2012 Olympic Games

    Marinho: like every brazilian believe in your NT is obvious thing;) but winning against russia on that shape isn't a dream. More than 20 serve faults.
    Btw: good game for brazil and now they will be stronger for sure

    Kind of disappointing, that it turned out to be a 3-set game. Nontheless I still consider both teams to be favourites to win the gold medal, with team USA, Italy and Poland strong contenders to reach the podium place.

    “Wise words are like arrows flung at your forehead. What do you do? Why, you duck of course.” S. Erikson

    Brazil played wonderfully...if there were any doubts about this team they totally erased them! and now it is going to be more thrilling to me for the next matches! :box:

    I'm so dissappointed of Russia's performance and Alekno's activity - he looked like he didn't care about result of this match. I wonder if Grankin is injured or something, 'cause his absence, thinking about Butko, was quite suprising. 3rd set could be successful for Russia, but their awful reception and mistakes started existing again and there were no chances for them to win, especially that Brazil was very determined.
    Theoritically Brazil looks much better than in WL, but I can't see big different between what I saw there at here. Vissotto isn't still in best shape and I wonder when he's gonna explode. But it doesn't change the fact, that Bruno made this game almost perfectly, connection with Dante was very effective(nice to see you in good shape, Dante). I said theoritically - Russia helped them a lot, it wasn't real Russia. Butko, Khtey, Obmochaev very unstable...


    But I think both teams will fight for medals.

    I am not sure that Brasil came back in the best shape. It possible to beat her. Today Russia had usual "switch off" day, which have happend to Russia. But even in this bad condition Russia was able to overtake Brasil.

    A lot of things seems strange for me today. Alekno is too calm, when he cares about the result he is very, very angry usually. Ilinykh instead of Tetyukhin or Berezhko. Muserskiy sent all his serves to the net and wasnt substitute for.
    Hmmm strange...

    Of course Brasil is way far from their best shape, but they were still able to win. :D :D


    Brasil has avoid those comebacks. It hapenned against Poland in WL (their last match) and we almost lost one set for Russia today. :pinch:


    I'm not satisfied with Dante and Visotto. But they are out of shape for health reasons, so I'm not gonna reclaim about it.


    Murilo needs surgery in his should, but he was fantastic today. 11 spikes and 2 blocks. That guy is a HERO! :heart:


    Brasil did well with the blocks (9 points) and aces (4 points). :thumbsup:


    Congratulations for taking the controll of match, Brasil. :super: :super: :super: :super:

    Guys, I have to go back to yesterday and write a few words. I didn't have time earlier. First of all I would like to congratulate Bulgarian users. Your team showed what I expected to see from our guys - heart, fight and amazing game. Big respect for the comeback after losing this 3rd set. I was almost sure that our guys will lead to tie-break and win this. They did this not once and not twice before. But not this time. Bulgarians didn't let us. So... sincere congrats. Of course, I was really saddened that we lost, but I was happy to see Bulgarians "rebuilt", they needed it. That's why I always believe in the team doesn't matter how hopeless the situation is. Eat your own words, Vlado. Tsvetan was outstanding. He had a BIG day and played like a supermonster. It's for him the beginning to become a true leader of his team as it was one day for Kurek. I'm proud of him, I mean Tsvetan. This guy has become one of my favourite Bulgarians some time ago and for sure he's in my heart and will stay there for long. Two more things, rather guys, to be more precise - Skrimov and Salparov. Tell me, how it's possible that there was earlier no chance for Todor to be in NT? I mean, he's not so tall and I read somewhere that he might have played for France... He was the second one (after Tsetso) who smashed Poles! For me, he's like Bulgarian Ruciak. And Teodor... my goodness, he defended balls impossible to defend. Not even mention that he received everything (our guys kept serving on him though they supposed to not). That's all from me on this topic. Flowers for you, Bulgarian users, hats off for your team and keep believing in them!


    About my team... Yesterday I would say many many bad words. Today I look at this in different way. I'm only sad they were so hopeless, they didn't do their best and play without enough heart. 'Cause they didn't. Except a very few nice actions, they showed nothing that was our advantage. No block. No incredible defence. Poor serves. It was the worst performance since the match against Italy on ECh last year. I wish I could not watch such matches again. Ok, you can't win every game but come on, PLAY at least, FIGHT. Andrea said one day that he always wants to make sure if we do absolutely everything to win. And yesterday we didn't do everything. We could win this. Gosh, polish journalists, stop saying about "weaker match which has to come and if, let it come earlier". Crap. We got a cold shower. This is a stimulus to be more determined, motivated and to "hit" it even harder.
    Looking forward for better match with Argentina... Yours faithfully, bella. ;)

    There is one thing I don't undarstand with the statistics. http://www.fivb.org/vis_web/volley/MOG2012/pdf/P3-008.pdf I look the % in attack here, and on other sites like http://volleyball.sportal.bg/news.php?news=378151. They are quite lower in the official statistics, and this is for every game. Sokolov has 34% in fivb page, 55% in Sportal. Don't know who is calculating how, but something doesn't seems right. And I'm too buisy at work to start writing down numbers :(.

    Quote from Anormalen

    There is one thing I don't undarstand with the statistics. http://www.fivb.org/vis_web/volley/MOG2012/pdf/P3-008.pdf I look the % in attack here, and on other sites like http://volleyball.sportal.bg/news.php?news=378151. They are quite lower in the official statistics, and this is for every game. Sokolov has 34% in fivb page, 55% in Sportal. Don't know who is calculating how, but something doesn't seems right. And I'm too buisy at work to start writing down numbers :(.


    Efficiency and success rate are different. The former one is (spike pts - faults)/total attemps and the latter one is spike pts/total attemps.
    Sokolov has higher number of faults.

    Quote from timbyak

    Russian players need some brasilian system, when they see *Brasil* they like under spell.


    http://youtu.be/LVjbLP5rcws


    Sorry for offtopic, I need to amuse myself now.


    Cool video. :lol: I don't understand a thing, but seems fun. :P


    So, I couldn't watch Brazil x Russia live, put I finally was able to catch up.
    I stand by what I said before: there's no clear favorite for this tournament, there never was one. Group A is turning out to be far more balanced than I expected, thanks to Bulgaria. This might make for interesting quarterfinal crossings. Everything's tangled and it's kinda tough to predict who gets what spot, but it still seems that Poland has an advantage, since, theoretically, they already played the alleged stronger teams (Argentina's kinda disappointing for me). There's a chance Italy, Poland and Bulgaria end up all with the same points.


    I believe the contenders for golden medals are, alphabetically, Brazil, Poland, Russia and USA. Italy might sneak in and grab a bronze, maybe. It depends on the drawing. Actually, they might even get 1st place, still. I think Russia might not have a great first phase - USA seems strong so far, so they might fall to third, which, in terms of drawing, doesn't mean much - but I think they'll step up when we reach playoffs. Probably Brazil and USA will fight for the 1st spot in group B, and this might be the greatest match of the first phase.


    I agree that it would be exaggerated to say the old Brazil is back. But I do believe this match can lead to some interesting conclusions. I think Brazil has an aged team, but it also means it's very experienced - in a way, similar to female italian NT. Brazil's been the most victourious team for the last 12 years. Obviously this doesn't assure them anything. But they can feed themselves from it, cause they're already used to this kind of pressure, to decisive matches. That's valuable experience. Other teams don't have that. So what they needed right now was the build momentum, cause that's what's key. I think Poland found a good system for them since the last few months, but I'm not sure if that's enough. They're gonna have to keep improving. Russia might be the team that has most potential, but they often fail to use this in their advantage. Also, in confronts against Brazil, seems they don't match well. But I think there's room for big improvement as well. (Also I am not sure why Volkov didn't play, and why now Grankine is subbing for Butko.) I think USA is looking dangerous. When they reach a certain technical level, it gets way too hard to beat them. I think they're gonna surprise people. I believe mental strenght is gonna be key. That's why I think Brazil and USA are looking so good right now. But I wouldn't single them out just yet. I think the competition is way too balanced. But here it goes. I think those 4 are the contenders, and they shouldn't be ruled out.

    1stly set ratio, point ratio or wins betwean team is the crucial to see who will be first in groups?


    2ndly to be 2nd or 3rd is the same in this phase as there will be new draw between the secomd and thirs of the two groups?
    Please i want official answer if possible from a link

    Quote from trapalis

    1stly set ratio, point ratio or wins betwean team is the crucial to see who will be first in groups?


    2ndly to be 2nd or 3rd is the same in this phase as there will be new draw between the secomd and thirs of the two groups?
    Please i want official answer if possible from a link

    Question 1 http://www.tpenoc.net/download/london2012/Volleyball.pdf page 16-17
    Question 2 http://www.fivb.org/en/olympic…de/volleyball/#/29/zoomed pg.29
    If you don't feel like reading the documents here are the answers:
    1. points for matches - number of victories - set ratio - point ratio
    2. yes you are right it doesn't really matter whether you are 2nd or 3rd.

    Let's wait and see Brasil vs USA


    That's a important match. No ideia what's going to happen :S