Qualifications for the European Championship 2011

I think that spain NT is too weak nowadays..the new generation is not strong as they were in the past...they have a good player in junior NT, Ruiz, but he is only 1.78..i don't think he will be good in international level.. Slovenian has good players of ACH Volley Bled, and they are still young..Also they have Urnaut and this season Pajenk will play in italy too...Gasparini played in Greece...Sket, Vincic, Kamnik, Jakopin are very good players..so they have better options for the future, what i don't think spain has..

About Italy, i think that they will win next week all the games but they will be 2nd...The same will happen to Netherlands..At least i hope Netherlands win all the games (they are my 2nd team)...Portugal is a nice surprise but next week we will see if they can play like they did.

Quote from Raul

MB .... you should know your favourite team has both italian NT players on this position - Birarelli and Sala. and i think they are both pretty young

Volley in italy is always on same position, and italy wasnt so poor never, so you must seek answers somewhere else. There is no world class italian player atm on key positions (setter, opposite or even OH, they are simply too weak to play top volley, and IMO this is only circumstance of league politics, they must and will change something soon. just matter of time, if they have any brain left in federation

Sala and Birareli are both over 30 years old

Quote from Raul

About Italy, they touched bottom, think this country wasnt weaker ever, seems wrong politics in domestic championship about foreign players is slowly coming on payment...

Volley in italy is always on same position, and italy wasnt so poor never, so you must seek answers somewhere else. There is no world class italian player atm on key positions (setter, opposite or even OH, they are simply too weak to play top volley, and IMO this is only circumstance of league politics, they must and will change something soon. just matter of time, if they have any brain left in federation

deep truth
i don't follow the NT so much, especially in these last years in which they are making all italian volleyball fans feel ashamed...but really, yesterday Italy reached the bottom, worst period ever
i can have all the respect of this earth for Turkey, but simply Italy can't loose versus Turkey...taking in consider that this was the SECOND loss EVER versus that team(the first in 1966......)

Furthermore, Italy lost from Turkey 0:3 with pt difference!

well Italy is pretty awful lately. and that's strange cus the do have good players(i mean they are not as strong as the "golden" generation but still it should be enough to beat Turkey...) i've seen couple of serie a matches and Martino Savani Parody were really good and those 3 should easily ensure high level of play.

BTW the EQ have some kind of curse. 2 years ago Poland almost didn't qulify to ECH from those tournament loosing to Estonia and Montenegro and we struggle to beat Belgium in play offs(3-2 away and 2-3 at home). now Holland and Italy are balancing on the edge.

The Dutch players should be very ashamed about their 'performances' in Macedonia...I didn't see a single second of the matches, so I am not in the position to blame a single player, but the results are disastrous! The team played great matches on ECH last year against Bulgaria, Russia and Serbia; considering that games, losing 0-3 against Portugal and 2-3 against Macedonia are a real shame!

Hopefully they win 3 times in Rotterdam next weekend and reach to the play offs..

Quote from mateo

well Italy is pretty awful lately. and that's strange cus the do have good players(i mean they are not as strong as the "golden" generation but still it should be enough to beat Turkey...) i've seen couple of serie a matches and Martino Savani Parody were really good and those 3 should easily ensure high level of play.

BTW the EQ have some kind of curse. 2 years ago Poland almost didn't qulify to ECH from those tournament loosing to Estonia and Montenegro and we struggle to beat Belgium in play offs(3-2 away and 2-3 at home). now Holland and Italy are balancing on the edge.

Very true, it's not a lack of talent if you consider Italy has a line-up including Vermiglio, Fei, Mastrangelo, Savani, etc. '
I think it's more something of a mental issue: who is able to turn the switch after a though league season.

Italy will probably face Latvia in the 3th round.
If the Dutch manage to take the second spot next week (which I expect them to accomplish), then they will face probably Estonia.

Anyway, Turkish volleyball is a rising start, considering this remarkable victory and the number of big transfers that were announced recently to Turkish club teams.

Yeah I guess it's painful for any volleyball fan that was a fan in the 90's to see Italy and the Netherlands perfom like this... I mean it is obvious that both teams do have good players.. perhaps not the absolute best, but definitely very good.

The thing is, both teams have been on their way down for a while... but you'd think that around now they should be heading upwards again, especially Holland, since we've been investing in young players for a long time now. It is true that the Dutch team is relatively young... Kooistra and Bontje do have experience, but are not real leaders.. That is where we do miss Horstink.. outside hitter is more of a position where you can take a leading role. Middle attackers can't really do anything when reception is bad. So just more patience is in order. just a little longer before players like Rauwerdink and Kooy will be able to lead the team.. also Klapwijk. It'll come.

Italy.. not so sure, they seem to lack a long term vision. They just get some kind of a selection from serie A every year and seem to go "well... perhaps this might work?? I don't know... who cares". Just get Parodi and Martino in there and invest in them... that WILL pay off in the end, we all know that.

I always used to hate Spain, because they always kicked Holland's ass in an annoying effective way. But now I'm starting to feel sorry for them as well. All the greats are getting destroyed.

It's true that Slovenia, is becoming a very strong team. Last time Holland played them though, they were COMPLETELY destroyed (mainly by Kooistra's serve).

Anyway, looks like I'll have to go to Rotterdam next weekend, seeing as how they can't seem to be able to perform without me... pfff.

Quote from HeeelMooi

Anyway, looks like I'll have to go to Rotterdam next weekend, seeing as how they can't seem to be able to perform without me... pfff.

See you in Rotterdam next weekend.
Fifth set of yesterday was in Studio Sport a couple of minutes ago and that was enough for me. Didn't like the pleasure they were showing in that set..... All head down, and not showing any fun or joy, think they had to talk a lot about this weekend.
But you're right, a lot of these guys are still young and had to learn from these matches. Hope they learn a lot in 4 days!

Yeah let's hope they can bounce back quick.

I'm not sure if this is watchable outside of Holland, but there's a short clip of 5th set of Holland against Macedonia here: http://nos.nl/artikel/159375-m…-klopt-volleyballers.html

Martino and Parody didn't play in Turkey, I have to say. Parody is already big, so it is strange if he is fit

Slovenia and Turkey are real sensations of the day as they outclass Spain and Italy respectively

Luxembourg, May 23, 2010. Slovenia was certainly the major sensation of this second round of qualifiers for the 2011 CEV Men’s European Championship as the guys from Ljubljana defeated 2007 European champion Spain in Maribor to claim the provisional lead of Pool A. Another major upset was registered in Ankara where Turkey demolished the Italian national team with a classy performance and quite an embarrassing 3:0 for a squad that later this year will play a World Championship on home soil. Elsewhere Finland, Slovakia, Germany and Portugal are topping the charts after the first round robin with the Netherlands having been a major disappointment in Skopje as they lost two matches there and will have a very tough job to climb up and book a spot for next year’s European Championship.

Pool A in Maribor (SLO)

Slovenia vs. Spain 3:1 (25-17, 26-28, 25-15, 25-15)
Hungary vs. Israel 3:1 (20-25, 35-33, 27-25, 25-21)

Pool B in Riga (LAT)

Latvia vs. Finland 1:3 (23-25, 26-24, 25-27, 15-25)
Great Britain vs. Greece 0:3 (30-32, 21-25, 19-25)

Pool C in Poprad (SVK)

Bosnia & Herzegovina vs. Belgium 1:3 (22-25, 25-18, 15-25, 25-27)
Ukraine vs. Slovakia 1:3 (24-26, 18-25, 25-22, 16-25)

Pool D in Bar (MNE)

Montenegro vs. Germany 0:3 (11-25, 18-25, 17-25)
Estonia vs. Croatia 3:0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-23)

Pool E in Ankara (TUR)

Turkey vs. Italy 3:0 (26-24, 25-17, 25-13)
Belarus vs. Romania 3:1 (25-20, 25-19, 24-26, 25-23)

Pool F in Skopje (MKD)

Portugal vs. Sweden 3:0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-14)
F.Y.R. of Macedonia vs. The Netherlands 3:2 (26-24, 18-25, 29-27, 21-25, 15-11)

Source : CEV

LOL, there was more people at Turkey's matches than during Eurovolley2009

Great job CEV, volleyball in Turkey during the holy month of Ramadan

i think greece will win latva and Great Britain easily mayb and finland.it is a very good team.we play the games in latvia with one training we are better team than finland .this week w will do more trainings and we will be better than the machts in latvia.Greek campionship finished 10 days ago so our players are very tired

i like very much turkey and portugal!but in european league will win portugal and turkey because we are better!!!

Quote from Lukevolley

Great job CEV, volleyball in Turkey during the holy month of Ramadan

When I last watched a full match of Italy men's team, they were in the OG final. What happened to this team? I can't wait to see the next game.

I never expected I would see Holland beaten by F.Y.R. Macedonia...

I think Netherlands will get out of this trouble. I remember Poland in 2008 how tough they got to Olympics and to European Championship. And what - in OG only luck didnt let them to 1/2-finals - they were in the best shape I've ever seen. In 2009 they won ECH although they didn't faced Netherlands, Russia, Italy, Finland and Serbia.

Can anyone point out to me where I can find statistics for Netherland's matches, cuz I can't find them anywhere

Quote from HeeelMooi

Can anyone point out to me where I can find statistics for Netherland's matches, cuz I can't find them anywhere

You can find the statistics ( first go to volleyball competitions -->european championship ---> tournament FYOM) in the submenu 'gameinfo' and then click in the right corner down the page.