2014 FIVB World Championship - Poland - 8/30

    Quote from WIELKI ZNAWCA PIERWSZY

    Winiarski also said, that he retires from NT. But there are so many interviews and the moment and hard to define which was the first. I hope Michał and Mariusz will play once again in Rio.

    I think they want to give chance to the younger players to develop, staying there could be detrimental for Polish NT in the long haul.

    Quote from scarpetta

    Mika's final performance can only be compared to Jaque's Olympic final performance. :obey:
    And also big congrats to Antiga for his Kurek decision. He is the biggest winner today.
    As for Brazil, I still think it was Lucarelli's performance that let them down.It shows Lucarelli isn't ready to lead .

    Come on, are you really going to blame Lucarelli? Wallace and he were Brazil's most reliable spikers throughout the tournament and Lucarelli surely wasn't the reason Brazil lost the game yesterday. Personally, I had never seen them give up the way they did at the end of the fourth set. This also means one thing - they had a really well-prepared opponent against them. Perhaps one of the things we can contemplate on now that such a great tournament is over is the reason(s) for the Brazilian downfall. Brazil from 2001 - 2009 cannot survive until 2014, for example, because players change. And even if they lost so many finals in a row, they are still the most consistent team out there and are still topping the World Ranking. There are some factors (some not so extraordinary players, just good; many more balanced teams to play against and so on) and I am quite sure none related to mentality. But first things first, Poland was better yesterday and woke up from a set behind. In fact, this final stunningly reminds of the World League final in Florence.

    Quote from saishuu

    Bernardo won't leave, unless he resigns. I don't know what to think about this team anymore. It's one thing to lose one or two finals, but four in a row? They always manage to gain momentum at the right time in every competition, only to lose in the end without barely giving an effort. And as someone else said, it's always one player that kills their system: Muserkiy in London, Pavlov in WL 2013, Sander in WL 2014 and now Mika in WCH. And yet, Brazil doesn't have this particular player to perfom a decisive role. We've had Giba, Nalbert, André Nascimento and Giovane in the past, but now everyone falls under the pressure. It's like everyone is psychologically hurt and unable to win. It's getting hard to support them.


    But whatever about Brazil. It is what it is. Congrats once again to Poland and to the Poles in the forum (Ojla, ladybugg, bella, kondzio and others). ^^ You guys have an awesome team to root for and your audience is unmatchable.

    Brazil doesn't really need a single player to change the course of a game. They wouldn't be such a good team for so long if they relied on a single player. They are a team in many aspects of the word, but not all. I think we are just used to comparing them to the previous amazing generation. Also, it just happened that the teams Brazil lost against had a best scorer, quite normal for every volleyball game. Perhaps Muserskiy was the exception in that list. Both Russia in WL 2013 and USA in WL 2014, as well as Poland in WCH 2014 were first of all great teams. And when you have a great team they can easily help you play at your best and score 25+ points. So I don't agree Brazil lost only to Sander or Mika, or that they destroyed their system. Besides, Giba, Andre and Nalbert didn't win trophies all by themselves, you know ;)


    To me and to all users here, the final's MVP was Mika. I still think he's having the tournament of his life, the three weeks he's going to vividly remember as long as he lives. He showed great composure and skills to make all these points, some of which quite interesting and important. Still, I have my doubts if he will turn into phenomenon, there are other factors for that transition, but now we should only congratulate him for the amazing WCH. He was the push (apart from the audience) on court Poland needed to make it happen.


    I was known before the tournament started that Wlazly and Zagumny are going to retire afterwards. It's just that emotions are so strong right now that it is considered a painful decision. Wlazly showed he is better than Konarski, Bociek and Bartman together, so his absence will be immense. But it would be a totally different process to build up a team as a World champion now :) They both did their job superbly, it's the perfect chance to retire from the NT. Just as Philipp Lahm did after the football WCH.

    Knowing PZPS with Przedpełski if Poland, without Top Players, will be out from 2015 ECH Top 4, He will fire Antiga.

    I would like to share a joy but I don't know how to do this. I would like to share the emotions and describe the feelings but I don't know which words should I use. I would like to say anything clever that at least in one thousandth express what is going on with me right now. But I can't. I think that somehow I have Brazilian football fan's soul. With this difference that the discipline is volleyball. And volleyball is a great part of my everything. I don't know if it will be proper to compare these two - Brazlian football fan and Polish volleyball fan. Moods in our country are right now as if our guys literally won the world. (What a coincidence we won with Brazil exactly!) And this madness makes me feel like we create sth like the answer for Brazilian love for football. So proudly I can name myself Polish volleyball fan. With full awareness and without false modesty. I didn't give up on this team since the very beginning of suppoting them (will be half of my life). And during this tournament I didn't lose faith even for a single second. Sounded like a children's naivety for some people around me but I think this is one of many traits of Polish fan.
    I could write poems, sing poetry, say plenty times how much I'm happy using every other word "I love" and "our Champions". Nothing would be enough. And sometimes I think that words are just needless. Since yesterday we breathe bubbles of champagne, living in a beautiful dream which, WOW!, actually is a reality. No one can take this from us. And without any exagerration I can say it was one of the best moment of my life and for sure the best in terms of my career as a fan. Every single human being no matter living here or abroad is proud of being a Pole.
    I think this is all from me. As yet. Emotions are buzzin in me so much I can't even say. I need to calm down to start function normally 'cause now I'm completely drank with a joy.


    Guys :heart: our CHAMPIONS :flower: Love like from here to infinity


    PS. Sincere congratulations for all medalists, awarded players and their fans on this forum :flower: I will say more about the results but... just not now. For now, pure joy :win:

    Quote from saishuu

    Not trying to say Bernardo doesn't like to play the victim sometimes (he really does), but he's just poking Ary Graça due to problems within Brazilian Federation. Both have been at war for some time now and he'll keep saying FIVB is trying to mess with the team just to p*ss Ary off some more. This has nothing to do with Poland. ^^ I'm sure the players know they just didn't perform well enough and Poland earned it fair and square.

    While this all sounds like a nice and plausible excuse, the problems with Brazilians basically started the moment they were told they had to switch cities. Then they ditched two press conferences (and only after realising they scored a PR own goal when some negative headlines started to appear they sent Lipe to the rescue), refused to even speak to the local media, and right before the final Bruno publicly disrespected Kubiak and singled him out for criticism for his "behaviour". I'm sorry, but to me this just stinks of primadonna syndrome.
    Not that we're now feeling offended or something, actually we couldn't care less. But it was still small time.

    I also don't understand why people accuse Lucarelli for this. I mean, come on, how can you blaim a 22-year-old who was absolutely perfect in the first game and played well throughout.


    I watched Brazil both in the final and in the semi-final against France. In both games, they started incredibly well. If perfection can be achieved in volleyball, Brazil's performance in the first set of both games was as close anyone can get to that. Textbook defence, unreadable Bruno, block like a wall, stable reception, deadly attack and stable serves.


    Then in both games they dropped their level after the first set by about 30%. Why? Could they not sustain it? Is it something psychological/motivational? I don't know, but they were not quite the same team.


    Now, to elaborate on my earlier remarks:


    1) Brazil underperformed on serve: At one point in the 3rd or even 4th set I saw a stat saying that they had just 1 ace for the game. Poland received exceptionally well, but still 1 ace is nothing. I remember Murilo as a huge server about 5 years ago (he had not yet settled himself as a starter then, let alone a star) and along with his reception that was his most deadly weapon. Yesterday he was harmless (injury or not - that was the fact). We all know Lucas' bombs. Nothing like that yesterday. Lucarelli was enormous in the previous matches. Today he had a sub-par performance on that element (maybe that's the only thing you can criticise him for). All of Sidao's serves went out. Etc., etc.


    2) Rezende didn't figure out Mika: The same as during the OG finals and Muserskiy. I saw the Brazilian block getting anxious and left wondering what's going on after not one or two Mika spikes. I don't know, maybe the Brazilian system of play is prone to such 'holes' and they can't focuse on one player. Maybe they focused (quite rightly so) on Wlaszly and having two equally deadly threats decided the match.


    3) Rezende did mess up with putting Vissotto and Rapha in Wallace & Bruno's place. However, I will defend Rezende by saying that this sub really did work pretty well in previous matches. So, for me, it's all Vissotto to blame who decided not to play yesterday.


    4) I haven't watched a lot of Mario Jr. Whether he underperformed or Brazil needs a better libero - the result is the same. Actually, the other receivers did well, but Poland targeted Mario and he cracked. He was not 'bad' like baad bad, but he was 1 level below Zatorski and the others in the field and made some crucial mistakes.


    All of you hail Mika and yes, he was the surprise, the X factor in the game. But for me the MVP of the game remains Wlaszly :obey: . Unbelievable performance throughout the competition! So stable and reliable, a true force on attack and serve.


    Mika maybe has a bright future, but I won't judge from a single tournament, let alone from a single game. Let's see how he'll do in Plusliga next season and maybe in a better team in the following one. To be honest, I don't really like him (not as a player, but as a personality). He looks like a lost child with a beard, seems very shy and is very awkward (both technique and body language). Really strange guy :lol:


    All in all, Poland played their best. They rose to the occasion and didn't lose heart after the first set. I often criticise them for their mentality but yesterday they showed that they are champions not only in name but in game and in character. Brazil didn't play their best. And if they did, the result would've most likely been different, maybe even 3-0. But that's irrenevant because potential doesn't matter, what you show when it all counts does. So only one team deserved to win it and that's Poland.


    And finally, huge congrats to all Polish people! I was cheering for Brazil but when I saw the joy everywhere in the hall even I got a bit emotional (which is very rare with me).

    wow,congrats to Polish guys :obey:


    i had expressed that Mika should be called for the nt when i had watched him for the first time at the X (??) tournament .. :whistle:


    i didnt watch the final match but seems Mika played pretty well therel...id like to watch the final match if a link is offered.. :)

    If we trust FIVB's press release, 563 263 spectators were present during the tournament. Of course, we had nearly 62 000 at the opening ceremony, but we also had many in front of the sports halls in the last days of competition. Overall, it is an impressive number :) I don't like records that much, so you can check whether it is a new attendance record. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure TV coverage and the number of people watching the games at home could be much higher. I see this as an equally important number.


    About awards. I've always considered a part of them strange. Those last night as well. I don't know if all were based on stats, but there surely were some consolation ones, as always.

    Poland didn't choke because that was different Poland that the one we met in 2012 and 2013 - Wlazly, Winiarski and Zagumny are players from the 2006 final game.

    Quote from YavorD

    If we trust FIVB's press release, 563 263 spectators were present during the tournament. Of course, we had nearly 62 000 at the opening ceremony, but we also had many in front of the sports halls in the last days of competition. Overall, it is an impressive number :) I don't like records that much, so you can check whether it is a new attendance record. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure TV coverage and the number of people watching the games at home could be much higher. I see this as an equally important number.


    About awards. I've always considered a part of them strange. Those last night as well. I don't know if all were based on stats, but there surely were some consolation ones, as always.


    According to FIVB's tweet, this year's attendance exceeds the record by ~223000.