It's a little bit funny that players from USA didn't get any individual title. Beside Hooker of course, But if USA didn't win, how could it looks? No individual titles for USA. But, anyway, congratualtions to USA. Destinee Hooker is a badass 
I'm glad to see Serbia with bronze medal and Dani Lins with the title of best setter 
My take on Brazil's crowded OH spot (Guimaraes must be so happy for this problem -- or is it a problem to begin with?)
If I had to chose 3 OHs from Jacqueline, Paula, Mari, Garay, Natalia and Sassa, I'd pick: JACQUELINE, GARAY and NATALIA for London.
Paula - C'mon, she's nowhere as good as she was in Beijing. She didn't played well the past 3 years both in NT and clubs.
Mari - Injury-prone. Excellent attacking but decent in receiving and defense.
Sassa - Certainly far from becoming a world-class OH.
Now my picks:
JACQUELINE - She's the best OH receiver and defender on the team. She was fun to watch in the World Championships digging rockets from the Russian attackers. Although she's not dominant in attacking, her role can be compared to like Jordan Larson of USA. Good candidate for OH2
GARAY - She's a revelation. She was fun to watch in this Grand Prix. Despite her tiny frame, she was attacking at will beating blocks and defenders. She's 25, pretty young, Guimaraes must invest his time and patience on her... She could be special in the future. Her receiving was also superb although not as consistent as Jacq's.
NATALIA - The future on Brazil's OH spot. No need for words, give her the necessary reps, she'll be a nightmare of the opposing teams in the future. Some would criticize her receiving and defending but remember she was an Opp before. Again, Natalia needs experience! Trust me, Brazil will be deadlier with her 2-3 years from now.
It's a little bit funny that players from USA didn't get any individual title. Beside Hooker of course, But if USA didn't win, how could it looks? No individual titles for USA. :
That's Total Team Effort.
Yet, Hooker was 2nd to Brakocevic in scoring, 4th in attacking
Akinradewo is 3rd in blocking while Larson and Tom are # 2 and #3 in serving
Berg is #2 in setting
Funny thing is USA's strong point has always been digging and receiving but they didn't dominated the stats this year. I think FIVB's criteria is a bit 
If I good remember a few months ago Przedpełski said that Poland is the main Candidate to have the 2012 Final Eight
I think Poland deserves to host the final round next year. I don't understand why everybody is so unwilling about the idea. Italy has hosted the final round three times. Why Poland cannot have the same privilage?. 
One of the things I dont like about Brasil team, is that they are to much exagerated...yesterday against Russia they won and celebrated like the tournament had already ended.....I think they celebrated even more then when Serbia beated Russia for example, or whatever. ITs always the same...always everyone against them, always taking old losts inside court, its always about revanges, and everything.....just boring. Why they cant just treat a victory as a victory and a lost as a lost, like everyone else. Each game is a new one. (sorry brasilian users, but that is my opinion, Im brasilian also, but its always the same history...its anoying.)
That's exactly what I feel about Brazil NT. 
yeah. natalia would be a perfect candidate. of course, she wasn't at her 100% form this grand prix cuz she just came out of a surgery. she had this this tumor in her knee right?
my candidate for starting OH: natalia, mari, jacqueline.
MARI and NATALIA: natalia and mari may not be the perfect passers but at top form, they're nightmares for the opposing team. also, mari was one of the best passers in beijing. if she and natalia can improve or at least become decent in passing, brazil would be a hard to beat team. also, both of them are naturally opposites. natalia in particular plays opposite in her club. but still, they NEED to improve their reception. teams like usa would definitely pick on them during matches.
JACQUELINE: she's a complete player. she has problems in attacking if her opponents are tall (russians) but she stabilizes the team offense AND defense.
GARAY: if she continues to improve then she's ready to be on the starting lineup. the finals showed her weakness in attacking, but other than that she is more than deserving to be on the national team.
PAULA PEQUENO: she had improved over the course of the tournament but still, she's nowhere near the form she had in 2008. also, like mari, she's prone to injury these days 
SASSA: bazil won't be complete without her. 
SHEILLA CASTRO: she's not being sheilla on this tournament, but still, the best opposite in the world.
TANDARA:.. 
goodblye Joycinha 
also, tandara plays outside hitter in her clubs right? i think if guimares chose her to play as an OH over natalia, then it would have made the difference in the finals (that's just a thought though ).
now if only roberto guimares wouldn't be so hard-headed and invite PRISCILA DAROIT on the team. priscila daroit: great attacker, decent defense, capable of blocking attacker the likes of the russians. what does he need more? also, i stand by what i have stated earlier. if only the brazilians (or at least some of their players.. like fabiana??) would be humble enough and not be so full of themselves all the time, they will be an almost perfect team. i mean, if a point is not theirs, which to them is supposed to be theirs, they always overreact! 
rewatching the game, i must say, what a perfect strategy for the USA. with perfect serves, they punctured the reception pattern of brazil. no reception means the ball would go to the outside, where bown/foluke await. it's also easy for usa to read when dani lins would go to the middle, and again the usa middles would be there. rewatching the final, it is easy to conclude that the USA really prepared themselves to negate thaisa's block/attacks. foluke and bown always watch her! no reception and no offense means it's easy for the usa attackers to put pressure on brazil. it is true that brazil is short of outside hitters. but that doesn't mean roberto guimaeres didn't have other players left on his side. fabiana had been ineffective all throughout the match. she had no block and most of the time her serves float outside of court. thaisa is being stopped too often. the problem with guimares, as what someone pointed out earlier on this thread, is that he is so closed group. he doesn't trust his other middles AT ALL (juiciely) where in fact juiciely just beat thaisa and fabiana at the brazilian club tournament as the best blocker. 
at least give her a chance!
LOGAN TOM: regarding the mvp: destinee is really deserving of the title. but my finals mvp is logan tom. deadly serves, perfect reception, awesome digs, perfect spikes, and perfect blocks. what can i say? it's logan tom!!! 
HOOKER: finally, a dependable opposite for the usa!!!! she's everywhere on court, even if the ball isn't supposed to be hers!!! 
LARSON: woohoo!! great finals performance from her. usually she's a very good defensive player with just passable offense. but her spikes on the wings brought brazil down!! 
FOLUKE: definitely proven herself as one of the best, if not THE best, middle blocker right now. admittedly i'm not a fan of her (perhaps i'm too intimidated by her physique???? 
). but yeah, she's a nightmare on court for the opposition....
BOWN: what can i say? usa is an incomplete team without her! she's the most reliable and consistent player on the usa roster. the way she blocked the life of thaisa on the finals brought tears in my heart (i'm brazilian fan to death )
DAVIS: sykora is still the best usa libero for me. but davis has proven herself as a deserving starting libero. fantastic plays from her
Mccutcheon: 
my, my... as a brazilian team fan, my favorite team is, of course, brazil, and i want them to take the gold medal next year at the olympics. but if usa continue to play like this.... watch out brazil!!!!
TANDARA:..
The problem is Tandara's reception is not good at all. I actually thought of this possibility too, in the final, when Garay and Natália weren't so good. Maybe it could've been worth the shot, but not on a regular basis. She'll probably play as OH next season too, cause Destinee shall be Solly's opposite, but I don't buy it. She's already a very good opposite. We don't need to mess with that. IMO, she won't improve her reception much.
In NT turning Tandara into OH in my opinion is completely waste of time 
Brasil has many good OH's: Mari, Paula, Jaqueline, now Garay and Natalia show good play, there is also Sassa. Don't forget about Suelle, Regiane or Priscilla Daroit 
In Sollys, unfortunately for Tandara, she will have to play as OH, if she doesn't want to sit on bench. Hooker position as first OPP is unquestionable.
Wow! Everyone on forum highly rates Jacqueline, I guess i need to watch Brazilian games again and try to appreciate her talents.
Maybe her ratings are better, because she's so beautiful and everybody wants to see her on court 
You can watch World Grand Prix 2010 to see Jaqueline's talent: her spikes were unstoppable!! She also took best attacker award. If Brazil had won that WGP, she deserved to be MVP!!!!
You can watch World Grand Prix 2010 to see Jaqueline's talent: her spikes were unstoppable!! She also took best attacker award. If Brazil had won that WGP, she deserved to be MVP!!!!
Just joking Jaqueline deserve to be in NT. Good in spikes, defense. For me she's complete player and also really beautiful.
Brazil's NT normally consists of 4 or 5 OHs, 3 or 4 MBs, 2 setters, 2 OPPs and 2 liberos.
I believe we'll have the following situation for the next rosters:
OHs: Mári, Paula, Jaqueline, Natália, Garay and Sassá are the candidates for the OH spots. If I were Zé Roberto I would choose Mári, Paula, Jaqueline, Natália and Garay.
OPPs: Sheilla and Tandara would be the chosen players.
MBs: Thaísa, Fabiana, Adenízia and Juciely will be the candidates for the three spots, the first two already belong to Fabiana and Thaísa. Adenízia and Juciely will fight for the third spot.
Setters: Dani Lins and Fabiola.
Liberos: Fabi and Camila Brait.
Wow! Everyone on forum highly rates Jacqueline, I guess i need to watch Brazilian games again and try to appreciate her talents.
Not everyone. I'm with you about this one matter... hehehe.
You can watch World Grand Prix 2010 to see Jaqueline's talent: her spikes were unstoppable!! She also took best attacker award. If Brazil had won that WGP, she deserved to be MVP!!!!
No doubt Jaqueline was very good last GP. And before that, in Superliga 09/10, she was the MVP of the whole tournament, IMO. But there are phases and phases with her. You don't know what to expect: too inconsistent. Last season, she was very bad - a lot worse than Sassá, for instance. And I also with she's an emotionally unstable player. A few years ago, she cried when ZRG argued with her, during a match. Last season, when Sollys was facing Unilever, she had a very bad match and kinda asked to be dismissed. Anyway, I don't question her talent, but I think that if we're taking into account the physical aspects of the game, like we did with Mari and Paula, that get injured constantly, I think we should also take into account the emotional aspects. That's why I think she's not realiable, despite having great tecnical qualities.
Just joking
yeah.... she's a great (screamer) outsite hitter....
World Grand Prix Blog
Jelena Reljin: Huge steps helped Serbia seal historic bronze medal
Being a manager at the World Grand Prix finals, walking out onto the court in Macau, and being a player in Minsk when we won the 1978 Women’s World Championship is completely different, and although at that time I was ecstatic with the World Championship, I think I enjoyed the bronze medal win slightly more. This is because I can see the huge steps taken by the federation from then until now. We have a strong organisation and good conditions to prepare all teams so they can participate in all tournaments. It was completely different then. There was no opportunity to train at such a high level. The girls now have a volleyball life where as when I played; volleyball was the second most important thing.
We had no expectations before the tournament except for reaching the final eight. Our priority has always been the European Championship as that is a path to the London 2012 Olympic Games and this was a good chance to prepare for that. It was also a chance to give the younger players on the team a chance to play against strong sides and to find out where they stand. Jovana Brakovic played very well as did Milena Rasic. Sanja Malagurski also had a good competition. She is young so we are expecting a lot from her in the future. Setter Maja Ognjenovic , who has played many big matches in her career, also performed very well and helped our young players a lot, pushing them to perform at their best. Additionally, we played without captain Jelena Nikolic for much of the competition. She is a very important player, very experienced. If she was playing I think we had a good chance of making the finals.
But having achieved what we have, we are happy. We had strong teams during the preliminary round, playing USA and Japan twice and Russia once. The match against the USA, in fact, was probably our best match of the tournament. We won 3-0 and played great volleyball, almost perfect. However, it may be strange, but sometimes you are satisfied with a match even though you lost. Our semifinal against USA was a great game for us but we lost. They are a great team because they have a number of great players with extraordinary physical possibilities and also a great team spirit.
Thailand were also a big surprise for us as they played fast and interesting volleyball. Japan are also a very special team. They are very hard workers, very focused, very disciplined and they never give up. They use every opportunity and are very fast and technically great.
I enjoyed Macau a lot and hope it is the start of a fascinating journey for Serbia.
It was really a delighted competition and I had fun with any game I had seen.
I enjoyed the performances of Hooker, Sakoda, Gamova, Sheila, Kozuch, Okuniewska, Brinker, Guiggi.
To me, the feelings that are created by teams players are not only because of good play but also cause of their struggle, their sympathy, fair playing and creative behaviors.
Privilage to be a volleyball lover.
World Grand Prix Blog
Zhao Ruirui: China need to learn from mistakes
Three years have passed since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Although retired from the Chinese national team, I am still following the games and news of the team as well as volleyball events around the world. I love the sport of volleyball and my heart will always be with volleyball. I am coaching a club team of the Hebei Polytechnic University and I am also a council member of China’s World Championship Federation.
In this year’s Grand Prix preliminaries, The Chinese team finished third in Luohe, second in Quanzhou before winning the Hong Kong leg. It seems the results were getting better and better, but comparatively speaking group opponents in Hong Kong were not as strong as those from the first two legs. Thus, that win was not convincing enough.
After the conclusion of the Hong Kong leg, I talked with my former teammate Ma Yunwen, who is still playing for the national team. “Despite the victory in Hong Kong, we are not a very strong team right now. Every match in the final round will be a tough one, be careful!”
Actually China played consistent volleyball against Poland in the last match of the Hong Kong leg and the players were morally boosted by the victory. At that time, I thought it might help the team perform better in the Finals. So it’s a big surprise to me that they dropped all four matches against Serbia, Thailand, Russia and Italy to finish eighth in Macau.
The Chinese team played OK with Serbia during which they managed to stage quite a few runs. I was glad to see they rallied from 23-19 down to take the third set. Although they lost in the end, their fighting spirit was still there.
However, the next day, their performance against Thailand was really disappointing. The Thais stuck to their quick and diversified attacking tactics while China could not cope with them. I think the Chinese team has stepped back technically and tactically. We used to play very quick, well-rounded volleyball with diversified combinations, and those were the keys to our success in the past. But now all we have is the height. We have lost our most precious treasures.
Among the teams in the final round, the average height of the Chinese team is only second to Russia. But we don’t have the superior power of the Europeans in side attacks, neither do we have the quick and diversified combinations of the Asian teams. The players can play well occasionally, but in difficult times, they do not work like a team. Obviously the current coach has a lot to improve for himself too, and I think there is a remarkable gap between him and former China head coach Lang Ping and Chen Zhonghe.
The 2011 World Grand Prix has come to an end. Despite the unsatisfactory results, everyone in the team has tried their best. I hope they can learn from the experience in Macau. It’s not terrible to lose games, but it’s terrible if you don’t know why you lose.
It is a young team, but we can’t make an excuse out of it. We need to find out the real problem and try to work out the tactics suitable for ourselves. Otherwise, we will have nothing to rely on.
Virna Dias: Brazil will not be disappointed with performance
Despite their loss in the World Grand Prix finals to USA I don’t think Brazil will be too disappointed with their performance.
Brazil lost important players such as Mari and Paula, in addition to Natalia, who was only just returning after recovering from injury and this was a major factor. Fernanda Garay is talented but very young and it was her first Grand Prix but there is still room for congratulations for all the players involved. 13 victories in 13 games before the final showed that we don’t have to rely on one or two players. But there is no doubt that with the return of the likes of Mari, Paula, Jaqueline and Natalia in perfect condition, the team will be stronger. I expect the side will be back to full strength at the Pan American Games. However this should not take away from the United States victory so congratulations to them.
Another positive from the tournament was Dani Lins, who needed to convince she could play at the top level and she made it happened at the tournament.
However the team need to improve their reception. We have many players who have great attacking skills but the reception needs to be worked on. With the return of Jacqueline it will hopefully improve for the Pan American Games and the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Coming away from Brazil, the two players who impressed me most in the finals were USA’s Logan Tom and Destinee Hooker. They played very well, especially in the final against Brazil, and were arguably the difference between the teams.
USA was, in fact, one of the big surprises for me at the tournament. After the pool stages I wasn’t expect them to do as well as they did but they proved differently. Serbia was also a welcome surprise so congratulations to them as well.
Jordan Larson (USA) wrote a blog... I think it was only one entry here:
http://usavolleyball.org/blogs…-world-grand-prix-weekend
but it is interesting... especially about not being able to eat meat in some countries.
What is the 2012 European qualification process for WGP? I know Serbia secured their spot next year by winning European League. How are the other spots decided?
