Qualification Tournaments for the World Championships 2010

I'm afraid Azerbaijan's good times are over. Mammadova and Rahimova are great but the other attackers are not even on international level. Oksana Parkhomenko and Korotenko are surely world class players too, but it isn't enough to have 4 good players

Quote from Matthias

I'm afraid Azerbaijan's good times are over.

Oh..I don't think so...They were close to beat Germany so Azerbaijan is still quite good team. Look, this team is really young and should make a progress in next years. Of course it will be really difficult to play as well as in 2005... .I think they need someone on position of OH who can receive properly... (someone like Shabovta was)

Congrats girls! I'm really glad you managed to qualify! Good luck against Turkey

Quote from Matthias

I'm afraid Azerbaijan's good times are over. Mammadova and Rahimova are great but the other attackers are not even on international level. Oksana Parkhomenko and Korotenko are surely world class players too, but it isn't enough to have 4 good players

I don't think so.Was there yesterday and Mammadova had a really bad day, all attacks were in the block of Netherlands. But she can play volleybal and her teammates too. They were young,so give them time to grow!

I'm so happy cause Turkey will be in WCH, again!!

Congratulations girls, well done!

Quote from mateo

is Turkey planing playing with Neshlihan and Seda at the same time?? isn't Seda an Opp?

yeah, we are trying to not lose a great skorer attacker such as seda.same situation like serbia team(because of brakocevic, they change djerisilo as OH) as we see it does not work with serbian team.but we will try.because seda is really great attacker and we need someone else who can help neslihan. our other OH esra gumus is great at receiving but short and average at attacking. maybe eda (MB) can help gulden and esra for receiving like she does at fenerbahce.
but in my opinion seda must be on the bench while we have neslihan and we have to use gozde kirdar.(she still doesn t recover her injuries)

please anybody put here match between croatia and spain or just 5 set, pleaseeeeee

Congrats to the teams that qualified!!!

But today I would like to criticize the European teams. Because there is trend in Europe that I don't like and that won't lead anywhere. The work that is done is not good and is creating serious imbalances in the teams.

I'm sorry to say that no European team will be able to compete against Brazil and even China and USA if they continue like that. There must be better work done on young setters. Brazil has tons of good young setters, same for China and USA. European teams (if we exclude Lo Bianco, Ognjenovic and Guliyeva that are older) have just Naz Aydemir who is very talented and good.
But that is a smaller problem and it is still solvable considering the setters get better with experience and getting older.

What is really absurd is reception and defence. Brazil has Jaqueline, Paula and Sassa who are not just great attackers but also great defenders and receivers.
What European teams don't understant (or don't want to understand) is that without proper reception and defence you don't go anywhere. There is a rally to find the tallest spikers, the strongest attackers, but what's the use of having great attackers if nobody digs balls or if they receive sending the ball on the other side of the court so the setters have to run like crazy.

The ones who criticize Esra Gumus should really think about the great work she does in back court. Debby Stam is another complete player that gives balance to a team.
People always see the Gamovas or Brakocevics of the teams and rarely see the work done by Stam or Gumus who is very important.
IMO a balanced team should have a Gamova or Brakocevic but also a player like Gumus or Stam. The trend is now to have three Gamovas on court. We did see how much it worked for Serbia to have Brakocevic, Djerisilo and Nikolic or Poland to have Skowronska, Glinka and Podolec. It didn't. The same for Italy, now that Del Core is missing reception and defence is much worse.

Good luck to Euro teams at WCH!

In general I agree, but at the moment I rather see a different tendency in many teams. Poland has 4 OHs who are not tall and are good backrow players (well, normally they are although they didn't show it so much these days), Turkey has Esra and Gözde (I hope Chiappini will finally understand that he can't play with Seda and Neslihan together), Netherlands has Alice Blom and Maret Grothues (unfortunately only on bench), Germany has Heike Beier who is not a strong attacker but very good receiver and defender and we even got back Sylvia Roll, Italy has Secolo and Piccinini and Aguero...

About what I said about Azerbaijan, when I say their good times are over I mean the times when the team was O.Parkhomenko - Hasanova/Mammadyarova - Shabovta - Mammadova - Y.Parkhomenko - Korkmaz - Korotenko. Mammadyarova isn't at all on the same level as 2006 after her pregnancy, Maksimenko isn't a player on international level and Kovalenko is also not as good as Korkmaz and Y.Parkhomenko (well, I hope Garayev won't torture Yelena so much that she has to sit in wheelchair in some years and I hope one day she will finally recover from the knee injury).

Quote from Bartek

When was 12-14 for Croatia i say God please help them a little and 16-14. Thank You

But Spain is very christian country. Why should God be on Croatia side?

I'm glad Serbia has already qualified, their play really didn't inspire much confidence and I didn't want to think about all the possible calculations. Still, I am not exactly overjoyed since they clearly played better three years ago.

Quote from Rainmaker

please anybody put here match between croatia and spain or just 5 set, pleaseeeeee

I don't think it was broadcast anywhere.

Quote from Matthias

In general I agree, but at the moment I rather see a different tendency in many teams. Poland has 4 OHs who are not tall and are good backrow players.

that's due to so many injuried/breaks. i bet if Podolec and/or Glinka was able to play we wouldn't play with small player.

if Podolec return i expect Baranska-Podolec will be the pair of OH for next 4 years,

Turkey won first set

Turkey won secound set

Quote from Matthias

In general I agree, but at the moment I rather see a different tendency in many teams. Poland has 4 OHs who are not tall and are good backrow players (well, normally they are although they didn't show it so much these days), Turkey has Esra and Gözde (I hope Chiappini will finally understand that he can't play with Seda and Neslihan together), Netherlands has Alice Blom and Maret Grothues (unfortunately only on bench), Germany has Heike Beier who is not a strong attacker but very good receiver and defender and we even got back Sylvia Roll, Italy has Secolo and Piccinini and Aguero...

I agree with those names, but unfortunately Swieniewicz, Jagielo, Gumus, Blom, Secolo, Picci, Aguero, Roll are not young. Beier is 1983, so that leaves just Grothues, Kirdar, Baranska, Bosetti as young and good at reception and defence. Maybe I forgot some names?

Hopefully Turkey can play with Gumus some more years and there is Gozde Kirdar who is younger and good. Absolutely to avoid Darnel-Seda-Neriman together on court. Poland should play with Baranska in my opinion. If Rosner returns to her levels she can be a good sub for Podolec in back row.
Serbia is in real trouble, but that I'm afraid is their own fault. How can a good coach as Terzic allow all the young and promising players playing as opposites in clubs? So they don't receive for a whole year and it's obvious that then in NT they have troubles.

Matthias, how are younger German spikers in reception and defence? I was shocked by Guidetti's choice not to bring Dumler, because she gives stability in back row.

I'd like to see in the future complete players such as Sokolova, Logan Tom, Jaqueline, Osmokrovic, Piccinini, Paula, Artamonova, Baranska, Swieniewicz, Zhou Suhong, Takahashi, Costagrande, Aguero etc. that can not just attack well, but also receive, defend and serve.

POL 1 - TUR 2

Eda is very impressive in first three sets. It was weird Zenik got one point.

Quote from samba player

Matthias, how are younger German spikers in reception and defence? I was shocked by Guidetti's choice not to bring Dumler, because she gives stability in back row.

Our JNT coach Han Abbing works very hard on reception and defense and apart from Sarah Petrausch (186cm) our hitters all are very short (Weihenmeier 180, Völker 178, Bathen even only 173). There is another very good OH born 1988, Karla Borger, she is also 180 and would play in NT but she decided to play beach volley . Our problem is that most of these players aren't great attackers and as you say it is hard to find players who are good at everything. Maren Brinker is on a good way, she has always been a good attacker and how she also improves her reception. I think Guidetti made a mistake ordering Saskia Hippe to become Opp, she had good potential to play as receiving OH too.

And we lost it... It is good, that it wasn't decisive match. The game was even closer, than I'd expected. We could have had unless 5 sets today. Too bad, but generally it was the best game by Poles in this tournament, I think, although it has been lost.

POL 1 TUR 3
(23-25, 19-25, 25-23, 26-28)

Congrats girls! Eda and Deniz were perfect and Nihan got one point too Though Nesli was not good but finished the game.