European Championships - 2013 - hosts Denmark and Poland

    I've goo to admit that Germany and France are playing superb! :thumbup:

    Радо Стойчев каза: Мизия, Тракия, Македония! Западните покрайнини - завинаги български!

    Vladimir Nikolov: "I sincerely hope that we will play one more time vs. the Germans."


    I had to write a heading to this post and I couldn't choose a better one than the statement from the God of calculations.


    If Poland won yesterday, everything was clear - there was going to be a porno today with Bulgaria and Russia; the loser meets France in the playoffs and Germany in the quarters and the winner meets Poland in the quarters and Italy in the semis. However, Poland won and Vlado Nikolov's "magic scenario" is finished. What is the situation now:


    If we consider that France will beat Turkey (90% sure) and Poland will beat Slovakia (highly likely) then the group standings are: 1.France 2.Poland 3.Slovakia
    If we consider that Germany will beat Czechs (90% sure) then we have: 1.Germany 2.Bulgaria/Russia 3.Russia/Bulgaria


    If Bulgaria beats Russia we have:


    Playoffs: Poland-Russia; Bulgaria-Slovakia;
    1/4finals: France - Bulgaria/Slovakia; Germany - Poland/Russia;



    If Russia beats Bulgaria we have:


    Playoffs: Poland-Bulgaria; Russia-Slovakia;
    1/4finals: France - Russia/Slovakia; Germany - Poland/Bulgaria;


    So the only certain things are that Bulgaria and Russia will play for the win in their head-to-head match in the groups; Poland will meet Germany in the 1/4 (provided they are 2nd in group and go through the playoffs). Poland will play one from Bulgaria and Russia in the playoffs!



    Meanwhile Dragan Travica and Ivan Zaytsev are browsing a tourist map of Odense with popcorns next to them...

    Quote from Martee

    I don't think Zibi likes his years as an OH. At that time he was absolutely overruled by Kurek. That must be torturing to a player, especially one with Zibi's character.

    Bartman definitely wanted to be more involved in the game, 'cause he has never been treated seriously as an outside hitter, I mean like someone important for national team. He thought he can change himself and the way people are seeing him. Anastasi was a key for those changes, really helpful person, who discovered a new Bartman. So when I currently hear Anastasi kicked him out of the team, because he wasn't able to interract with guys properly and wanted to be an individualist too much I wonder why he has changed his statements so easy? We know perfectly he was the only one, who believed in Bartman, treated him like a favorite, or something and suddenly he's not important anymore. This guy simply doesn't give a shit about players and I'm worried he could really destroyed Bartman's confidence.


    Now he pays for that, when Bartman couldn't score normally he was trying to motivate himself and rest of the team, now he's got a ginger boy, who's afraid to kill the ball hardly when it's necessary, who behaves similar to Nowakowski and guy with no international experience.

    I know you've made the Math correctly, but at the this stage of the championship, talking about Europe, I doubt the circus will be on display today. I'm sure Russia will play 100%, I can't imagine how they will explain two defeats in the group stage. As of Bulgaria, perhaps they will also show 100%, but I have a feeling it might not be enough. Luckily, the reception seems to have improved a bit, much to the expense of the serve mistakes. Sokolov's serve is still missing, but at least he looks in good shape. Nikolov and Yosifov are regularly good servers, though. Also, it's time we saw Todorov against the tall Russians. Skrimov, even if fully recovered already, should be given rest, in my opinion.


    Personally, I would prefer getting Poland. They are more vulnerable, I think we stand better chances against the hosts. What bothers me there is the lack of video interruptions and I really hope the referee wouldn't ruin an otherwise good game. Fortunately, the match against Russia won't be decisive, the real tournament for all teams starts on Tuesday.

    Good results for France NT until now :)
    Happy to see the ream playing like that

    Quote from Cardusmart

    Good results for France NT until now :)
    Happy to see the ream playing like that


    France and Germany are playing really well!! France is so strong in defense...superb! :obey:


    I'd like also to see Finland, after a bad summer they are doing good things in this ECH!

    Quote from YavorD

    I know you've made the Math correctly, but at the this stage of the championship, talking about Europe, I doubt the circus will be on display today. I'm sure Russia will play 100%, I can't imagine how they will explain two defeats in the group stage. As of Bulgaria, perhaps they will also show 100%, but I have a feeling it might not be enough. Luckily, the reception seems to have improved a bit, much to the expense of the serve mistakes. Sokolov's serve is still missing, but at least he looks in good shape. Nikolov and Yosifov are regularly good servers, though. Also, it's time we saw Todorov against the tall Russians. Skrimov, even if fully recovered already, should be given rest, in my opinion.

    That was my point - after Poland's defeat, it is sure that neither Bulgaria, nor Russia will play to lose.


    Up to now, I'm impressed by Skrimov's reception (if we won vs Germany, it'd have been because of that) and Niki Nikolov's strong serves. I'm still puzzled why Placci insists on Skrimov's flot serve, when his jump is stable and is causing more damage. With a Skrimov, Yosifov, Sokolov, V.Bratoev/Penchev (subbing Aleksiev for the serve only), Nikolov we have a devastating serve sequence.


    I also want Todorov instead of Yosifov in the field today (Yosifov is proven for his place, N.Nikolov also needs more playing time). Apart from your point about the effectiveness against Russian middles, Todorov needs playing time to adjust, because we will need him later. I also want some playing time for Dani Milushev for the same reason (maybe a set or two), and both Bratoev and Penchev.


    The best news for me is though, that we will not play another game vs Russia until the final!

    Bulgaria played very well so far and I was grossly surprised to see: (i) Bulgarian defense, i.e. dives after the ball and (ii) middle attack from Nikolov and Iosifov. They somehow slowed down towards the fourth set but otherwise Bulgarian middle attack dominated over their opponent and made Germans shuffle their squad a bit. Blocking was on OK level, at least there was no goal feast for Fromm and Grozer. Sokolov looks still old good Sokolov :). Overall, Bulgaria could have pulled the game yesterday, had they been a bit more concentrated in the fourth set.


    Russia keeps looking as if they were carrying weights in the gym for last three weeks. It is a pleasure to look at their muscles of course but... Pavlov is by far less efficient, Spirik woke up a bit, Grankin and Muserskiy looked good though. Mikhaylov seems to recover. Sivozhelez is in his normal state, i.e. between average and poor :). He was definitely the man of the match against Czech Republic, having very efficiently "neutralized" Koneczny :). Sivo will struggle a lot against Sokolov and Bratoev unless he "neutralizes" them too. The other option is that Gods of Volleyball give him a special power to hit through the block as they did once in a Zenit - Trentino game two years ago.


    I think that Russia should use Ilinykh in four when Sokolov is on the front court otherwise life will be too easy for the middle-aged Bulgarian superstar, as Spirik and Sivo are pretty short. It would be interesting to see Bulgarian middle attack working against Muserskiy. They definitely can do it but will they risk? What is still unclear to me is the state of Russian opposites. Things looked dull vs Germany and Czechs but there should definitely be "another gear" for Pavlov as he just doesn't hit the floor. What looks very good overall is reception of Voronkov's team. Just curious how they would play France...

    Right !
    Finnish players made 2 very beautiful first games

    Though a reliable receiver, Ondrej Hudecek's place in the Czech NT for so many years now has always been a mystery to me. OK, his reception stats are mostly good, but I fail to remember a single game he made that I watched when he actually was impressive in attack just as well. The left hand he attacks with is said to be difficult to read sometimes for blockers and yet he can't make a decent game for the NT. I am not talking only about this ECH, at which, let's face it, the Czech team is disappointing, but also from previous ones, as well as WCHs and so on. What is more, the guy has even been named captain. And probably there wouldn't be a game in which he wasn't subbed. The back-up, or rather third, opposite Finger was another disappointment, but at least Bernard has a variety there. Baranek is a decent player, reliable for the setter, but then you would need something more than just a regular receiver (who cannot attack) to be competitive. It's a totally different thing that maybe Konecny fits the OH position better than Stokr, but this has not been the main Czech problem these days.

    The Netherlands made it to the playoffs in the very last moment. A 3-1 win over Slovenia with a monster contribution by Overbeeke. It means Finland wins the group, regardless of the outcome of the game against Serbia. We'll see whether they will play fair. Slovenia, having started with a stunning 3-1 over Serbia, will be out if Serbia wins.

    France won first 2 sets and secured 1st place and now are playing without Ngapeth, Lyneel, Toniutti, Rouzier so Turkey has nice chance to win next 1 or 2 points here...


    Turkey won 3rd set pretty easy