World League 2009

several things to mention before the last day of the first round:

I would really like to see Russia playing in Havana this year because last year Cubans were not that strong. If the Russians can beat Cuba away twice, this means simply that Silvano Prandi has not done much yet and the team's current form is just bad..if they can't as we couldn't, then maybe Cuba is having its momentum! Otherwise, I am happy to see Cuba with a strong team again though it hurts to lose there twice Apart from some tactical mistakes and a not-that-convincing block, Cuba played an awesome game and absolutely deserved to win twice and get all the six points! Prandi's mark in out team is still not visible.. Of course, it's too early to expect anything, but losing twice is not a good start for sure! I expected we will take at least the second game.. Only Vladimir Nikolov and Metodi Ananiev to praise! Andrey Zhekov played awfully last night, he couldn't set a proper ball in the middle, the rest doesn't need a commentary..

I have no reasonable explanation waht happened in Verona yesterday! A surprise would have been if China had won 3-2 the second game after being demolished on Friday, but they won 3-0 in Italy Asian teams are no longer the same Remeber what happened in Khabarovsk last year (Russia - Korea 2-3)!

I watched some parts of the game between the Netherlands and the USA because volleybal.tv was making me problems for the majority of time..Convincing return of the Dutchmen into the WL versus the very young US team..Now when Priddy, Stanley, Salmon, etc. are somewhere on a holiday, this US team will not do much better! Unfortunately, it's been also a problem for the Americans even in the past to degrade a lot in their overall performance after having won a major tournament, or two, as they did last year..

And last, good words for France. Winning 3-0 in Serbia is always sweet, dunnow though how today's game is gonna go..Serbians as organizers of the Final Four will probably gather all their stars in the last two or three weeks of the intercontinental round!

Today poland lost to Brazil even more clearly than yesterday. 3-0 and no doubts who was better. Bartman quite good, Gromadowski I also think, that Ignaczak could have given more to the team as the most experienced player right now. I hope it will be better against Venezuela next week, but it also will be difficult matches, if they beat Finland playing without Gomez.

USA 3: 2 Netherlands (25-16,32-30,25-17,25-20,15-6)

Despite the result, I think this US team showed more confidence and more firepower than the game they had yesterday which they lost in 3-straight sets. I thought yesterday's loss was sort of a "first-game jitters" however giving Netherlands the credit that they deserve, I am very much impressed with R. Horstink of Netherlands..One amazing guy! I thought I was watching Giba play (they also have a resemblance..maybe with the hair when Giba used to sport that kind of hair way way back).

Evan Patak, Matt Anderson, Andrew Hein, David Lee and Sean Rooney did their jobs pretty well. What's keeping me happy is that this is a relatively young US team (26 and below). I am extremely glad that Patak is performing well. As I've said before, he can be as powerful as Stanley. While Anderson, at 22 and 6'10, will have a lot of future up for him.

Quote from YavorD

several things to mention before the last day of the first round:

I would really like to see Russia playing in Havana this year because last year Cubans were not that strong. If the Russians can beat Cuba away twice, this means simply that Silvano Prandi has not done much yet and the team's current form is just bad..if they can't as we couldn't, then maybe Cuba is having its momentum! Otherwise, I am happy to see Cuba with a strong team again though it hurts to lose there twice Apart from some tactical mistakes and a not-that-convincing block, Cuba played an awesome game and absolutely deserved to win twice and get all the six points! Prandi's mark in out team is still not visible.. Of course, it's too early to expect anything, but losing twice is not a good start for sure! I expected we will take at least the second game.. Only Vladimir Nikolov and Metodi Ananiev to praise! Andrey Zhekov played awfully last night, he couldn't set a proper ball in the middle, the rest doesn't need a commentary..

I have no reasonable explanation waht happened in Verona yesterday! A surprise would have been if China had won 3-2 the second game after being demolished on Friday, but they won 3-0 in Italy Asian teams are no longer the same Remeber what happened in Khabarovsk last year (Russia - Korea 2-3)!

I watched some parts of the game between the Netherlands and the USA because volleybal.tv was making me problems for the majority of time..Convincing return of the Dutchmen into the WL versus the very young US team..Now when Priddy, Stanley, Salmon, etc. are somewhere on a holiday, this US team will not do much better! Unfortunately, it's been also a problem for the Americans even in the past to degrade a lot in their overall performance after having won a major tournament, or two, as they did last year..

And last, good words for France. Winning 3-0 in Serbia is always sweet, dunnow though how today's game is gonna go..Serbians as organizers of the Final Four will probably gather all their stars in the last two or three weeks of the intercontinental round!

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I only could watch BUL-CUB, and totally agree with your comments
The young Cuban team looked more confident and more cohesive than last year. I think, it has to do with the return of Orlando Samuel as a coach. I had seen some videos when he was coaching the NT back in 1980 to the nineties (Joel Despaigne, Lazaro Beltran, Sarmientos, Idalberto Valdez-now in the coaching team, and Raul Diago-Cuban Federation President) and believe me, that team was a real threat. Bulgaria is a very powerful team with strong and very tall players I cannot wait to see them playing again in the Balkans. I am sure the story will be different if they play as they do….BIG BLOCKS everywhere….

BIG BLOCKS without Evgeni Ivanov are hard to make I think. In the World Championship we're very poor in this element. I wish we could make a real big revenge to Russia for last OG. I know that it won't happen now, but maybe in ECH. But team is not the same without Evgeni Ivanov and Plamen Konstantinov. We will have hard time also in WCHQ. I hope Prandi will make his tactics and build a team till then. It'll be hard, but if Konstantinov is back we maybe can do something serious. Again we won't go to the WL finals. It's really hard i must admit. Since we are in WL from 2003 we have been placed with hard groups only. Maybe except in 2007 - Argentina, Poland, China, but then in finals - OMG - in the group with Brazil and Russia. And we have played in 2 successive days.

Some individual stats after first weekend..

BEST SCORERS [rank, shirt, name, team, spike, block, serve, total]

1 4 Leal Hidalgo Joandry CUB 34 7 3 44
2 4 Horstink Robert NED 38 1 2 41
11 Nikolov Vladimir BUL 37 2 2 41
4 13 SHIMIZU Kunihiro JPN 34 1 2 37
5 1 Leon Venero Wilfredo CUB 27 3 6 36
13 Oivanen Mikko FIN 33 3 36
7 11 Savani Cristian ITA 28 5 2 35
8 4 MOON Sung-Min KOR 27 1 5 33
6 Kaziyski Matey BUL 25 3 5 33
10 3 Patak Evan USA 26 2 4 32
16 KIM Hak-Min KOR 28 1 3 32

BEST SPIKERS [rank, shirt, name, team, spikes, faults, shots, total atts, succ. %]

1 2 Poltavskiy Semen RUS 26 4 8 38 68.42
2 11 Savani Cristian ITA 28 5 10 43 65.12
3 8 Cui Jianjun CHN 21 3 9 33 63.64
4 10 Berezhko Yury RUS 22 4 12 38 57.89
5 11 Conte Facundo ARG 27 4 17 48 56.25
6 16 Ragondet E. FRA 20 1 15 36 55.56
7 8 Moreau Marien FRA 18 3 12 33 54.55
8 4 Horstink Robert NED 38 6 26 70 54.29
9 9 Martino Matteo ITA 13 5 6 24 54.17
10 1 Anderson Matt. USA 21 2 16 39 53.85

BEST BLOCKERS [rank, shirt, team, stuff blocks, faults, rebounds, total atts, averange by set]

1 17 Petrovic Borislav SRB 10 8 11 29 1.43
2 17 Sala Andrea ITA 7 8 5 20 1.17
3 7 Kazakov Alexey RUS 8 2 8 18 1.14
4 15 Oivanen Matti FIN 7 10 9 26 1.00
5 17 Bontje Rob NED 7 7 0.88
6 4 Leal Hidalgo CUB 7 9 8 24 0.88
7 9 Samica Guillaume FRA 6 2 4 12 0.86
8 15 Rodrigo BRA 6 8 12 26 0.86
9 18 Lehtonen Jukka FIN 6 8 7 21 0.86
10 13 Marquez Ivan VEN 6 15 6 27 0.86

BEST SERVERS [Rank, Shirt, Name, Team, Aces, Faults, Serve, Hits, Total Atts, Avg.by set]

1 1 Leon Venero Wilfredo CUB 6 5 33 44 0.75
2 6 Kaziyski Matey BUL 5 9 20 34 0.63
3 18 MOZDZONEK Marcin POL 4 5 20 29 0.57
4 1 Bian Hongmin CHN 3 1 16 20 0.50
5 15 Birarelli Emanuele ITA 3 2 28 33 0.50
6 3 Patak Evan USA 4 4 24 32 0.50
7 13 Simón Roberlandy CUB 4 5 26 35 0.50
8 4 MOON Sung-Min KOR 5 7 21 33 0.50
9 7 Kazakov Alexey RUS 3 3 21 27 0.43
10 16 Saatkamp Lucas BRA 3 8 14 25 0.43

BEST DIGGERS [Rank, Shirt, Name, Team, Digs, Faults, Receptions, Total Atts, Avg. by set]

1 10 Santos Sérgio Dutra BRA 28 7 35 4.00
2 5 Lambourne Richard USA 30 4 34 3.75
3 18 Maan Jelte NED 29 8 37 3.63
4 4 Manià Loris ITA 19 5 24 3.17
5 16 Ren Qi CHN 17 5 22 2.83
6 4 Silva Joel VEN 19 5 5 29 2.71
7 16 IGNACZAK Krzysztof POL 18 16 1 35 2.57
8 17 BAKIEWICZ Michal POL 17 7 1 25 2.43
9 5 YEO Oh-Hyun KOR 23 3 17 43 2.30
10 1 TANABE Osamu JPN 16 12 10 38 2.29

Boyan Yordanov will be back in August for the WCHQ. But still I can't imagine what will happen to us in Russia in 2 weeks. Prandi is not optimistic at all. New coach, new players - so the team is new and we must learn to play without Konstantinov and Ivanov.

I am just glad that after Lloy Ball's departure from the team, an equally experienced and talented as him is taking over. Donald Suxho was the starting setter for the US in Athens Olympics but he injured himself almost 2 years ago...that's where Ball took over. At 32, I think Suxho can be the leader of this "young team". God forbid, No injuries please...no no. Hansen is also good, so its better to have more choices than none at all.

About Brazil's team... Did Poland sent their Team A? Basing from the result, its as if Brazil hasn't lost a lot of key players. But I am liking the fact that Murilo is taking the scoring load for this team.

Excited for Italy vs USA.

Quote from jist

About Brazil's team... Did Poland sent their Team A?

No, it wasn't "A" team. A lot of the best player were given a rest: Winiarski, Wlazły, Pliński, Zagumny, Świderski etc. But also some Brazilian stars didn't play.

RESULTS:

Brazil beat Finland 3-2 (25-22,28-26,25-1623-25,15-9)

Topscorers:

Miko Oivanen with 17 points (FINLAND)
Murilo Endres & Rodrigo Pinto with 15 points (BRAZIL)

USA beat Italy 3-1 (25-21,30-28,21-25,25-21)

Topscorers:

Sean Rooney with 19 points (USA)
Christian Savani with 19 points (ITALY)

Argentina beat France 3-2 (25-19,25-19,22-25,25-20,15-9)

Topscorers:

Antonin Rouzier with 23 points (FRANCE)
Alejandro Spajic with 18 points (ARGENTINA)

Poland beat Venezuela 3-2 (21-25,25-19,20-25,27-25,15-11)

Topscorers:

Luis Diaz with 26 points (VENEZUELA)
Jakub Jarosz with 25 points (POLAND)

Despite a lot of mistakes Cuba won. Leal # 4 again was the max. scorer

WOW. Then we proved that Cuba really is a big team!

Does anyone know where the match Cuba-Russia can be watched?

Wow. I didn't expect that Cuba's topscorer (Leon) is only 16 years old! He's freakin awesome at a young age! Also Leal (21 y/o) and Simon (22 y/o)!

That was a tough victory for the Russians but I am soooo impressed with this Cuban team. If they are going to be serious with International competitions, I am sure they will be in the same league as USA, Brazil, Russia, Poland and even Italy.

Glad to see Maxim M. again. He is my favorite Russian player!

Today Cuba lost to Russia in a very exciting game. Unfortunately to many errors from Cuba, which is normal for a young team trying to find its identity. The good news: they played at a good match, specially the teenager Leon # 1 with 26 points. Leal # 4 did not play well as usually ONLY 13 ponts....lol lol lol lol, same amount that the Russian lead scorers Yury Berezhko and Alexander Volkov 13 each.

Quote from jist

Wow. I didn't expect that Cuba's topscorer (Leon) is only 16 years old! He's freakin awesome at a young age! Also Leal (21 y/o) and Simon (22 y/o)!

That was a tough victory for the Russians but I am soooo impressed with this Cuban team. If they are going to be serious with International competitions, I am sure they will be in the same league as USA, Brazil, Russia, Poland and even Italy.

Glad to see Maxim M. again. He is my favorite Russian player!

It was really a good game...BTW Leon is only 15.....lol lol until July, He is amazing

WOW
Again 3-2, this time for Russia with 13-15 in the last set. Again big battle, but I don't see Verbov in squad?

Congratulations for Cuba on their great games against Russians It was even close to two victories.
I'm glad with first Polish win in this year WL. We won in very hot hall in Caracas in the presence of many fanatic Venezuelans. Impressive game by Jakub Jarosz and very good job by our middle blockers. Ivan Marquez didn't have a lot to say. Second game is tonight. I hope we can win agains, although my predictions are different
It's interesting, that France lost their game to Argentina