World League 2009

Boyan Yordanov unfortunately is very badly injured and he can't take a part in WL 2009. Our hopes are that he can probably be ready for the ECH in Turkey.

Quote from Justyna

USAV Announces Preliminary World League Roster
USA Volleyball has announced the 22-person preliminary roster that it has submitted for the 2009 FIVB World League men’s tournament.

The roster will be cut to 19 players by April 30. New U.S. Men’s Head Coach Alan Knipe (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and his staff will pick 12 players from that group of 19 to play each weekend in World League.

Knipe, who is currently the head coach for Long Beach State’s men’s volleyball program, will not officially join the U.S. Men’s Team until the end of the 2008-09 collegiate season. However he was involved with the roster decisions along with former U.S. Men’s Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon, Assistant Coach Ron Larsen and Marv Dunphy, a former national team head coach and current men’s coach at Pepperdine who served as a consultant coach for the 2008 U.S. Men’s Olympic Volleyball Team.

“It was an interesting process considering I haven’t had the opportunity to be in a training environment with some of these guys,” Knipe said. “But I am familiar with all of them and I had a lot of quality input from some coaches that have had the opportunity to spend some extended time with the team. I like the group that we have selected.”

The roster is highlighted by eight returning players from the 2008 U.S. Men’s National Team that won World League and the Olympic gold medal.

Those returning players are setter Kevin Hansen (Newport Beach, Calif.), middle blocker and team captain Tom Hoff (Park Ridge, Ill.), libero Rich Lambourne (Tustin, Calif.), middle blocker David Lee (Alpine, Calif.), outside hitter Sean Rooney (Wheaton, Ill.) outside hitter Riley Salmon (League City, Texas), opposite Clay Stanley (Honolulu, Hawai’i) and outside hitter Scott Touzinsky (St. Louis, Mo.).

Hoff has played in the last three Olympics. Salmon and Stanley have played in the last two.

Setter Lloy Ball (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and opposite Gabe Gardner (San Clemente, Calif.) have retired from the U.S. Men’s Team. Middle blocker Ryan Millar (Palmdale, Calif.) and outside hitter Reid Priddy (Richmond, Va.) are taking the summer off from indoor volleyball competition.

Among other returning players, opposite Brook Billings (Santa Barbara, Calif.) played in the 2004 Olympic Games, where the U.S. Men placed fourth, and played pool play matches for the United States in the 2006-08 World Leagues.

Setter Donald Suxho (Korce, Albania) played in the 2004 Olympic Games and in the 2006 World League. But he has missed the last two seasons after injuring his Achilles tendon early in 2007.

Middle blocker Delano Thomas (Sacramento, Calif.) also played in 2008 World League pool play matches for the United States.

The other 11 players on the preliminary roster are recent college standouts who have seen international competition within the U.S. national program and/or while playing in international leagues.

“As we’re entering Year 1 of the quad (Olympic quadrennial), the natural progression is the reverse funnel effect,” Knipe said. “We’re bringing in a lot of guys at the beginning to see how they do at a higher level of international competition. We’re going to see how we can add to our core group.”

The FIVB World League is an exciting elite men’s volleyball competition in which the world’s best teams are divided into four pools and play for six straight weekends from June 12 to July 18. Winners from each pool will qualify for the final round on July 22-26 in Belgrade, Serbia, along with the host country and a pick from among the second-place teams in pool play.

The total World League prize purse is more than $20 million, with the winning team collecting a prize of more than $1 million.

U.S. fans can watch Team USA play live in World League matches in San Jose, Calif. (June 26-27 versus China), Hoffman Estates, Ill. (July 10-11 versus Italy) and Wichita, Kan. (July 17-18 versus Netherlands).

For more information on World League, please visit USA Volleyball’s World League web site at http://volleyball.teamusa.org/event/event/573.

2009 Preliminary U.S. World League Roster

1 Matt Anderson (OH, 6-10, West Seneca, N.Y., Penn State)
2 Sean Rooney (OH, 6-9, Wheaton, Ill., Pepperdine)
3 Evan Patak (Opp, 6-8, Pleasanton, Calif., UC Santa Barbara)
4 David Lee (MB, 6-8, Alpine, Calif., Long Beach State)
5 Rich Lambourne (L, 6-3, Tustin, Calif., BYU)
6 Tyler Hildebrand (S, 6-5, Mesa, Ariz., Long Beach State)
7 Donald Suxho (S, 6-5, Korce, Albania, USC)
8 Andrew Hein (MB, 611, Carol Stream, Ill., Pepperdine)
9 Jonathan Winder (S, 6-8, Irvine, Calif., Pepperdine)
10 Riley Salmon (OH, 6-6, League City, Texas, Pierce College)
11 Brook Billings (Opp, 6-5, Santa Barbara, Calif., USC)
12 C Tom Hoff (MB, 6-8, Park Ridge, Ill., Long Beach State)
13 Clay Stanley (OPP, 6-9, Honolulu, Hawai'i, Hawai'i)
14 Kevin Hansen (S, 6-5, Newport Beach, Calif., Stanford)
15 Russell Holmes (MB, 6-8, Fountain Valley, Calif., BYU)
16 Jayson Jablonsky (OH, 6-5, Yorba Linda, Calif., UC Irvine)
17 Delano Thomas (MB, 6-7, Sacramento, Calif., Hawai'i)
18 Scott Touzinsky (OH, 6-6, St. Louis, Mo., Long Beach State)
19 Alfee Reft (L, 5-10, Oxnard, Calif., Hawai'i)
Paul Lotman (OH, 6-7, Lakewood, Calif., Long Beach State)
David Smith (MB, 6-7, Saugus, Calif., UC Irvine)
Robert Tarr (OH, 6-6, Cape Canaveral, Fla., Long Beach State)

Head Coach: Alan Knipe
Assistant Coach: Ron Larsen
Team Doctor: William Briner, Jr.
Medical Support: Aaron Brock

source: usavolleyball.org

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If there's something that fans should be happy about this line up is the presence of fantastic Opposites Stanley, Patak and Billings. I believe Patak, at 24, has got to have the biggest potential of all the new players, he is rippin hard spikes. Good that Priddy is taking some rest, finally, Rooney or Anderson can earn some experience... As well as the Middle Blockers. Over-all, the team is strong. But Russia, I honestly think, is the strongest.

I was thinkning the same as you about Patak until this season, when you sum it up, He played bad in Vienna and was released and when he came to PAOK, he was solid, but not more than that.

I think that maybe McKienzie or Toppel could have been options as well ( and I would for sure say Ptak as well but I don't know what is going on with his leg)

I agree about Rooney and Anderson though I think Lotman (who was CO player of the year with Anderson) could give them a run for their money.

Very interesting for me is to see a the end who the 2nd Setter will be, what do you think?

Okay, here's my take. At age 33, having Suxho on that team isn't a good idea for me. Plus I think he has been injury prone for the last couple of years. So I would assume Knipe picking Winder as the 2nd setter is a better option. At 6'8, he'll be a better blocker as well.

I was thinking the same thing about Suxho but as it is Knipe, I wouldn't be so surprised if couple of 49ers like Hildebrand in the Setter position and Lotman and Touzinsky in the Outside would make the team after the cuts (maybe even Tarr though I doubt it, he is not much of a passer unlike Lotman)

That is so unfortunate for Mikaylov. I think he was the key of Team Russia last year - certainly a better player than Poltavsky. Very quick and powerful attacker. I hope Russia gets a substitute other than Poltavsky. There is no question that Poltavsky is one of the best hitters/opposite but he just does not live up to expectations during crucial times and gets blocked.

Quote from russia2008

That is so unfortunate for Mikaylov. I think he was the key of Team Russia last year - certainly a better player than Poltavsky. Very quick and powerful attacker. I hope Russia gets a substitute other than Poltavsky. There is no question that Poltavsky is one of the best hitters/opposite but he just does not live up to expectations during crucial times and gets blocked.

it seems poltavksy did not get used to the new ball yet ....

i wish mikhaylov a fast recovery from the operation..he´s a key player in the team..

In Bulgarian NT also has a lot of problems with the opposites. After the bad injury of Boyan Yordanov, who won't play in the WL 2009, Vladimir Nikolov also is badly injured ( broken thumb ) and will have an operation - he won't take a part in the first matches too So we have Milushev only and Uchikov but the last one definately is not ready to be in the six on the field as titular player.

I think he attacks slow as compared to Mikaylov. Mikaylov attacks really quick from the outside that is why the blockers more often than not fail to block him.

Damn, Russia will sorely miss Mikhaylov. He is pure speed and power.

Poltavsky is good but he is inconsistent. He does not maximize his height, he is slow, and he is does not jump that high. However he compensates with technique. I just can't understand why he just shuts down at crucial times. Probably, its a mental thing. He should probably work with a psychologist.

The French roster :

Setters:
1 Yannick Bazin (Paris )
11 Loïc Le Marrec (Tours)
13 Pierre Pujol (Cannes)

Outside hitters:
2 Ludovic Castard (Cannes )
7 Stéphane Antiga (Belchatow)
9 Guillaume Samica (Jatrebski)
12 Nicolas Marechal (Tourcoing)
14 Loic Geiler (Cannes)
15 Baptiste Geiler (Montpellier)
16 Emmanuel Ragondet (Sète)

Middle blockers:
3 Gérald Hardy-Dessources (Cannes)
5 Romain Vadeleux (Cannes)
6 Jean-Philippe Sol (- Montpellier )
10 Jean-Stéphane Tolar (Tourcoing)
17 Oliver Kieffer (Poitiers) => captain

Opposites:
4 Antonin Rouzier (Roeselare)
8 Marien Moreau (Toulouse)

Liberos:
18 Jean-François Exiga (Cannes)
19 Edouard Rowlandson (Sète)

Some facts about the french NT:

Stability: there has been only three changes between the 2008 world league roster and the 2009 one: Oliver Kieffer (he was injured last year) is back in place of Gary Gendrey, Baptiste Geiler and Ludovic Castard are replacing Bojidar Slavev and Samuele Tuia.
Family: Baptiste and Loic Geiler are brothers , Emmanuel Ragondet should not be mistaken with his two brothers: Pascal (libero from Tourcoing this year, who will replace Exiga in Cannes next season) and Olivier who won the youth European champiosnhip a few weeks ago.
Players missing: Henno, Lemay, Herpe, Monméat, Kilama, and some others are not part of the roster...
Cannes: 6 players are coming from Cannes who ranked very disappointingly 7th in the french championship. Samulele Tuia and Gary Gendrey were also playing with Cannes this year. (Tuia being on the 2009 22 players list). Moreau will play for Cannes next year.
Opposites: there are only 3 french opposites being starters in the french championship. Moreau being the only one playing in a team that qualified for the play-off.

"19" for the WL are without Ivan Stanev, Nikolay Nikolov and Nikolay Uchikov, so now the team looks in this way:

setters:
Andrey Zhekov
Georgi Bratoev
Ivan Zarev

Opposites:
Vladimir Nikolov
Danail Milushev

Outside hitters:
Matey Kaziyski
Plamen Konstantinov
Metodi Ananiev
Todor Aleksiev
Martin Penev
Tsvetan Sokolov
Miroslav Gradinarov

Middle blockers:
Krasimir Gaydarski
Hristo Tsvetanov
Teodor Bogdanov
Svetozar Ivanov
Stoyko Nenchev

Liberos:
Teodor Salparov
Vladislav Ivanov

About Polish team...
The same like with female team: I am worried about opposites. Jarosz, Gromadowski... Well, I'm not sure about them. And Kurek I dont think he deserved to play in NT, but it was easy to predict him in the roster since Castellani was Skra coach. That is goodd, that Ruciak is back in the team. He has a very good season in Kędzierzyn.

Quote from Konrad

About Polish team...
The same like with female team: I am worried about opposites. Jarosz, Gromadowski... Well, I'm not sure about them. And Kurek I dont think he deserved to play in NT, but it was easy to predict him in the roster since Castellani was Skra coach. That is goodd, that Ruciak is back in the team. He has a very good season in Kędzierzyn.

My old post fixes to Polish "12" as well. I hope the match against Brazil won't be a slaughterhouse for us and Poish players won't be playing lambs roles...

What happened with the other setters Poles? Are they injured, or on vacation. Seems that this year will be bad for all national teams - WL, World Qualifications, after that - European Championships. And BG players are not so injured. Boyan is recovering I think, Vlado Nikolov and Konstantinov are back in this team - Plamen and Boyan will not play against Cuba.

Zagumny was given longer break(he will back for WCH qualification) and Zygadlo spent whole season on Trentio's bench. but setter isn't problem cus Lomacz is doing really well. opp and OH is problem....

I have been unsuccessful in contacting someone from the Italian national team regarding information about the upcoming World League. Perhaps it is my poor translation to English!

Can someone send me a message with the media contact for the national team?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Middle Hitter