World League 2010



  • I agree with you in general. Service is indeed the breaking point of the Dutch game. It can break the opponent or it can break the Dutch themselves !! Klapwijk, Kooistra, Bontje, Kooy, Rauwerdink...they all (!) can serve bombs and they all proved it in the past several times, in club and also in NT, but this WL hardly one of them shows it.
    If you just see this WL-campaign I agree Bontje should change his serve, but in the past his serve was often a big weapon for the team. The same for Kooistra. Today Kooistra showed that he can serve bombs, but he can still do better (more consistent).
    Kooy can become a great player and I think in two/three years he is much better than Horstink. The amazing thing is he started playing volleyball only 5 or 6 years ago !!! People in Dutch federation say because of that he can still make more progression than others.

  • Great game for Netherlands, they play better against Brazil than against us, may be because against Brazil they have nothing to loose.
    Korea played incredible game in serve, block, reception and defense. They served at maximum risk with minimum errors, which lowered our reception, they used the block for counter attacks against much higher opponent attackers, they received incredibly well our strong serves and they made great defense. This match went for us with some luck and thanks to incredible attack and some massive blocks.
    Sokolov played highest level of attack in both games. Nikolay Nikolov made incredible second game - for the first time with so many blocks, Zhekov again was very strong - 10.40 running sets with 37% of reception!
    Poland won with Zagumny, Italy with Mastrangelo and because France served half of the balls against Loris Mania, which was tactical mistake or lack of tactical discipline (I am sure that Fillip Blain told them to hit on the receivers, not on the libero). China is getting stronger, so Italy can loose point there and of course Serbia can beat them twice at home.
    Congratulations to all teams which today played on high level :bump:

  • Poland played two average matches against Argentinians, who come to Poland with their second team. But we have 6 points more. Nice :)

    The most important 3:
    POLAND-SZCZECIN-VOLLEYBALL


    5th place - Prediction Game - World League 2011 :D

  • Poland played two average matches against Argentinians, who come to Poland with their second team. But we have 6 points more. Nice :)


    I didn't see anything average in Polish game. Poland didn't play bad from the beginning, Germany won with host advantage, Argentina lost 4 games, Cuba was defeated at home 3:0. Nothing average in these games.


  • I didn't see anything average in Polish game. Poland didn't play bad from the beginning, Germany won with host advantage, Argentina lost 4 games, Cuba was defeated at home 3:0. Nothing average in these games.

    Generally I also consider those two matches as average. We could play a lot better than this. Our second match against Argentina was a little bit better than our first. We still made lots of mistakes, but we improved our serve, which was really hopeless on Saturday. And comparing to our first match against Argentina we also improved our block. Daniel Pliński was great yesterday. Awesome serve, awesome block. 17 blocks against Weber's team is pretty good score ;) (6 Pliński).
    Right now in our group Cuba is still first, we're just behind them. I hope we'll win all of 4 matches that are left, it's not something impossible. We already defeated Cubans 3-0, why not try to do it again? ;) Oh, I also hope that we'll take revenge on Germans :D Easy 3-0 is also very possible ;) If we'll keep serving well, reduce mistakes and stop Grozer we can take revenge on Germans pretty easily ;)

  • Ojla answered for me :)

    The most important 3:
    POLAND-SZCZECIN-VOLLEYBALL


    5th place - Prediction Game - World League 2011 :D

  • You have very high standards when judging Polish play in my opinion. Average games would cost you pts even against Argentina second squad. Where is Zagumny nothing is average.
    About Cuba and Germany - You can beat Germany,but I don't think that Grozer can be stopped so easily. The man is a machine and they have second killer - Shops. Cuba makes a lot of mistakes, which is their main weakness, but it will be almost impossible not to loose any points against them. If you take 12 pts from these 4 games, you will be the favorite for the gold

  • You have very high standards when judging Polish play in my opinion. Average games would cost you pts even against Argentina second squad. Where is Zagumny nothing is average.

    Well, Argentina also didn't play great. They played what they could with that squad. That's why we didn't lose any point :D

    The most important 3:
    POLAND-SZCZECIN-VOLLEYBALL


    5th place - Prediction Game - World League 2011 :D

  • You have very high standards when judging Polish play in my opinion. Average games would cost you pts even against Argentina second squad. Where is Zagumny nothing is average.
    About Cuba and Germany - You can beat Germany,but I don't think that Grozer can be stopped so easily. The man is a machine and they have second killer - Shops. Cuba makes a lot of mistakes, which is their main weakness, but it will be almost impossible not to loose any points against them. If you take 12 pts from these 4 games, you will be the favorite for the gold

    That's because I know how good Poles can play, and it doesn't matter if they're playing against Argentina, Germany or Cuba. Yes, Zagumny is simply amazing and he always helps our team, but yesterday...hmm...he played well(as always) but I think some of the players attacked on double, triple block too many times. But if Zagumny and other players who came back to the team will play more I'm sure our game will look better.
    About Germany. We can beat them- that's obvious, and we can stop Grozer too ;) He's awesome, but he's NOT machine. Rember raylight? U said something like this about Kurek too ;) And he proved that he's NOT machine ;) The same applies to Grozer :) He's amazing opposite, but he also makes lots of mistakes, especially in the nervous end. He's not mentally tough and we should use it. I believe also in our middle blockers skills ;) As u mentioned there is still great Schoeps, but I think he's not in the best shape. I don't think Lozano let Grozer play only because he wants Jochen to rest a little bit. He's out of shape right now, Georg is just better right now, but that doesn't mean we can't stop him;) The same goes with Cuba. They're simply amazing, but if we'll play clever against them we will beat them. We don't need too play against them physically, because we'll lose, we have to be smart, and reduce our mistakes.

  • I never said it is impossible to take 12 pts, I just said that this would mean that you are the favorite for the title :)

  • Cuba can be beaten with float serve and tactics. I remember what we have done to them in Varna. They don't have brains, only attacking with power and high attack. :lol: And especially float serve against Leon.

  • Cuba can be beaten with float serve and tactics. I remember what we have done to them in Varna. They don't have brains, only attacking with power and high attack. :lol: And especially float serve against Leon.

    Yes, yes. I agree. Maybe I wouldn't say that they don't have brains ;) because it sounds a little bit offensive, but definitely their game is much more physicall than smart and yeah, their reception is really poor. If not their strenght they wouldn't be so dangerous.

  • Cuba can be beaten with float serve and tactics. I remember what we have done to them in Varna. They don't have brains, only attacking with power and high attack. :lol: And especially float serve against Leon.


    Their coach use simple tactic, but some of the players are clever, especially Simon Roberlandy. Remember what he did in the Grand Champions Cup against Japan - 4 consecutive aces with smart serving!

  • Kooy can become a great player and I think in two/three years he is much better than Horstink. The amazing thing is he started playing volleyball only 5 or 6 years ago !!! People in Dutch federation say because of that he can still make more progression than others.


    Kooy is an amazing talent, although he played a little less against Bulgaria and in the first match against Brazil this weekend. I'm not sure if he'll be much better than Horstink, because he still has some technical deficiencies that Horstink never had. In attack when the set does not end up where he thought it would, he does a hop instead of his full approach, which makes him lose a lot of height :( Also the way he swings his arms up when jumping is a little too compact I think and not aggressive enough (which against makes him lose a litle height). And like van Dijk he sometimes has the tendency to jump forward instead of up. His swing is great though! And his reception technique is really good! Which is surprising for someone who started playing so late. The technical deficiencies can be corrected though.


    About Holland's serve.. the poblem is that we have only high risk servers.. it's okay if you have one of two of those, but all of our servers are like that. It's absolutely all or nothing. We don't have anyone like Nummerdor and Zwerver anymore. They never served tons of aces, but they just hardly ever made mistakes with their serve, but were able to keep the opponent under pressure. And then we used to have van der Meulen, who would be a high risk server, but we only had ONE of those, not 8, like now. Only van Dijk has a decently low risk serve. Perhaps Horstink as well... So like Blange said the other day, it is possible that this will simply always remain our weakness.

  • No Answer for Sivula


    Team USA had no answer for Urpo Sivula in their five set loss to Finland during the FIVB World League international men's volleyball match tonight. The 22 year old opposite hit .570 with 28 kills, an ace and a block kill for a total of 31 points. Sivula routinely found a way to score a point..


    Read Full Article


    Photos, Stats available with Press Conference Video coming soon.




    Renewed Effort and Intensity Pay Off


    The Sears Centre crowd of approximately 4,000 fans saw a much better Team USA effort compared to Friday night resulting in a 3-1 win against the visiting 2010 World League Pool C opponent, Finland. Last night’s star player Urpo Sivula was held to a “mere” 22 points when compared to his 31 point effort the night before. Clay Stanley lead Team USA with a total of 19 points including 3 from aces...


    Read Full Article

  • Press Conference Video Available


    USA vs. Finland 6-25-10 Press Conference Video


    Topics
    Captains Statements
    Coaches Statements
    Main Concerns?
    Team Prepared for World Championships?
    What are you focusing on?
    Most Important Teams in World League?
    Communications & Transition Play
    Lineup Strategy After 3 Loses?
    Setting Performance
    Team Finland Tomorrow?
    Happy w/ Finland's Performance So Far?
    Mikko Esko?
    Team Finland Development

  • Press Conference Video Available


    USA vs. Finland 6-26-10 Press Conference Video


    Topics
    Captains Statements
    Coaches Statements
    Team Talk In Between Matches
    Russell Holmes Play
    Strategy for Sivula?
    Reid Priddy's Condition
    Performance of Anderson & Lotman
    Passing Problems
    Middle Hitter Position
    Pan American Games Roster
    Thoughts On Upcoming Match Against Russia
    Is Hansen the #1 Setter
    Will He Be the Starter the Rest of World League?
    First Week in Russia

  • Poland will play with Cuba without Wlazły, Winiarski, Kłos, Zatorski, Nowakowski


    The key to win against Cuba:


    • Zagumny in good shape (I hope he is)
    • Cool heads of all our players
    • Variance serve (as it was in Hawana)


    Go Poland :super: