European Championships 2009

    what happened in the 13th point?? i was following only in the live score....the last ball to gamova was too low...and with no doubt, she is the best

    Congratulations to the respect for the opponent. Congratulations to civilization! :thumbsup:

    The Dutch won the match but I say that the Russians outplayed them. The Russians showed a lot of heart and gave one big fight despite being a very unbalanced team with moderate over-all talent. The Russians exceeded the pre-game expectations by leading 2-1 and by staying close to Netherlands the whole time. This loss is a lesson to the Russians and I think they know these:


    1. Gamova is not enough
    2. Reception is not something that will be taken for granted
    3. Service errors will kill you


    The Netherlands on the other hand suffered also from bad reception which made their middle blockers impotent at times. Kim Staelens also make their offense stale with questionable sets. Aside from that, the girls showed a good fight.

    Quote from Russia_Nikolai_Karpol

    nostromo dont be sure the world is full of surprise...


    if bulgaria would beat poland?
    is russia in
    then poland out?
    can someone correct me

    All you say is correct, but honestly I think Poland will win this match, I like Russia team, is one of my favourites, but all the circunstances are in favour Poland reaches semi-finals.

    Thank you Manon! Thank you Debby! and rest of the team


    Now we need to win

    Most probably Poland will win - their players are not better than ours, but their team is better. I hope for a drama with tiebreak :)

    I can't agree with you!


    About pre-match expectations: The last time we won against Russia was in WGP 2007, Russia is an 'angstgegner' (German word, I can't translate) for us.


    So in my opinion Russia was the favorite, also because they fought for their last chance.


    Further it is a huge performance for such a snall country like The Netherlands is, to compete on such a high level! The Netherlands only have 16,5 million inhabitants. Teams like Russia, China, USA - also Germany (80 million inhabitants) - have a huge arsenal of people/potential of players; we don't have!



    Quote from gael alexei philippe

    The Dutch won the match but I say that the Russians outplayed them. The Russians showed a lot of heart and gave one big fight despite being a very unbalanced team with moderate over-all talent. The Russians exceeded the pre-game expectations by leading 2-1 and by staying close to Netherlands the whole time. This loss is a lesson to the Russians and I think they know these:


    1. Gamova is not enough
    2. Reception is not something that will be taken for granted
    3. Service errors will kill you


    The Netherlands on the other hand suffered also from bad reception which made their middle blockers impotent at times. Kim Staelens also make their offense stale with questionable sets. Aside from that, the girls showed a good fight.

    Gamova 37 points... 52% in attack... the fans of Fenerhbace are lucky to see her playing all the weeks next season

    any link of the match please?(except ipla)

    thank u nostromo

    Netherlands was expected to win easily against a "depleted" Russian team. The Russians had only Gamova, Kosheleva and Safranova to rely on while the Netherlands had Flier, Stam, Chaine Staelens, Visser and Wensink. The Russians had questionable serve-reception/digging capability while the Netherlands was expected to have a stable one. This Dutch team has been playing as a team for a considerable number of years while the Russians had a core players of veterans with a number of inexperienced ones mixed-in. Now give me a good argument that the odds do not favor Netherlands yet the Dutch girls did not win that easy.


    The pre-game expectations I stated was based on the aforementioned statements and not on the match history between the two countries nor their population because that is null at this point. I do not take anything from the Netherlands' win, in fact, I was expecting them to win. But I was not expecting them to seal the game in that manner.

    Bulgaria - Poland 1-0 so far.
    Bulgaria is playing well, with a very strong block.


    In Poland, I really like Anna Baranska so far.

    Quote from Marieke68

    Doesn't work?

    Yes, I'm watching the match now without problem

    Debarlieva is really fast...

    I can assure you that match-history against a certain opponent is more in the player's minds than current tournament-results.


    In my opinion Gamova and Kosheleva together are stronger than Flier and Staelens. Gamova can almost win a match on her own; because of her enormous height.


    I conclude that we have different views, it's nice to discuss with eachother! ;)


    Well, I now gonna watch a football/soccer-match.



    Quote from gael alexei philippe

    Netherlands was expected to win easily against a "depleted" Russian team. The Russians had only Gamova, Kosheleva and Safranova to rely on while the Netherlands had Flier, Stam, Chaine Staelens, Visser and Wensink. The Russians had questionable serve-reception/digging capability while the Netherlands was expected to have a stable one. This Dutch team has been playing as a team for a considerable number of years while the Russians had a core players of veterans with a number of inexperienced ones mixed-in. Now give me a good argument that the odds does not favor Netherlands yet the Dutch girls did not win that easy.


    The pre-game expectations I stated was based on the aforementioned statements and not on the match history between the two countries nor their population because that is null at this point. I do not take anything from the Netherlands' win, in fact, I was expecting them to win. But I was not expect them to seal the game in that manner.