting. i didn't imagine that serbia could play that bad.

i think the EC 09 will be one of the most exciting ones we've seen so far because their are many teams which are of the same level

hopefully, yoshie takeshita will play for a few years for japan. because she IS japan.

Quote from odin

i think the EC 09 will be one of the most exciting ones we've seen so far because their are many teams which are of the same level

The majority of us als expected an exiting Olympic tournament and it was maybe one of the biggest disappointments in the last years...

Though im also thinking that the ECH could be pretty exciting ill wait and see i dont want to be disappointed.

I think Poland should have least problems, cos they have a pretty experienced team and the ECH is usually a good tournament for them.

Also i think that russia might play ok too, of course the big names are gone, but if they will be able to build a real "team" and not just individuals, i think they can be dangerous still

Believe me, as long as we have Sheshenina and Akulova, we will be everyone's punching bag. We were a punching bag in the OG, with Artamonova, Sokolova, Godina and Gamova. With the likes of Safranova and Kulikova, welll, I don't even want to think about it.

Maybe Russia will be number 7-8 in the world, like someone has said, but for Russia, that means absolutely nothing; actually, it means something: embarassment.

My only solace is that the level is pretty low worldwide, but we are even lower.

I am glad our men team is currently very strong, otherwise I would have to stop watching VB for a few years.

I think Russia, Poland, and all the European powerhouse teams will be fine for the next big competition. The coaches will find a way to get the best players possible to make the teams competitive. It will be interesing to see what happens.

Quote from M1KV

. The coaches will find a way to get the best players possible to make the teams competitive. It will be interesing to see what happens.

I hope Russia would find a coach that could train and develop volleyball superstar..like Karpol Did

What about Japan ?? Will Takeshita, Takahashi and Sano still play ??

About Polish NT... Polish olympic team 2008 was quite young and I believe that most of these girls will play on European Championships 2009. Dziękiewicz instead Liktoras, a young girl instead Glinka (Kaczorowska, Frąckowiak) and we have nice team for EC in Poland

wel i'm really sad for russia, because after their victory i thought that maybe the setters will raize the level of their game and with such big hitters outside russia would beat anyone ezally. but what happend !!! russian setters are just to bed, ive been doing statistics and they only can do 3good sets up 10!!!!!!! which is so bad for a seter that plays for a russian national team.
also the russian coach said that the probleme with russia is that firstlly they didnt play the grand prix this year because the federation said that because they think that players would be tired after it.
secondlly he said that the actual russian players don't accept hard training!!!!!!!
third probleme is that it's not eazy to motivate the russian players!

wel the results would be different if russian players were as good as in worldchampionship
if only russia hase finally got a new good setter, for me they are the worst setters of the olympic games, algerian setter number 10 is much better
what about the midle blockers? they are tall but take it eazy, they lost more of important dual on the game.
what to say about gamova's mistakes? artamonova isnt the girl of the 90s
liouba is still doing everything for the team, reception and spike frm everywhere but she lost here efficency.
im not sur even if russia will stay on top 8 of best teams without liouba and gamova.
and if russian dont work to devellope a moodern game that would be so hard to beat other teams.

Quote from pol

What about Japan ?? Will Takeshita, Takahashi and Sano still play ??

Looking on paper, Japan has a lot of players who are past their 30s.

kurihara,saori and erika are young.but all of others are old...

I don't believe volleyball level worldwide is low. But I do agree that Russia's level is the lowest in Russian history and after the retirement of Sokolova, Artamonova and Godina it tends to get even worse. The performance of the European teams in the OG was a bit disappointing, I expected more from them. Anyway, I strongly believe that any attempt of saying the volleyball level worldwide is low sounds like a way to minimize the frustration of the poor performance of the European Teams and not giving all the deserved credits to the medallists.

Quote from serdar

kurihara,saori and erika are young.but all of others are old...

Oyama is also young and she can still make a comeback. Sano too can still play for a few years considering she is in her late twenties.

Quote from Celso

I don't believe volleyball level worldwide is low.

I agree with Celso. The decline of the old volleyball superpowers should not reflect the decline of the over-all level of international volleyball. Also just because the European teams performed badly in the recent OG does not mean that level of European volleyball has dropped. The emergence of Netherlands, Turkey, Serbia etc. is a testament to the improvement of volleyball in Europe and perhaps all over the world. Croatia, and Bulgaria are also improving. In Asia, Thailand is flexing its muscle and is developing their NT as well as their grass roots program.

I think that the development of the game worldwide is promising. I hope that our country can compete at the international level in the near future.

Quote from gael alexei philippe

I agree with Celso. The decline of the old volleyball superpowers should not reflect the decline of the over-all level of international volleyball. Also just because the European teams performed badly in the recent OG does not mean that level of European volleyball has dropped. The emergence of Netherlands, Turkey, Serbia etc. is a testament to the improvement of volleyball in Europe and perhaps all over the world. Croatia, and Bulgaria are also improving. In Asia, Thailand is flexing its muscle and is developing their NT as well as their grass roots program.

I think that the development of the game worldwide is promising. I hope that our country can compete at the international level in the near future.

The point is, everyone agrees the OG sucked - pretty low level - so what that means other than the level is pretty low worldwide? And it has nothing to do with "European teams doing bad". I couldn't care less about "European teams". There is also no emergence to speak of. Netherlands is a weak team who unexplainably won a GP. Serbia is weaker than it was years ago. Croatia and Bulgaria are still miles behind the better teams. Thailand? Don't make me laugh...

By the way, since when is turkey European? LOL!

I don't believe the OG sucked. In fact the 2008 OG were the most balanced of the last 20 years, there were at least 8 teams with chances of being champions. It just so happens that people here wanted other teams to be the medallists. After the end of the tournament with a different result than people expected it is easier to underestimate other teams achievements by saying the level was low and the tournament sucked. If I were rooting for an European team I have to admit that I would also say the OG sucked. Sigmund Freud explains such behaviour

That doesn't make much sense. I root for Russia, not for "European teams" - what does that mean anyway? We also lost in Athens and Sydney, and unlike Beijing, those were actually painful, and I never said the level was low in any of those - because it wasn't.

I don't see what is the big deal. For the people who won, it doesn't matter the least if the level was high or low - well, I wouldn't care, that's for sure. But it was low, everyone said so. Maybe I feel some insecurity from you? That happens when you are not used to winning. I don't know if Freud explains this, but I am sure someone does.