2014 FIVB World Championship - Poland - 8/30

Without Kurek... I'm totally surprised

I always thought either Mika or Buszek would be out of the list. Turning out to be Kurek totally surprises me. What is Antiga thinking?

Quote from winiar

I always thought either Mika or Buszek would be out of the list. Turning out to be Kurek totally surprises me. What is Antiga thinking?

For the half of the polish nation, at least that half which follow volleyball, he doesn't think at all. I would say that, watching what is going on under every article screaming "WITHOUT KUREK ON WCH", Antiga became a kind of public enemy... Now I feel actually nothing, don't know if to laugh or to cry, do I understand it or not and hate the decision. Decision which became sth like judgement, sentence... To express this straight: I'M IN SHOCK

Antiga said that kurek is not physically ready to play, we will see how it come out. I like Kurek a lot when he played in Italian legue - Lube.

Quote

"Bartosz is still recovering from the inajury he had, and because of
that he failed to achieve the highest level required during the
preparations. He is a great player but at this moment, his teammates are
just more effective than him." - Antiga

I think USA is very strong right now. Saw they play friendly match wz Iran the other day and i scare for Italy. Their group is totally heated. Iran,USA,ITA could survive in pool D i guess but when go to 2nd round and cross with pool A? U can just get kill if u miss one step. Such a scary line.

Russia and Brazil are so easy to go into final without much fighting.

I seriously wish ITA could have very killer OH like Juantorena join the national team. Kovar , Parodi, Lanza are all great and balance i think but none of them stand out like Zaytsev. Travica is great but often get out of form in a deep round like final or semi final. Not sure why but seem like if he 's out, then that's the end of ITA. I still remember the bitter taste of semi-final with Brazil in WL. same things happened here.

Another thought, Vettorio could play very good when he is in form. Hate to see him sitting on the bench all the time because Zaytsev form is rarely drop. Maybe the coach will move Zaytsev to OH, pair with Lanza and use Vettorio as OP for real, then use Sabbi as sub-OP? anyone think it'll work? Atleast in the few last friendly matches with German this past week Zaytsev has been play OH a lot while the coach testing Vettorio and Sabbi as OP.

For libero I goes for Rossini alone. His form is good and he just got WL's best lib award so i dont see a need of two libs.

Quote from kondzio

Italian 15 for WCH:
Setters: Dragan Travica, Michał (Michele) Baranowicz
Opposites: Ivan Zaytsev, Luca Vettori, Giulio Sabbi
Outside Hitters: Simone Parodi, Jiri Kovar, Filippo Lanza, Luigi Randazzo
Middle Blockers: Emmanuele Birarelli, Simone Buti, Matteo Piano, Simone Anzani
Liberos: Salvatore Rossini, Massimo Colaci

IMHO Giulio Sabbi is main contender to be out if Berruto decides to have 3 OPs and 3 MBs, then Anzani will be out

We won't see Thomas Beretta (MB) , Andrea Giovi (L), Gabriele Maruotti (OH), Davide Saitta (S), Michele Fedrizzi (OH), Daniele Mazzone (MB) and Antonio Corvetta (S) from WL roster.

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Well, Kovar didn't play in last matches, I wonder why... maybe Zaytsev can be back as OH with Lanza or Parodi as OH2

I don't know but I have the strange felling that Kovar won't make it to the WCH due to his injury...it's a pity as it is all summer that we're playing with Kovar-Parodi-Zaytsev trio but the option of Zaytsev OH and Vettori Opp is not bad either. I wish that Kovar will be there anyway, he is a good player, at least he could be used as sub! finger crossed!

So we have a little surprise and I still wonder what Bernardo sees in Mauricio

Georgi Bratoev and Valentin Bratoev are out from Bulgarian NT. One more will drop after the last two friendly matches. I am guessing it will be Dani Milushev.

Quote from techn0

Georgi Bratoev and Valentin Bratoev are out from Bulgarian NT. One more will drop after the last two friendly matches. I am guessing it will be Dani Milushev.

so on the list are:
S: Zhekov, Dimitrov
OP: Sokolov, V.Nikolov, Milushev
OH: Aleksiev, Skrimov, Penchev, Gradinarov
MB: Todorov, Yosifov, N.Nikolov, Gotsev
L: Salparov, Bozhilov

it's a bit surprising cut, but maybe they didn't do their best and spoil atmosphere also IMHO Milushev should be out, it will be determined between him and Vlado Nikolov

Milushev is in better shape than both Nikolov and Sokolov, Vlado should show something against Brazil and France the next two days to replace him.

Plamen Konstantinov said that it is not because of discipline but for sport reasons. I still thinkg Georgi Bratoev is better choice than Dobri Dimitrov at least for the experience, if not for serve, block and some unpredictability at times but that is his call.

Quote from mosi

Iran's preliminary roster for WCH

Setters: Marouf, Mahdavi
MBs: Nadi, Mousavi, Gholami, Tashakkori,Faezi, Jadidi
OHs: Zarrini, Ghaemi, Mirzajanpour, Fayyazi, Mobasheri, Ebadipour
OPs: Mahmoudi, Ghafour, Ghara
Liberos: Zarif, Alizadeh

Kovac dropped Zarrini and Jadidi, 17 players are still with him.

the situation doesn't look good at all, injured players (Zarrini, Nadi and Mahmoudi) didn't recover as expected. and moral is really down after Maadani's death. This is actually his team, not Kovac.

and they were far from impressive in USA matches. I just hope they pass the 1st round at least.

Quote from mosi

Kovac dropped Zarrini and Jadidi, 17 players are still with him.

the situation doesn't look good at all, injured players (Zarrini, Nadi and Mahmoudi) didn't recover as expected. and moral is really down after Maadani's death. This is actually his team, not Kovac.

and they were far from impressive in USA matches. I just hope they pass the 1st round at least.

This is so sad to read I understand that the death of a great coach and player and the injuries in the team are very discouraging, but I deeply hope they'll somehow recover and show that great Persian spirit. Good luck guys, my thoughts are always with you

You have my support too. Wish you luck

Belgian L Stijn Dejonckheere got knee injury and he's out for WCH, he'll be replaced by youngster Lowie Stuer.

Only 9 days left.
Jiri Kovar will likely miss the tournament.

9 days and no rosters on site

Quote from TimHH

Phillip Colin has been suspended from NT because obviously he missed out doping controlls on three ocasions during the last 18 months

He hasn't been tested positively but it looks like he failed to use the Anti-Doping-Administrations-System (ADAMS) according to the rules. There will be further investigations but meanwhile he remains suspended and will definitely miss the WCH.

This is a first blow to a good preparation so far. Heynen surely would have taken him to Poland and its a really sad story because it looked like he had become a good professional during the last two years.
Now, we can really be lucky that Max Günthör returned to the team, so on the sports level the team shouldn't be affected too much.

http://www.volleyball-verband.…ad5g51c1t8l1b2kkdmurpb5j3

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Considering the above and assuming that Heynen will chose Kühner over Zimmermann the german roster will quite certainly look like this:

German roster for WCH:

Setters: Lukas Kampa, Sebastian Kühner
Opposites: Gyorgy Grozer, Jochen Schöps
Outside Hitters: Christian Fromm, Denis Kaliberda, Sebastian Schwarz, Dirk Westphal
Middle Blockers: Max Günthör, Tim Broshog, Michael Andrei, Marcus Böhme
Liberos: Markus Steuerwald, Ferdinand Tille

Andrei seemed to be first to cut, but because of this huge blow he'll stay in team eventually