Germany NT 2012

    Countries either have two options to develop talent; send them away to the top leagues or acquire enough private investment to bring in the best players (like Italy did and Turkey is doing). To get better you have to play against better and the German League doesn't offer the level of play required to develop truly elite talent and they don't have the financial backing to bring in the best of the best. In such case, they should get their top players out of Germany. Hippe and Brinker didn't light the Italian League up this year but I have no doubt that they made improvements that would have never happened had they stayed in Germany. It's better to be a bench player for a better team in Poland or even Azerbaijan even if it means sacrificing match play for the opportunity to practice daily against an entire team of players that would easily dominate the German League.

    Quote from Matthias

    Look at the top 4 of German league last season: Schwerin and Dresden both usually played with 2 foreigners in first 7, Münster with 3 and Vilsbiburg with 4. So the best German players definitely are main players in their clubs, and players who can't even be main players in their clubs (apart from young players of course) are very unlikely to ever be good players in NT. Let me take Sarah Petrausch as example, I know that you know and like her and I certainly don't want to be rude, but she is the best example. She was the biggest talent in Germany 3 years ago, she went to a good club, I know that she had many problems with injuries, but if she can't even start as OH over Myrthe Schoot who is usually a libero or over Lina Meyer who spent many years in weak teams, how could she ever be an option for NT? Certainly not just by playing more matches...or also Saskia Hippe, she always played in Dresden, and her level was OK for German league, but she never really improved. Or Kristin Kasperski, when she first went to Münster Axel Büring said his goal is to make her good enough for NT, but after one season as starter it became obvious that she won't make it, so Münster got Lonneke Sloetjes instead and improved from 8th to 4th rank just because of that one player change.
    The other thing you mention is a problem of coaches. Of course it is bad when coaches never give players enough chances even if they fight for it, but still I don't think forcing coaches to let players play just because they are German and not because they are good is the wrong solution. Again, look at Schwerin, they bought a Norwegian MB, but Berit Kauffeldt and Anja Brandt were better, so they played. Basically I think when clubs buy foreigners they should be good enough to play in the main team, places on the bench might as well be taken by more German talents rather than by mediocre foreigners.

    I agree, that players who can't even be main players in their clubs are very unlikely to ever be good players in NT. But why aren´t they main players or why aren´t they better or as good as foreign players. In order to answer this question, i think you have to take a look at youth/junior training. There they learn the basics, but when they - if they are good enough - come to the first league, coaches want them to be ready skillwise. There it is about tactics. You don´t want, for example, an 18 year old player to still have to teach her techniques. But if we don´t have players who can receive, block and/or attack properly, then there´s something wrong in youth/junior training. I won´t say that this is the case in all clubs, but it really seems to be a big problem.
    Obviously, the training in other countries is much better, because why should Münster get Sloetjes instead of Kasperski?


    As for Petrausch, you don´t sound rude. The problems with her and Hippe were not only injuries, but...well, that´s a different story.


    I don´t want coaches to be forced to let players play, because they´re german. I want them, to let ´em play in order to get better. And you definitely don´t get better, by sitting on the bench. Also, practice alone don´t makes them better players. They can improve their skills, but when they play against the same players every day they get used to how the others play and that can lead to stagnation, because they never, or seldomly get challenged by playing against opponents who they don´t know as good as their own teammates.
    Of course, there ain´t no doubt, that in order to play in the first league you not only have to be ready sportswise, but also have to be on a certain level mentallywise.


    So, what do we want? Do we want good foreign players, who already play on a higher level, or do we want to improve our own players in order to get better on international level? To do so, we have to
    - improve our youth/junior training
    - give talented players really a chance to play against better competition on a regular basis. This is the only way to gain experience and to really get better!


    I agree, that foreign players should be good enough to play in the main team, but talent on the bench is wasted. Don´t matters, if it´s german players or mediocre foreigners. But hey, let sit mediocre foreigners on the bench, so we ain´t got to worry about good bacis
    training for our own players and save all the money that goes into youth/junior training.


    If we let talented players sit on the bench, on which they can absolutely not improve, and one day have to look for (a) new player(s) for NT, because one of the experienced players is injured or ends her career, we have nobody to chose from. Only players who don´t even have enough experience on playing in first league, but we expect them to play on a higher level on NT? There´s something wrong with that.

    Quote from TheUSAFAN

    Countries either have two options to develop talent; send them away to the top leagues or acquire enough private investment to bring in the best players (like Italy did and Turkey is doing). To get better you have to play against better and the German League doesn't offer the level of play required to develop truly elite talent and they don't have the financial backing to bring in the best of the best. In such case, they should get their top players out of Germany. Hippe and Brinker didn't light the Italian League up this year but I have no doubt that they made improvements that would have never happened had they stayed in Germany. It's better to be a bench player for a better team in Poland or even Azerbaijan even if it means sacrificing match play for the opportunity to practice daily against an entire team of players that would easily dominate the German League.


    Totally agree with TheUSAFAN, Serbia is a very good example for that, even though their league is not high level, since lots of Serbian players play in different top leagues, they can choose their players in such a wide pool. Okiniewska from Poland and Brinker from Germany are also good examples, they improve a lot after going italy. About foreigner restriction, I am in Mathias's side, I believe that league level is very important for the main players and it doesn't matter whether you are playing in starting six or not if the league is not competitive. Moreover playing in european cups further round also improve players in international experience basis :whistle:

    German team had a long meeting in Ankara yesterday, nothing about the content is known yet. It is expected that they will play in GP with a different roster. Apparently German federation was hoping they could take Cuba's place in WOQT in Japan, but the chances for that were always very very low and now it seems Cuba will play after all, NORCECA might pay their travel costs.

    Guidetti invited 20 players for preparations to WGP:


    S: Kathleen Weiß, Denise Hanke, Lena Möllers
    Opp: Margareta Kozuch, Saskia Hippe, Anika Boin
    OH: Maren Brinker, Angelina Grün, Heike Beier, Anne Matthes, Regina Burchardt, Sandra Sell
    MB: Corina Ssuschke-Voigt, Christiane Fürst, Berit Kauffeldt, Nadja Schaus, Franziska Bremer
    L: Lenka Dürr, Lisa Thomsen, Linda Dörendahl



    From Ankara roster, only Kerstin Tzscherlich and Mareen Apitz are missing. Tzscherlich's absence is no surprise but I was hoping to see Apitz as first setter in GP...maybe her job is more important than NT once again.
    Several new players in the team: Anika Boin was Opp of 92/93 Junior NT, she was supposed to play in Dresden last season but then her mother died suddenly and she didn't feel ready to play, so she played in a 2nd league team in her hometown. She is about 1.90 and left handed, no idea how her current shape is but I'm surprised to see her there instead of Luise Mauersberger who already worked with NT last month. Sandra Sell is 23 year old OH from Köpenick who played a very good season, she was among the top scorers of German league and also serves very well. I think she can help the team, we need players who can actually score, even though she is not the very best receiver. I hope she will get chances to play. Franziska Bremer is 27 year old MB from Stuttgart, she also played a very good season, in the beginning of the season she had some matches where she scored around 25 pts with amazing % in attack and that as MB! She is from the same generation as Fürst and Weiss and played in Junior NT with them, she was a great talent then but after Junior age had to stop playing Volleyball due to knee injuries. Some years later she returned to play in Sinsheim, first in 2nd league, she made it to 1st league with them and then went to Stuttgart, she also played as Opp some seasons. She's 1.92 tall, even though she is not so young anymore I also hope she gets chances to play, she was already training with NT sometimes in the past years but never got to play. Linda Dörendahl is Münster's libero, she played in Wiesbaden before and a long time in Schwerin where she is from. Last time she played in NT was 2008, I don't know if she wasn't invited afterwards or didn't want to come, but I think she's a very good player, especially a solid receiver.


    The problem is that none of the new players is in Germany's official WGP roster on FIVB site, I hope it's possible to include them instead of some who won't play for sure. In general I would like to see a mix of experienced and new players in WGP, maybe every weekend in start six use one experienced and one new player on each position...

    Quote from Matthias

    Since she is in the roster I assume she will be ready to play...maybe not all matches, but if she didn't play at all she wouldn't be in training either probably...


    Thanks :)


    Actually I was expecting more young players included in the roster.. I am curious if Guidetti will use his young players..

    Joana: They meet on 18 May and practice in Kienbaum (near Berlin) until 2 June :)


    Quote from kadir_8

    Thanks :)


    Actually I was expecting more young players included in the roster.. I am curious if Guidetti will use his young players..

    Basically I think the roster is OK. As I said I hope for a mixed team in GP, playing only with young players would not be good because most opponents will use GP as preparation for Olympics and come with their best players. With a mixed team we could still be competitive and introduce new players into the team supported by experienced teammates.

    Sandra Sell, Franziska Bremer and Anika Boin declined the invitation to NT :aww: Guidetti says (and I agree) that it's hard to understand, those players were invited to NT for the first time (which is not quite true, Sell and Bremer were in NT training several years ago already) and now they don't use their chance :thumbdown: There are no reasons given on DVV site, so it's difficult to judge, but Sell said during the season that she would be very happy to be in NT and she would love to use her chances and now she doesn't come :|


    Kerstin Tzscherlich will have knee surgery next week and will need 6 weeks to recover. Mareen Apitz takes a time-out from NT without specified duration (whatever that's supposed to mean...)


    Germany will once again play two friendly matches in Poland on 31 May and 1 June and will fly to DOM on 5 June.

    Quote from Matthias

    Sandra Sell, Franziska Bremer and Anika Boin declined the invitation to NT :aww: Guidetti says (and I agree) that it's hard to understand, those players were invited to NT for the first time (which is not quite true, Sell and Bremer were in NT training several years ago already) and now they don't use their chance :thumbdown: There are no reasons given on DVV site, so it's difficult to judge, but Sell said during the season that she would be very happy to be in NT and she would love to use her chances and now she doesn't come :|


    Kerstin Tzscherlich will have knee surgery next week and will need 6 weeks to recover. Mareen Apitz takes a time-out from NT without specified duration (whatever that's supposed to mean...)


    Germany will once again play two friendly matches in Poland on 31 May and 1 June and will fly to DOM on 5 June.


    Hello, Mattias, I'm a German NT fan being from China. Thanks so much for sharing this news , I saw it on DVV too, but I don't understand German so that I have it translated by google. I guessed maybe some players had declined the invitation, and it turned out being true. Mattias, do you know if the two friendly matches have live broadcast?
    Good luck to Tzscherlich, hope she can recover from injuries as soon as possible. Actually I even thought she must be going to retire if you don't tell me the fact.

    About transmissions, I hope Polsat will show the friendly matches, they did show the ones last month...
    About Tzscherlich, I don't think we'll see her in NT again, maybe in ECH 2013 in Germany, but it's very questionable. She's 34 now and has had knee problems quite often in the last few years, and with Lenka Dürr we have a good successor for her.

    Quote from Matthias

    About transmissions, I hope Polsat will show the friendly matches, they did show the ones last month...
    About Tzscherlich, I don't think we'll see her in NT again, maybe in ECH 2013 in Germany, but it's very questionable. She's 34 now and has had knee problems quite often in the last few years, and with Lenka Dürr we have a good successor for her.


    Yeap, I quite agree with you.

    In a newspaper article about Linda Dörendahl is said that she won't be able to play in WGP because she is not in the list that our fed sent to FIVB in April. It sounds like the list can't be changed, but I think in the last years this was possible, and also Serbia added Mihajlovic to the list later :what: Maybe that was a reason why the other invited players who were not in the list did not come to NT, but there is no info about that...
    Either way Dörendahl is very happy to be in NT once again, she says she hoped all the years to get another chance (last time was 2008 ) and she was always ready to come, it is an honour for her to play in NT and she hopes to make a good impression on Guidetti.

    Angelina Grün will not play WGP and Germany will take only 12 players. Currently 15 players are still competing for the 12 spots, Angelina Grün and libero Linda Dörendahl also practice with the team but Dörendahl can't play WGP because she is not in the 24 player list :roll: Guidetti will decide next Tuesday about the final roster, then the team will travel to Poland for two friendly matches but probably it will be training matches, not official ones.


    S: Kathleen Weiss, Denise Hanke, Lena Möllers
    Opp: Margareta Kozuch, Saskia Hippe
    OH: Maren Brinker, Heike Beier, Anne Matthes, Regina Burchardt
    MB: Corina Ssuschke-Voigt, Christiane Fürst, Nadja Schaus, Berit Kauffeldt
    L: Lenka Dürr, Lisa Thomsen


    I suppose one setter, one MB and either one L or OH will be cut last.

    Yeah, she will get rested during WGP. I really hoped to see her there, but as we won't be in London, it seems there is no reason for her to play this exhausting tournament. If only we had at least some young, talented OHs who could be in her place, but no, we must stand watching Beier and Matthes play :roll: