Great victory for the Dominican Republic's team who rolled over all its opponents in group A...
While they certainly exceeded expectations so far, I would not agree that they "rolled over" their opponents. Three of their victories were in 5 sets and two of those by 2 points...
While they certainly exceeded expectations so far, I would not agree that they "rolled over" their opponents. Three of their victories were in 5 sets and two of those by 2 points...
Agree, but just because they were not able to close their games...because they had the opportunity to win them all in less than 5 sets..
The Dominican Republic team always make you play very hard to beat them. They always play to their competition, which is really weird. If they are playing the number 1 team in the world, they will step it up. But then they will seem to play down when playing weaker teams in international competitions.
I have Germany and Italy ranked above them in my ranking system, which were good wins. But Croatia was much lower and it still took them to 5 sets. Still Croatia did beat Germany, but my ranking system is fairly accurate (higher ranked teams average wins 75% of the time).
However, I think that they have a really good chance of making the 3rd Phase. They have a massive tiebreaker advantage with 3 wins (only getting 6 points), whereas Japan only has 1 win (getting 5 points). Every team below them will lose in a tiebreaker with them. The Japan match will probably decide their fate because they should beat Azerbaijan and Belgium (will be close).
USA with a great win. They basically played a regular 5 set match today with all of the extra points.
Brazil had some difficulties, but they are still very far ahead of the rest of the teams in their group in my mind. The Russia match for them should be very important because it could put Russia in a must win situation in their final game. Brazil wants to put the Russians out of the tournament, which they could not do in the past 2 final matches.
It's interesting how the perception of a player changes when people have high expectations
While I certainly agree that Gamova did not play the match of her lifetime and made a few more errors than usual, she still attacked 20/48 which is a perfectly normal number for an OPP and she scored a lot of important points throughout the match while I don't remember mistakes of her in crucial moments. Does the coach have to take her out when she for once plays only like a NORMAL player??
She received so many ugly balls tonight, she could hardly fix them...and sometimes she even made points! I tihnk she didn't play as usual, I saw better games by her for sure but tonight reception didn't work, the MBs were useless (no spikes and no blocks basically) and of course USA controlled her really well!
Serbia was robbed ONE time and Brazil was robbed at least three times
Only one? 
Sorry, but there were at least 4..that I can surely tell you.
Anyway.....Serbia should improve their service...
I expect some tense matches in second phase!
I expect some tense matches in second phase!
Really! there are a lot of teams that could fight for the spot in the third phase! there are going to be nice matches!! looking forward! 
Some worrying defeat today for Italy NT.
Where were the MBs today ? Without a good block no way when you face teams with powerful spikers.
But all has not been said today.
Dai dai
Only one?
Anyway.....Serbia should improve their service...
the referee was so soo 
but i agree Joana
they need improve service
especially if they want go to final 6.
And I couldn't watch anything also today 
anyway some interesting games I'm so happy with win by Dominican Republic 
And we have uneven pools as always 
choosing who may advance I'd choose China and Italy from Pool E, hard to pick up the 3rd one: either Dominican Republic or Japan. Caribbean team has advantage in terms of W-L and they have relatively easier matches (Belgium, Azerbaijan, China and Japan while Japan has Germany, Croatia, Italy and Dominican Republic).
From Pool F I'd say that USA, Brazil and Russia should be further, though Serbia will be tough opponent
Best players according to stats:
Scorer: Polina Rahimova
Spiker: Jaqueline (though % on official website is too high)
Blocker: Ting Zhu 
Server: Charlotte Leys
Setter: Natalia Valentin (next one is Frauke Dirickx)
Digger: Wanna Buakaew (next are Emily Borrell and Brenda Castillo)
Receiver: Risa Shinnabe
According to stats blind FIVB would choose following players to F6 (I don't count countries which will be eliminated):
S: Dirickx
OP: Chunlei Zeng (if they count %, not points)
OH: Jaqueline, Shinnabe
MB: Annerys Vargas, Maja Poljak
L: Castillo
It seems that FIVB should give awards also for Top 4 countries like they did it in male's WCH because formula is the same
Statistics is weird as always, Laura Heyrman is on 20. place in setter ranking (92 attempts)
Spiker: Jaqueline (though % on official website is too high)
... and she's still without club
... and she's still without club
Weird indeed but case is more complicated because of her baby... anyway she should find a club with this shape immediately
wow. like kondzio, i couldn't watch anything today but what incredible results!!!!!
ok, maybe BRA struggled today against SER (and they did with TUR before) but for all those counting them out, remember london???? they were on the verge of elimination in pool play only to regroup and destroy their competition in the knockout phase (and poor RUS their first, unfair victim).
congrats to DOM, although i'm always puzzled as to why they like to give us heart-attacks, i mean, they can one moment produce amazing VB and then go out and crash with the dumbest mistakes ever. was it in the match with CRO that they led in one set only to almost lose it because martinez and rivera would tip the ball only to have the CRO block shove it straight down, and kwiek screamed at martinez, telling her to be aggressive and push the ball against the block instead of tipping, then she got immediately subbed out? also passing, setting, blocking and defense so iffy under pressure sometimes. but when things are working well, de la cruz, pena and martinez are monster killers, and mambru as well. i think they have a good shot at making final 6.
so sorry to see that PR was eliminated. malpica was an exciting player to watch but she can't alone carry the team. wasn't she one of the leading scorers of the tournament so far??????
looking forward to seeing the US x RUS and BRA x SER matches if i can find them as well.
btw, saw a photo in the fivb website that showed onal spiking against CMR with polen and meliha in background? so now barbolini is using 3 OPP together ??????
I don't get the complaints about Gamova. I think she did good. I didn't watch the whole game but it was that close so it could go either way. It's not like US won by 10 points every set. IMHO the sets for Gamova were unstable. I remember Startseva being a better setter for high balls but I saw her setting far from the net or short balls therefore there were moments Gamova couldn't do too much.
Anyway second phase will be interesting to watch. USA, Russia and Brazil are still the top ones IMHO but I wonder what kind of damage Serbia and Turkey can make to USA and Russia. It's just a pitty the other group has weaker teams but let's see this catfight.
hmmmm… again we have situation where the team that finished the group with no defeats,5-0 (DOM) finishes 2nd behind one that is 4-1 (ITA). this is weird.
My pick of top six would be:
Italy China Japan Brazil Russia USA 
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italain announcer in the arena got confused and called "bethania de la cruz" when it was pena serving…
sosa has got to be one of the shortest MBs in the world today! she's shorter than pleumjit. i guess she's the same height as waleskinha???
Pleumjit 180-181 cm... Valeskinha may be taller than her?
aha. i thought valeskinha was about the same as sosa (177cm) but wikipedia says she was 180, so that's the same as pleumjit. mexico also has a short MB, carranza (178 ). i never saw valeskinha play, how did she cope against giant MBs (190 cm and above)? did she ever play against fabiana and thais a in the brazilian league>?????
She did for many years. Actually, she is still playing in Brazilian league nowadays.
Until a few years ago, she was able to play a very nice volleyball even against those high girls, like Fabiana and Thaisa.
Valeskinha was in the starting six during Athens 2004 and had an amazing connection with Fernanda Venturni. Very fast spiking and fast blocking too.
Valeskinha capitalized on fast plays back then. Her speed compensates for her lack in height, though she can block too, it was all on right timing. Diagonal with Walewska in 2004 and bench for 2008.
Hope that Germany and Dominica refueling, also hope China cheer
