The inexperience of the very young American squad showed in the 2nd set
Ditto! But its nice to see how they keep trying and they are excited about their volleyball. so any loss they get will just make them better. I have to say Nicole Davis is one of the best Liberos out there at the moment.
Poland is hot right now..... 
Hope USA will take the 4th set.... they committed a lot of bad passes so they need to work on that in the 4th set.... the US setter needs to use her middle a bit more. Hodge is a bit cold right now.
congratulations Poland
Even though the US lost, they played okay over-all. With Berg and Logan coming back, I think they can make a deep run in the WCH. I hope that Megan and Destinee will do well in Italy so that they can develop into better players. I also hope that Foluke will forego med school and play as a pro.
OMG, What a game, POL-USA! it was such a fantastic match!
Karolina Kosek played really well today, also Bednarek and Okuniewska 
btw, I love all the polish crowds, they truly seem to love volleyball and always support polish players. how lovely! polish players have got their great back
personally I'd pick Bednarek as the MVP today.
P.S Giulia Rondon played well today. I don't want to blame anyone. Let just her grow up, and who knows? we will see she gets much better.
nextweek, Italy is gonna be much stronger with Lo bianco,Gioli and Cardullo 
YAY GO ITALY!!!
yeah 
God that was some shitty performance out there today. Poland played the worst match this weekend and we need to thank those young players from USA for allowing us to take that 2nd set. Skowronska was clearly not in her best this weekend but i think it will be better every week. it's not like she plays bad for Poland, no i remeber her outstanding perfomances and she was playing so well during ECH in 2007 OG 2008 WC 2007...she is just kind of player that need to be in her best to play very well cus when she is "off" she just makes error after error and the other thing is our setters still have lot to work on , those pass to Skowronska are not very accurate.
Kosek played great match hands down.
anyway i'm so happy for those 3 wins this weekend. it's the best start of WGP in our history and we are just one step from final 6. we are 2nd in standing so keep it on girls
Is it just me or is there a lot of setter-bashing going on in this thread? So far I've heard Holland, Italy, Poland, Brazil 
Whoah, what a sad loss...The 2nd and 4th set could have gone USA's way if not for those bad passing. Nonetheless, Congratulations to Poland!
The inexperience really showed but I am still happy with the loss. They have improved a lot since last year. I am happy they gave Poland's best players (Team A) a hard time!
Logan, Berg, Kim Glass will make this team complete and a contender as it was evident on USA's weaknesses in the game... Reception by OH, Setting and Serving.
Akinradewo and Hooker played very well despite being young and inexperienced in International games. Hooker's ability to attack over blockers with her athleticism will help the US a lot in the future not to forget her defense and blocking. Geez... Pesaro is getting a very good player! And so is Akinradewo...perhaps Dani Scott got resurrected 
Hodge was decent but being fresh out-of-college that was a bit understandable. Playing in Italian league will help her
I don't know the future of Larson or Barboza... with the impending return of Glass and Tom.
Forgot to mention... I think Logan Tom will be called next week to help this team earn a spot in the finals.
She's been training with the team including those scrimmages and she's better than ever.
Good thing she's still 29... USA will still have her while searching for that "future Logan Tom".
Hugh is a very good coach..... I remember 2006 when US Men were struggling in every league in then peaked during the World League 2008 just months before winning the Gold in the Olympics... I sense the same pattern here for the US Women NT.
Anyway, I cheered a lot for the US but they came up short yet there's still a lot of promising display of athleticisms shown in their game against Poland. I am getting excited for round 2. This WGP 2010 is a lot better compare to last year. I am loving it. 
I believe Brazil's attackers are as great as the Italians. Italy's performance as a team made the difference. Their defense is amazing, and their strategy in attack was very intelligent. They were using Brazil's block to score their points. Brazil's blockers had difficulty in finding the block timing for both Piccinini and Del Core. In my opinion, Brazil's block was supposed to be more agressive and not that high, after all Italy's outside hitters are rather short. Apart from that, Brazil's serve reception was bad because of the good job Italy did on serve.
I believe one reason for it is that Brazil has passed 3 months training without playing official tournaments like the Montreux Volley Masters or the Pan-American Cup.
Overall, the game had two many ups and downs from both sides and Italy was clearly way more confident than Brazil on court. When Italy made a mistake, their response was very quick and they recovered right on the other point. On the other hand, when Brazil commited an error, they lost their confidence and commited two or three more.
From the match statistics, it is easy to see that the difference in the match were the mistakes. Brazil gave 22 points to Italy and Italy only gave 12 points to Brazil on the other hand.
I only hope Brazil's team could improve to have chances against Italy in the WCH. I believe our girls have lots of potential, but they should improve a lot, especially in serve reception, digging and blocking if they have the least hope of beating Italy.
Watching a very fun game between Dominican Republic and Germany.
Kozuch is fun to watch. She hits very hard
Eve of DR is very young but what a talent!
Mambru has a good armswing
Congrats to Italy and Poland.
I think, Rondon was good performance today.
Brazilian Natalia is very strong, i like to her game.
I honestly didn't expect Italy to win 1-3 against Brazil and that without Lo Bianco, Gioli and Cardulo..congratulations Italy 
Italy is master of defence between the topteams, in past, presence and I think it will also be in future. I really enjoy good defence-actions, even more than good attack-actions. From that point of view it's a pity for me that the Dutch NT's have always been (very) weak in defence 
Ok, it has certainly to do with the players' height, but I think it's also a matter of mentality to train a lot on defence!!
only Kozuch is playing for Germany.
Beier could have finished set 4 
Wake up Germany!.. 
only Kozuch is playing for Germany.
Beier could have finished set 4
yes you're right. i agree with you.
The performance of German OHs is completely embarassing. We better get Hanka Pachale and Sylvia Roll back to NT. Oh, and Tanja Hart too. Kathleen Weiß can't do anything today (which is not at all her fault with these attackers), but still I have no idea why Guidetti doesn't give a chance to Denise Hanke.
Display MoreI believe Brazil's attackers are as great as the Italians. Italy's performance as a team made the difference. Their defense is amazing, and their strategy in attack was very intelligent. They were using Brazil's block to score their points. Brazil's blockers had difficulty in finding the block timing for both Piccinini and Del Core. In my opinion, Brazil's block was supposed to be more agressive and not that high, after all Italy's outside hitters are rather short. Apart from that, Brazil's serve reception was bad because of the good job Italy did on serve.
I believe one reason for it is that Brazil has passed 3 months training without playing official tournaments like the Montreux Volley Masters or the Pan-American Cup.
Overall, the game had two many ups and downs from both sides and Italy was clearly way more confident than Brazil on court. When Italy made a mistake, their response was very quick and they recovered right on the other point. On the other hand, when Brazil commited an error, they lost their confidence and commited two or three more.
From the match statistics, it is easy to see that the difference in the match were the mistakes. Brazil gave 22 points to Italy and Italy only gave 12 points to Brazil on the other hand.
I only hope Brazil's team could improve to have chances against Italy in the WCH. I believe our girls have lots of potential, but they should improve a lot, especially in serve reception, digging and blocking if they have the least hope of beating Italy.
I totally agree with you. Brazil played a nice games but with more mistakes from italy. Also i hope that they will get improved throw the games beacuase of the long time out from official games, so they can defend their title. Jaqueline is back and i love it 
. I think Brazil with this players can make it and in the Olympics for a good ranking (miss fofao)
I honestly didn't expect Italy to win 1-3 against Brazil and that without Lo Bianco, Gioli and Cardulo..congratulations Italy
I didnt expect Italy to win too, at least without Lo bianco and Giolli. It was my suprise for today. I think that the full roster of Italy will be fantastic this year 
Deciding set to play in a game
Go Germany