World Championships 2010


  • Could you explain what do you mean by "this crap"?

    As a matter of fact I'm simply fed up with FIVB and all of its unclear and dirty actions.
    I meant about the next World Championship in Italy. Its competition formula is outrageous kind of cheat-win-lose system.
    Don't you agree with that?

  • Thank you for an answer, because I wasn't sure (:


    Yes, I agree with you. This formula is very, very bad and I just hope they don't use it again in the future :thumbdown:

    They should remake it at all. I guess there's time enough to do it.
    I just wonder who were the genious behind this plot...

  • Serbian team for WC



    Tehničari: Nikola Grbić, Vlado Petković i Mihajlo Mitić.
    Korektori: Ivan Miljković i Saša Starović.
    Libera: Marko Samardžić i Nikola Rosić.
    Blokeri: Dragan Stanković, Marko Podraščanin, Borislav Petrović i Milan Rašić.
    Primači: Bojan Janić, Miloš Nikić, Nikola Kovačević, Miloš Terzić i Miloš Vemić.

  • Zhekov is injured and is under question for now, Konstantin Mitev with chance to replace him. He was playing in Arda.

  • How many times I must say Ivanov had scandal with federation and will never come back. :white: Mitev was the best setter this season


    P.S.
    Everyonne in Bulgaria has hopes Zhekov won't play :wavy: even he is making bad mistakes I don't think Mitev will do his best to get used with our national team.

  • "won't play"? You mean people in Bulgaria are fed up with his level of setting?


    Zhekov's biggest problem is his mental weakness at critical moments, and his combination with MBs (esp with Todorov). However, there's one point that I admire him a lot: he jumps set almost in every play. Of course, he is good at every element other than setting.


    From the Bulgarian team's play over the past few years, Zhekov seems to be their only setter who can play at international level. If he cannot be in the squad, Bulgaria will have an extremely hard time at WCH.

  • I think that for everyone who understands at least a little the game and has watched games with Bulgaria is clear, that Zhekov is the best bulgarian setter and is on the level of Kazyiski and Nikolov as a player overall. There is some jealousy, because he replaced Nikolay Ivanov and his fens can not live with that.


    And he is from the class of Grbich, Zagumny, Falasca, proven many times. He doesn't have many experience in winning, but no Bulgarian player has this in his NT. Our players don't communicate enough on the field and they underperform together. We should have been champions back in 2006...

  • Quote

    Everyonne in Bulgaria has hopes Zhekov won't play :wavy:

    O, really? Is that so? Can you show us such stats somewhere, because I seriously doubt there exists some! There's a certain group of people in Bulgaria who do not like Zhekov, he only mentioned them in an interview recently. About the fans who don't like him, it's just their choice! He has his good and bad sides, we all know about them, but I truly agree with raylight this time, he is the best Bulgarian setter right now and without him we would suck! Even Vlado Nikolov stated that we won't be the same team without him, because currently we don't have a proper substitute of him... so, not everyone in Bulgaria hopes he won't recover. Just on the contrary, most of us keep fingers crossed for him to come back on time!!!

  • By the way, i think Mitev is pretty decent player, especially with his serious beach volleyball skills. And I think that Bratoev could become great setter, if he develops properly. Both brothers Bratoev have enough qualities to write their names with golden letters in the world volleyball, if they persist enough. They don't have the great jump abilities of Todorov and Kazyiski, but they have more than enough intellect and no fear in their hearts. I hope they will do their best and evolve to their maximum :bump:

  • I hope Mitev will be setter in Hubert Wagner Memorial and gonna show he's quite capable to replace Zhekov.

  • I've watched most of Bulgaria matches during WL and also EA Patron and Zhekov isn't world class setter. IMO with better setter Bulgaria would have much better results, so Zhekov absence isn't end of the world for me :win:


  • My predictions :


    Group A


    On first sight this looks like easy group but I don't think so. Italians will advance for sure but fight for 2nd position will be very interesting. I've watched Irand during AVC but they didin't impressed me except in final but China was poor. Japs are surely angry for missing WL this year, they missed 12 strong matches but motivation surely will be high. My favs for 2nd position is Egypt :whistle: . They impressed me during WL, making incredibile progress so I've big respect for them. Egyptians have really strong block and serve and that will be their main power.


    Group B


    For me in this group is everything clear - Brazil and Cuba will advance for sure. Spain is poor,don't see any strenght in their game despite they have excellent coach Velasco. Tunisia is here just to fill up place. :whistle:


    Group C


    Russians are here 1st, probably without losing set and allowing their opponents only 15-20 points per set. Will be nice to see match Puerto Rico - Australia which surely will give us 2nd team. For me this is 50-50 match, but only if Yudin recovers and I think he will. Cameroon is just passenger here.


    Group D


    Also very easy group IMO. USA and Argentina are best teams here, despite USA dissapointed me in WL. Venezuela depends on 2 players (don't know will Agamez play), that isn't enough to endanger USA and Argentina. For Mexico look at Cameroon & Tunisia prediction :rolll:


    Group E


    Bulgaria & France will advance from this group. China showed really poor performances during WL and AVC so I can't say anything good for them. Antiga returns for France, that will be huge boost for them althought I don't fancy him as player. He have great influence on the team and that no one can deny :whistle: Samica, Rouzier and Antiga is great attacking line and with good setter (I hope Pujol will play) they can do damage here. ''My'' Bulgaria is big favorite, not only in this group but also for medal. Prandi is doing good job, especially in psycholgical aspect and that was biggest Bulgarian problem. Now they're stabile, not losing head even they have to catch result. Attacking options are just great and only problem IMO is setter because Zhekov isn't high class player.


    Group F


    IMO strongest group in whole WC. Serbia made excellent result in WL with very young team and now Grbić and Miljković returns. Huge moral nad quality boost.They will advance IMO. I like Poland very much. Strong team on every position, great coach but Poles are mentally very weak, despite winning last EC. Wlazly is one of the best opposite players in the world, Winiarski is top class when he is healthy as well as Swiderski. Middle bloker Mozdozonek is also very good player but 2nd middle blocker Czarnowski is weakest link in Polish squad IMO. Czech faced with big blow because Lebl is lost for WC (hip injury). Czech will not surrender but they are behind all teams in group. Germans surprised me in WL and Lozano's work is visible. Very balanced team, very high figting spirit and showed that they can cope with best teams in world. I will seek 2nd team in match between Poland and Germany :wavy:

  • Group F


    I like Poland very much. Strong team on every position, great coach but Poles are mentally very weak, despite winning last EC. Wlazly is one of the best opposite players in the world, Winiarski is top class when he is healthy as well as Swiderski. Middle bloker Mozdozonek is also very good player but 2nd middle blocker Czarnowski is weakest link in Polish squad IMO.

    I agree with almost everything u wrote. Yes, Wlazły is one of the best opposite in the world when he's healthy same with Winiarski and Świderski. Możdżonek is pretty good too, but still not the same class as Kadziewicz, who is the best Polish middle blocker for me. Pliński is good too, but he doesn't present anything special right now.
    I totally can't agree with your sentence about Patryk Czarnowski. I guess u haven't seen him playing in Plus Liga last season, but believe me he played brilliant. He was the best on his position. Even better than experienced Pliński and Możdżonek. He was just awesome. He blocks really well and he attacks really fast and strong. His weakest point is obviously his serve. It's really unstable and well...just weak. But imo besides serve he doesn't have many weak points.
    Maybe he didn't show his best during World League(I don't think he played bad though), but he's very good middle blocker and I'm really glad that he's finally in NT this year :)
    Oh, and about our mentality. Well...I'm not saying we're reeeeally mentally strong, but I don't think we have weak mentality. We have proved that many times and I hope we'll prove that again! :)

  • mate I didn't said Czarnowski is bad player, way from that but I see him as weakest link in squad. OK he was better in Plus Liga but here (on WC) you need experienced players and Mozdozonek and Plinski are. Poland have bright future in Czarnowski and Novakowski as middle blockers ;)


    About mental weakness ofcc Poland isn't weakest team but other teams who have had problems with weak mentality (Russia and Bulgaria are my examples) made nice progress. Bulgarians showed that on last EC and Russians during WL. Poland still allows opponents to score 5-6 points in row (as in matches against Cuba in Poland) and that shouldn't happen to such strong team. Same thing was with SKRA on last CL Final Four. That's only my opinion and I hope they will show different side on WC :win:

  • mate I didn't said Czarnowski is bad player, way from that but I see him as weakest link in squad. OK he was better in Plus Liga but here (on WC) you need experienced players and Mozdozonek and Plinski are. Poland have bright future in Czarnowski and Novakowski as middle blockers ;)


    About mental weakness ofcc Poland isn't weakest team but other teams who have had problems with weak mentality (Russia and Bulgaria are my examples) made nice progress. Bulgarians showed that on last EC and Russians during WL. Poland still allows opponents to score 5-6 points in row (as in matches against Cuba in Poland) and that shouldn't happen to such strong team. Same thing was with SKRA on last CL Final Four. That's only my opinion and I hope they will show different side on WC :win:

    Alright, but still....I don't see him as the weakest point of our team ;) For me the weakest one is Winiarski so far. He's so out of shape. I think he had just one good match during WL...it was against Cuba in Havana, I guess it was first match.
    He's obviously world class player, but this year after shoulder injury he's not the same player. I hope he will recover as soon as possible and show his great game again. So far for me he's one of the weakest.
    Bulgaria made progress with their mentality? And they showed that during ECh in Turkey? When? I guess not during semifinal against Poland ;)
    Talking about ECh- Poles proved exactly during ECh that they're mentally strong. Remember matches against Slovakia and Spain? Both finished after really nervous tiebreak. I think this is good expample.
    Sure, we lost couple of points in a row against Cubans, but I wouldn't take WL too serious. It was a little experimental tournament...We'll see how mentally tough are we( we + other teams) very soon, during WCh ;)

  • Alright, but still....I don't see him as the weakest point of our team ;) For me the weakest one is Winiarski so far. He's so out of shape. I think he had just one good match during WL...it was against Cuba in Havana, I guess it was first match.
    He's obviously world class player, but this year after shoulder injury he's not the same player. I hope he will recover as soon as possible and show his great game again. So far for me he's one of the weakest.
    Bulgaria made progress with their mentality? And they showed that during ECh in Turkey? When? I guess not during semifinal against Poland ;)
    Talking about ECh- Poles proved exactly during ECh that they're mentally strong. Remember matches against Slovakia and Spain? Both finished after really nervous tiebreak. I think this is good expample.
    Sure, we lost couple of points in a row against Cubans, but I wouldn't take WL too serious. It was a little experimental tournament...We'll see how mentally tough are we( we + other teams) very soon, during WCh ;)


    Poland simply was better in semis, match against Slovakia is only proves my opinion :whistle: how do you comment fact that Poland won 2 sets leaving Slovakia on 15 and 10 points, after that losing next set sccoring only 14 points :D Spain is pathetic team and they managed to get 2 sets only because Poland had many ups&downs... I'm not fooled by Polish sucess on last EC. Looser mentality was showed again in CL Final Four, when SKRA lost to Dinamo :D


    For years Bulgarian main problem was mental weakness and Prandi changed that, but now main problem is setter...