2014 FIVB World Championship - Poland - 8/30

    Quote from Kaziyski

    N'Gapeth leader? It's like saying Spiridonov is Russian leader :D Earvin is a good player but can't be a leader. French problem is that they don't have a leader atm. What did u expect, France winning WL or ECH? To change mentality it takes years, France was stagnated under Blain, no progress, no team spirit. I remeber them losisng set to Pakistan (?!) in OG qualies under Blain. Then they were inconsistent. Tillie is trying to change that, slowly but he is doing that. Just look @Russians. They are volleyball powerhouse but they didnt win ECH until last year. Still, they didnt win WCH since Soviet Union. France surely wont win ECH or WCH in near future but improvements r visibile, largely visible. You cannot evaluate someone's work just of results. Results will come but first and main thing is mentality, psychological preparation, and it's hard to change. F.e look Bulgaria. They have great players but results arent good. Ask yourself why. In volleyball psyche is really important. I played and saw many matches in which teams with strong mentality and good psyche won against better teams in terms of technique and height. If u r a born winner its easy, the hardest part is to learn someone to be a winner ;)


    I follow French NT closely for several years and I'm know what I'm talking about.


    Yes N'Gapeth is as suitable as Spiridonov for leadership but reality is he is considered France's leader.
    They don't have to win WL or ECH to be considered succesfull, qualifying for WL final six or playing semi-final in ECH is enough.
    Changing mentality, psychological preparation is all good but it must be supported with better results.
    Lets see what they will do in remaining matches


    Italy- USA match will be very critical for the last six spot. It looks like main competition for qualifying to final round will be between Poland,Italy, Serbia, USA and Iran.
    For the other 2 groups, it is sure Brasil and Russia will qualify so todays matches between Cuba-Germany, Bulgaria-Canada will be very important for the last spot.

    Ok, for today Heynen gave up playing with two liberos. Steuerwald and Andrei are out, Fromm is back in the roster. Imo the right conclusion from the bad game against Brazil.


    I am a bit fearful for today. If they lose to Cuba. the tournament may end in big disaster. Come on guys :super:


    OT: You guys made me google "chalga". Astonishing stuff, especially this Ivana 8o :lol:

    ufff, 25:16 for Germany.
    Reception/Defence looks much much better today. Tille with a great match so far. Cubans don't make life too difficult for german team as well. Still some improvement possible from the service line.


    Just go on like this guys...

    Not sure if it's just my monitor or this BUL squad lost weight and looks more toned than on WL, particularly Sokolov and Aleksiev

    Zhekov is priceless :obey: Keep it up, guys!


    It's Teodor Todorov, not Todor Todorov. Teodor! For goodness sakes :aww: Female commentators :wacko:

    I've seen just the beginning of BUL-CAN game, and Bulgarians were couple of points down. Then when I came back at the the end of the set, it already was 24-17 for Bulgaria :thumbsup:


    This second set started in a similar way, Canada on a visible lead, but luckily Bulgarians managed to catch up :)

    Toshko looks as if he was sick :huh: Not his day obviously but some of his moves were disturbing, a headache or sth... And this action from the first set, donnu, I haven't seen if any Canadian hitted him accidentaly. Guys, wake up. Canada is beatable, just stay focus.

    Canada from 20:23 to 24:23. Holy shit :sos: Junaci...


    EDIT: And now it's the end of the set after Gavin's ace :aww: Hope Bulgaria won't collapse in last set after such a shitty ending in the previous one :S Simply don't know how did they do that :aww:


    Tie-break...

    "Good" old Bulgaria, mentalliy collapsing when they've to finish the job.. It's Konstantinovs fault, to subb Skrimov for Aleksiev (althought I know he did that to get higher block). He should immediately return Skrimov after Toshko got blocked and it would be enough for win.

    I don't think Bulgaria can pull themselves together now...Canada is on fire, they can't lose it now. Bulgaria could've won, but they've screwed it at their own request.


    There's really nothing much to say, game of wasted chances. Shame, really.

    Completely different Bulgarian team after these few successful actions by Canada in the end of 4rd set :( Can't believe how close they were to get 3 points and they stayed with only 1. They were literally standing and watching how Canadians were winning the tie-break 8| Shame :read: