First match against USA was just phenomenal by Poland - everything was working (block, attack, defence, serving...). It was one of the best matches by Polish team in the last years, I would say. In the second we made too much simple errors. It's a pity, cause that game could have ended up with tie-break and we would have had one point more. Generally - in six games played abroad Poland one half of them. It could have been better, but it is also nice result. Now I'm looking forward to matches against Brazil and Puerto Rico in Poland. I hope for three wins. It would be nice to beat Brazil at last in some important game.
Wow, France managed to win something...Better late, than never...
World League 2011
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Again referee helping Russia vs Japan
well done FIVB 
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Are you expecting that the Japanese team would win?
The Japanese men's team is no where near the Russian team in talent and execution. More Japanese players need to get to Europe to play. Better leagues and competition will help the team improve.
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I've just finished watching second match between Poles and Americans
Our team showed again how to lose big advantage just because of one stupid mistake. If anyone wants to 'learn' from the champions how to do it, then ask our guys for help, they will help straight away without any problems. Możdżonek totally killed me with this 'set'. It was just one, but silly enough mistake....then everything collapsed.
Andrea was right, this was our worst match so far...I really hope it was the last time.
Oh man... 36 unforced errors 
Holy shit, how can they win a match with such a HUGE amount of errors?!
Damn, they could really grab two wins, but again...it would be too good, they had to spoil something, so we can complain now. Thanks guys. -
Guys, do you have link for the match btw Brazil and PR?
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Are you expecting that the Japanese team would win?
The Japanese men's team is no where near the Russian team in talent and execution. More Japanese players need to get to Europe to play. Better leagues and competition will help the team improve.
It doesn't really matter what is the level of Japanese team, such mistakes should never happen. This is just ridiculous, sometimes I just can't stop myself from laughing, because the mistakes of judges, especially line judges are one huge absurd
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It doesn't really matter what is the level of Japanese team, such mistakes should never happen. This is just ridiculous, sometimes I just can't stop myself from laughing, because the mistakes of judges, especially line judges are one huge absurd
Then the FIVB needs to have video replay that the coaches could use for challenging the call like in tennis.
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Then the FIVB needs to have video replay that the coaches could use for challenging the call like in tennis.
Yup, I have the same opinion about that. I think FIVB should take a example from Polish League. During Cup of Poland we used to have challenge and it was a very good solution, 'cause after watching replay there were no doubts.
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3 poits plus no one got injured. Now that's something new
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3 poits plus no one got injured. Now that's something new
Amen to that!
finally the first 'normal' match for our team. I don't count the matches with Japan, which they simply lost before the matches were started.
Nice play from Penchev! He is more calm and effctvive!
Sokolov
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Still they made many mistakes, with a little help from the judges. They need to lower them against Russia in order to qualify for the finals
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Just saw Italy - France second match, and I must say I'm very impressed in "new" Italy.
I thought when Vermiglio and Fei don't play in national team anymore, the level of the team will drop.
But that's absolutely not true. Travica is great (his single block at match point was FANTASTIC) and also I'm also impressed by Lasko. I thought he couldn't compete with Fei, but he's doing a great job as opposite!Together with Argentina, they are the surprises of the World League this far!
I hope the final four teams will be Brazil, Russia, Argentina and Italy.
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Just saw Italy - France second match, and I must say I'm very impressed in "new" Italy.
I thought when Vermiglio and Fei don't play in national team anymore, the level of the team will drop.
But that's absolutely not true. Travica is great (his single block at match point was FANTASTIC) and also I'm also impressed by Lasko. I thought he couldn't compete with Fei, but he's doing a great job as opposite!Together with Argentina, they are the surprises of the World League this far!
I hope the final four teams will be Brazil, Russia, Argentina and Italy.
I hope for Bulgaria, Brazil, Russia and Poland -
Bulgaria played nice match, no need to praise Sokolov he is excellent player. Bulgaria should win 3:0, everything was going in that direction but in 3rd set Todorov made two mistakes at 4-4 and Bulgaria collapsed after that. But overall Bulgarian best match so far
Now I'll say something about refs last two days. Simply it was shameful what they were doing
First match Russia - Japan and Japs were playing great in 1st set
it was really nice to see them outplaying Russians but then refs interfered. Japs were leading 14-10 and Shimizu spiked nice digonal ball beside Volkov and Biryukov. Japs started to celebrate, Russians were taking position for reception and suddenly main referee changed decision and gave point to Russians althought Shimitzu spike was half meter in field and both linesman showed good ball 
what's important to say Russians were down in that moment, Japs were flying high and already next point ref made another mistake by giving point to Russia after nonexistent net touch despite it was clear that ball touched the net not Japanese player. No need to continue story, Japan collapsed after that and lost 3:0. 
And today several points were given to Russia in first set
at 4-4 Koshikawa blocked Ilinykh and ball bouced on his back and went out. 2nd ref was 20 cm from that showed point for Japan and 1st ref asked linesman did ball touched Ilinykh ofc linesman said there wasnt touch.Similar situations happened on match Italy vs France yesterday, Germany vs Bulgaria. I wonder who delegates referees and what is criteria to become FIVB ref? Referee who massacrated Japan in 1st match was from Brunei
Shameful weekend for FIVB, if some one said to me that ref is going to help Russia vs Japan I wouldnt believe him. Russians are two levels above Japan, they would win even without ref help. There should be same conditions for all participants but it seems there're some privileged teams.
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At las a nice game :). Jekov has rating 10
, and the reception was good :). Penchev had 100% attack, 4/4 he needs a bit more experience and he should be a monster player. I don't get how they make the setters comparison, Bruno is 12th is he playing that bad or just the system is flawed? -
Just saw Italy - France second match, and I must say I'm very impressed in "new" Italy.
I thought when Vermiglio and Fei don't play in national team anymore, the level of the team will drop.
But that's absolutely not true. Travica is great (his single block at match point was FANTASTIC) and also I'm also impressed by Lasko. I thought he couldn't compete with Fei, but he's doing a great job as opposite!Together with Argentina, they are the surprises of the World League this far!
I hope the final four teams will be Brazil, Russia, Argentina and Italy.
I agree, Lasko is helping a lot, he often menaged to close difficult points, great characters, the same with Travica, he is also doing a very good job with his serve. And the idea was to use (with parodi) three OH instead of the normal opposite, may be now Berruto will have to think about that...In general I think our first problem is keep focusing, because when we play on our best level we rocks
I mean, our potential is good, may be even great, but we still can't play a whole match on the highest level; sometimes we solve this problem with characters (that's the thing I like the most of this "new" Italy), sometimes we let the opponent won a set or two (ex the second match vs Korea), or a whole match (vs France). Probably only in the first match in Lyon we kept a very high level for all the match, but in this occasion France helped a lot.On France court I have to say that the new Libero is great
For the final4, I also hope Italy and also Argentina (I love these guys!! De Cecco and Facundo are great!) will get it, but it's quite hard... I think Brazil, Russia and probably Poland - considering they will play at home - will get it, so there will be a though fight for the 4th place in final4. But honestly I'm a little bit bored of Brazil winning everthing
, even if I like them 
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I agree about the referees who made similar mistakes at Germany-Bulgaria match. Some mistaken points were judged to us.
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I agree about the referees who made similar mistakes at Germany-Bulgaria match. Some mistaken points were judged to us.
And other were judged to Germany -
I don't get how they make the setters comparison, Bruno is 12th is he playing that bad or just the system is flawed?
I think both, you know?
To tell you the truth, I missed a lot of Brazil's games, cause the time of the matches is truly horrible. Especially considering games against Puerto Rico. But what I've been hearing is that Bruno's been bad in this beginning of season, in the NT, very different from his shape at Modena, a couple of months ago. I don't know. To me, him and Marlon are quite similar, good setters, but nothing spectacular. I wish the other setters listed would get shots in the group, but they're not even training with the rest of the guys, and this weekend Bernardo made the final cut, confirming this 2 setters and also taking Éder, João Paulo Tavares and Wallace out of the group, for the rest of the League.
About the setter statistics thing, I think that's an old discussion. I don't REALLY know how they measure it, but if I'm not mistaken, it has something to do with attack eficiency of the team, besides the quantity of sets, or something like that. Meaning they don't really make statistics for sets, just for the outcome. I might be mistaken, maybe someone else is better informed about that. But taking into account that setting is the most qualitative aspect of the game, it's no wonder, actually, they haven't come up with something better. So, you take that, and also the fact that Bruno and Marlon are both rotating a lot in the team, and I think you've got your answer.
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Just saw Italy - France second match, and I must say I'm very impressed in "new" Italy.
I thought when Vermiglio and Fei don't play in national team anymore, the level of the team will drop.
But that's absolutely not true. Travica is great (his single block at match point was FANTASTIC) and also I'm also impressed by Lasko. I thought he couldn't compete with Fei, but he's doing a great job as opposite!Together with Argentina, they are the surprises of the World League this far!
I hope the final four teams will be Brazil, Russia, Argentina and Italy.
I don't quite agree about Italy, because at the moment they face teams with big names only, but not a team with a good play. This year both France and Cuba play bad and Korea proved that with their wins against them. I agree that Italy plays better but I still can't say against these opponents that they're great. About Argentina it's almost the same because both Finland and Portugal are weak and Serbia are just not the same without Grbic and Miljkovic. Nevertheless they have improvement but is it so big we will see on the finals if they qualify. Congrats to our team for the play against Germany and I hope the injuries past so we could show what we are capable of.