Yeah, I'm not! It feels so good to win!!!!!
Too bad you're not used to losing, cause it seems to be your fate from now on!
After the Olympics - what now?
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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.
Do you really think Serbia, Italy, Poland or Cuba had any chance against Brazil? No, it was not a balanced OG.
The level worldwide is low and getting lower. I think that is true.
But also Brazil improved a lot and has many good young players
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Yeah, I'm not! It feels so good to win!!!!!
Too bad you're not used to losing, cause it seems to be your fate from now on!
Yeah, probably. I was the first one to say that, even before the OG. That's ok, we already won too many times, and we have our male team to cheerish for, and all other sports that we are good at - basically all, except for football, haha.
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Maja Simanic also retires from NT. She will be replaced by Ana Antonijevic in GP qualies.
Why Antonijevic???
Zivkovic made a much better impression in Montreux.Any other changes in the roster? Any chance Nesovic gets in there?
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Any other changes in the roster? Any chance Nesovic gets in there?
I hope Nesovic will be 2nd OPP, now that Djerisilo switched to OH.
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Do you really think Serbia, Italy, Poland or Cuba had any chance against Brazil? No, it was not a balanced OG.
The level worldwide is low and getting lower. I think that is true.
But also Brazil improved a lot and has many good young players
To be honest, i didn't expected Brazil to dominate it that way (losing only a set). But i still think it was a balanced OG. Celso was right, there were about 8 teams who could have won. But Brazil came the most prepared. And some weren't...the reality of life.
This situation is like the Atlanta Games where Cuba was clearly the dominant force that time. Same situation with Brazil in Beijing. But i havent heard such things that when Cuba won in 1996, it was not balanced.
I guess most people here would disagree with me but the top ranked teams didn't fair well. And China, who is suppose to be the defending champions, didn't defended the crown well. But that does not suffice us of an unbalanced games. BUT i got Ruskii's/Samba player's point, it could have been better (and more exciting) if the usual powerhouses performed well. Thats the point. People expected them, but they didn't performed well. And As what i posted above, its still the most prepared team who wins...
Peace
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Well, Samba, there were at least 8 teams fighting for a medal before the competition started. I have to admit that Brazil improved a lot its game in 2008 and gave no chance at all for its opponents, but I wouldn't underestimate any of them. There were only two surprises this OG in my opinion: the victory of the US over Italy in the quarterfinals, I didn't expected that the US would be able to play like they played against Italy (I repeat, it wasn't Italy who played bad, it was the US who played well and merited to win) and the victory of Japan over Poland.
All the other results were not surprises for me. Cuba was a very scary team until they lost to the US in straight sets (this result was a real surprise for me too, three surprises then, especially because Cuba played a great match against the United States in the preliminary match, even so, it was not Cuba's fault, the US team played that semifinal match tactically perfect). The same happened to Italy, it is always tough to face them. Without Spasojevic it would be tough for Serbia to repeat its last results, I acknowledge that. Poland had too many ups and downs, they lacked a bit of rhythm. But overall, I didn't see any team playing really bad. Even Russia served and blocked well.
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Why Antonijevic??? Zivkovic made a much better impression in Montreux.Any other changes in the roster? Any chance Nesovic gets in there?
No, the rest is the same as in Beijing. I expected more variety to be honest...
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I understand your points, but the reality is this:
Poland and Serbia never won against Brazil!! Italy won just last year and Cuba won once (3-2) in 4 year period. I think only Russia (playing like 06) or China (playing like 04-05) or maybe Italy (WC07) could have had some chances against this Brazil. So just IMO only 4 teams were gold contenders.
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To be honest, i didn't expected Brazil to dominate it that way (losing only a set). But i still think it was a balanced OG. Celso was right, there were about 8 teams who could have won.
It was supposed to be balanced, it turned out to be horribly unbalanced. Brazil and USA were the only ones who played to the maximum of their abilities. Brazil vs Italy, Brazil vs Russia, Serbia vs Cuba (or anyone), Cuba vs USA, Italy vs Russia, China vs Cuba... Do you think those were high-quality and close matches?
Nobody is saying that Brazil was an undeserving winner. They would have probably won even if all the other teams had played great. But they didn't. Nobody can deny that. -
and the victory of Japan over Poland.
I wasn't that surprised, because Poland lost against Japan also at Olympic Qualifications in May and at the World Cup last year.In fact, Poland always has had problems facing Japan.
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I totally agree with Joana. Brazil and USA played very well, Cuba had 6 good and 2 awful matches. All other teams were far from their best shape.
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China vs Cuba was a great match!!! It was a thriller in fact!
Volleyball is a sports in which a team is able not to let its opponent play, with the right serve and the right startegy of defense and a good block, if a team plays well, its opponent will not.
Anyway, even a 5-set match cannot be technically well played (it was not the case of China-Cuba), a 3-set match can have a better technical level. More disputed matches do not mean better matches technically. That's my point.
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Too early to say but Ogonna Nnamani is predicting a veteran line up for the US in 2012 London.
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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!
turkey is always european
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well for my the OG was one of the worse turnament in last year but it dont mean that level of FVB is low. i think the level is high and balance because there's no team that dominate over other. every year we have othr champion etc...
the most disapointing performace for me is Russia and Poland and Cuba(a thought they will be at least in the final cuz they were playing great in group phaze).Russia was always at least in semis and they just win with Serbia and loose in straight set to Italy China and were destroyed by Brazil.POland didnt play bad but we were lack something(luck?experiance? i dont know) there were lots bad think happening inside conflict etc. there're some rumors that Liktoras play that horrible cuz she is pregnat
POdolec was injured Baranska had conflict with Bonitta Glinka was out of shape ...but even if other teams were well prepared i think Brazil would win anyway but it wouldnt be so easy.
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Croatia and Bulgaria are still miles behind the better teams. Thailand? Don't make me laugh...
I was just pointing out that Thailand has improved a lot considering that they had beaten Poland in the recent WGP. And also please don't discount the improvement of Croatia and Bulgaria, they have young promising players and given the right coaching I think they can compete with the other good teams. I didn't say that Croatia and Bulgaria and also Thailand are at the level of the Brazil, Italy, and China. What I was trying to say is that they are developing and with the right coaching and international exposure, they too will improve. And who knows, maybe they will kick Russia's butt?
My impression that the level of international volleyball is not bad stems from the improvements in various national teams that can't compete at the international level before. I think we should be happy for these teams. Yes, we expected too much maybe from the traditional powerhouses but their decline should not mean the decline of international volleyball. Call it a regime change. New powerhouses will arise and will replace the traditional ones at the top.
Russia, Brazil, Cuba, Italy competing at the WGP and other competitions can be tiring sometimes. If these teams will be the only ones who will continue to develop, then Volleyball will stagnate.
Just my two cents...
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Nobody was actually saying that the level of volleyball gets worse.
The only thing that bothered me during these Olympics was the disability of teams to perform at their best. Actually just Brazil did (at times also USA and Cuba) and thats why they won.
Celso,
Im not saying that im disappointed of the OG level just because my favourite team lost. If i thought like that i would say that volleyball´s level is underneath all goods.
All teams were preparing min. 3 years for these Games. And all they can show is just a middle- class performance? embarrassing! There were some interesting and high quality matches but in whole there were just a few.... Actually all matches from Pool B were kinda onesided cos just 2 teams were well prepared.
Actually all teams are capable of great volleyball and they show it from time to time. But its sad that they arent able to show it at the most important event.
I hope Croatia will be able to be the 2nd Serbia. They have the players to achieve it. Would be cool to have some more dangerous teams in europe besides the oldies....
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Poljak returned in the NT. That's
They have some problems in some key positions = setting and libero. Many good attackers such as Barun, Popovic (
), Usic, Alajbeg ... but they all want to play as OPP, because reception isn't exactly their strong point. 
Unfortunately just one OPP is needed on court. We will see if Croatia can win against Ukraine and qualify for ECH09. The next test will be the performance of various young Croatian players in Italian League (Ikic, Popovic and Usic). For setting I'll try to employ Grbac.Bulgaria isn't exactly a young team. Koleva, Marinova, Petkova, Chitigoi are around 30 years of age. And they are the strongest Bulgarian players, together with younger Yaneva.
Anyway, remember that Croatia and Bulgaria were stronger in the 90s and early 00s. Then started their decline as we've seen in the ECH07 and their non-qualification to the WCH06. Before these two teams were at the top of the European volleyball scene with good results also in the World scene. Now they are trying to regain all their lost ground. But I'm not sure if they can be succesfull in the short term. However, I think Croatia has more chances, because it has a lot of young and promising players.
I'll keep an eye also on Czech Republic.
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I like Bulgarian team and I hope that the girls will qualify to World Championships 2010. They made a good job in Yeltsin Cup and I regret that Bulgarian girls won't play in European Qualifications to Grand Prix 2009.
I really like Bulgarian roster:
Debarlieva, Yaneva, Chitigoi, Koleva, Petkova, Teneva...really experienced players. I hope all these girls will play in 2009.
I'll keep an eye also on Czech Republic.
Oh...I think Czech Republic has similar problem to Croatia. In Czech Republic there are a lot of good attackers but the problem is reception...For example Matuszkova and Horka. Here in Poland we know something about these players
Both played in Kalisz rather as opposite. In national team they have to receive too.This year Matuszkova will play in this same club with Buckova...I hope she will persuade her to come back to national team.