Italy - Serie A 2012-2013

    one way match..Cuneo didn't play and Trento's serve just smashed them away!! I agree it has been quite a boring match, I expected more from Cuneo, but I have to recognise that Trento played really determined so to get the final immediately.. :super: .now they'll wait the other semifinal, and I think at the end it will be Piacenza...(I don't wanna bring unluck! ;) )

    Kaziyski with 4 aces and 0 errors, Juantorena with 1 aces and 0 errors :obey:

    Juantorena played with an ankle injury so for him it's good that these games series ended so that he could have some time to relax.


    As a whole Trentino served really good and Cuneo's reception had a lot of problems, but I still think that the game would have been a bit more interesting if Cuneo had played with normal rotation with Solokov only as opposite. I knew that Trentino would win, I just wanted to watch game like the last one where both teams tried to play.


    I knew that Trentino would be determined to win. They missed playing in the Champions League, they want to at least win the Italian Championship.

    Holt won the fourth set!

    That's why I always said we coulden't win anything with Travica as main setter. I'm not a real Lube fan, I support them just because Savani is there and even because I don't like Trento, so I'm gonna support Piacenza now.

    De Cecco or Bruninho? :cheesy:

    I did criticize Monti in the mid-season for being unable to build a strong team based on the names he has. Well, I still think Piacenza's success is a result of more individual skills (plus now a better team chemistry) than coach abilities or decisions, but my earlier remarks seem invalid as Piacenza made it to the final! Congrats! Maybe I was also wrong, who knows... They have nothing to lose from now, so they may even have a psychological advatange over Trento for having been considered underdogs till now. However, Trento is not Macerata and Stoychev didn't have so many injuries to deal with recently. I look forward to the games :)

    FINAAAAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!! :super: :super: :woohoo: :woohoo: mamma mia now i can only say let's have fun guys......Trento is stronger, but also 4 years ago they was it............we are a group, we play a spectacular volleyball, fantastic to see and to admire, we have 2 monsters as middleSblockers, an amazing setter, Zlatanov and Papi, the name says already all....we are in a great shape....let's have fun, then we'll see.....thank you so much for these supreme semifinals!!!

    2001: Italian champions beach volley 4x4
    2002: Italian League Serie A2 - Italian Cup Serie A2
    2004: Italian league's runner up - Cev Cup's runner up
    2006: Top Teams Cup - Italian Cup's runner up
    2007: Italian league's runner up - Cev Cup's runner up
    2008: Champions league's runner up - Italian league's runner up
    2009: Italian League
    2009: Italian Supercup
    2010: Cev Cup's runner up
    2013: Challenge Cup
    <<We're always with you, and we will never leave you alone!>>

    Quote from YavorD

    I did criticize Monti in the mid-season for being unable to build a strong team based on the names he has. Well, I still think Piacenza's success is a result of more individual skills (plus now a better team chemistry) than coach abilities or decisions, but my earlier remarks seem invalid as Piacenza made it to the final! Congrats! Maybe I was also wrong, who knows... They have nothing to lose from now, so they may even have a psychological advatange over Trento for having been considered underdogs till now. However, Trento is not Macerata and Stoychev didn't have so many injuries to deal with recently. I look forward to the games :)

    I don't think that Trento don't have injuries. As far as I could understand from the game between Cuneo and Trento Juantorena is injured and it's not like that they have someone that could substitute him fully.


    I might be just overwhelmed by Piacenza's win because I'm really happy for them, but I don't think that people should underestimate them that much. The question would be more about whether they will keep up the pressure given the age of some of the players. Piacenza is really good in serving, if you ask me better than Trentino. Yes Trentino has monster servers, but they make more mistakes than Piacenza in this element. And it's not a secret that reception for Trentino is the weakest part. Bari is not good IMO and Juantorena and Kazyiski are not brilliant receivers, they are awesome spikers. The problem for Macerata last night was reception, they couldn't organize their attack and I think that Piacenza will be far harder to beat than Cuneo. Not that Trentino doesn't have chances, it has enough, but I don't think that Piacenza will give it without serious fight.


    And yes Holt was good in the 4th set. I do think that he should be part in the USA NT and I think that he deserves some video for him. I couldn't find one, but I think that he has some actions (especially serves) that deserve to be put together in fan video. Simon was perfect too.


    That's the other thing. For me Piacenza has better middle blockers than Trentino. So I think that it will be interesting to watch the games between them and I look forward to it.

    Quote from ravens#7

    That's why I always said we coulden't win anything with Travica as main setter. I'm not a real Lube fan, I support them just because Savani is there and even because I don't like Trento, so I'm gonna support Piacenza now.

    De Cecco or Bruninho? :cheesy:


    You support the team in Italy in which the players never admit if they touched the net, the ball or did some other mistake. This is pretty high standard even for Serie A1

    Quote from raylight

    Sokolov is not more overrated than Mikhaylov or Grozer
    About the analysis:
    Parodi is a shadow of himself in attack ever since he had that injury, he was beast in Cuneo. Savani is among the best servers on the planet, but he is very poor in receiving. Macerata can win if they put him as classical opposite and Zaytsev and Parodi receive /Zaytsev is good all over but he is not the best spiker despite his good technique/. About Trentino - Juantorena didn't lose his serve, the teams adopted to it. His serve is very stable at high power, and uncomfortable to receive, but not the most powerful /Kaziyski, Zaytsev and Sokolov are the players consistently serving over 120km/h). His other elements are sill on high level so he is still world class player. Stokr is playing good but that's all he can give. Juric can make a difference in a match just like Simon, and Simon can win vs Macerata alone if he has a day, especially with the best setter of the league - De Cecco. I don't think there are clear favorites in these two couples and maybe we will see 5 matches in both series.


    Well, we didn't see 5 matches in neither one of the series, both Trentino and Piacenza won all of their matches, but in the first case it was the coach who made it possible, while in the second Piacenza played vs Zaytsev, not vs Macerata. The important thing here is that those who said before the semifinal that Piacenza are outsider are wrong. The final has no clear favorite, for me is 50-50 and will be decided by the captains of the teams and the Cuban duel.

    If Matey and Juantorena serve steadily without many mistakes, they will be like cake please and will win the series after the first 3 games already

    If we take aside Juantorena's problems which seem to date since last year's CL F4 (unless something new showed up, he still played in most games during the season, didn't miss much), Stoychev has fewer injury issues than Giuliani! Macerata totally lost rhythm because of that.


    As I said, Piacenza has great individuals, a reason why I can't notice Monti's contribution, if any. Yes, altogether they have the most versatile and scary starting six, exactly what I meant with my post. However, they only started to show their character as of February (if I am not mistaken) and this is why one would normally put Macerata and Trento above them. Macerata failed for various reasons, but there is also the thing that not being a favourite helped Copra a lot. Trento has been hungry after the CL disappointment and in a 3-out-of-5-match final series they will have time to make mistakes, so I would say chances are 55-45 in Trento's favour. Copra has done it before, perhaps the only team I remember to have beaten Trento in a series (haven't looked in archives).


    Anyway, my initial post was only meant to refer to Monti as a coach.

    Quote from YavorD


    If we take aside Juantorena's problems which seem to date since last year's CL F4 (unless something new showed up, he still played in most games during the season, didn't miss much), Stoychev has fewer injury issues than Giuliani! Macerata totally lost rhythm because of that.


    Yes of course Macerata had more problems than Trentino, but my point was that Trentino has some problems too and it's up to Piacenza whether they will exploit them or not. I honestly didn't listen very carefully the comments during the Trentino/Cuneo game, but the announcers were talking in English so I was able to understand them and it looked like they were part of the Trentino's fanclub. At least I saw it this way since they definitely commented a lot more about Trento and pretty much used the first names of all their players. Anyway they said that Juantorena has some problems with his ankle and that's why in the game with Cuneo he wasn't that used in attack. I don't know if it's the same problem or not, but they basically said that Juantorena won't be used in this game to attack that much because he is not in good shape and has some problems. I don't know if they just overreacted, but they sounded like the injury is getting more serious than it was before. However they might have exaggerated the whole thing.


    Quote


    As I said, Piacenza has great individuals, a reason why I can't notice Monti's contribution, if any. Yes, altogether they have the most versatile and scary starting six, exactly what I meant with my post. However, they only started to show their character as of February (if I am not mistaken) and this is why one would normally put Macerata and Trento above them. Macerata failed for various reasons, but there is also the thing that not being a favourite helped Copra a lot. Trento has been hungry after the CL disappointment and in a 3-out-of-5-match final series they will have time to make mistakes, so I would say chances are 55-45 in Trento's favour. Copra has done it before, perhaps the only team I remember to have beaten Trento in a series (haven't looked in archives).


    Anyway, my initial post was only meant to refer to Monti as a coach.


    I totally agree about Monti. He is not exactly factor. It's all on the Piacenza players for me. Trento is definitely determined to win. And I think that the fact that they lost to Piacenza in 2008/2009 will give them even more reasons to win. And yes Trento are in favor and I agree with your percentage. I think that both teams however have different style in playing so it will be interesting. They both have strength and weaknesses and it's up to the other team to use them. For example I am not sure that Trentino would have allowed what happened last night in the third set. Piacenza had such lead and then they allowed Macerata to level the points.


    And I agree that Piacenza showed more potential in the second part of the season, but I don't think that this matters too much. What matters is which team is in better shape now. Now we can't ever be sure about Trentino, because they are a team that don't play at 100 % if they know that they can win with 70 for example. However out of the semi finals that I watched for me Piacenza looked the most stable team. Yes Trentino basically smashed Cuneo in the second game, but for me Macerata (even with their problems) are better than Cuneo so IMO Piacenza had more difficult games.

    really happy for Piacenza! :) yesterday they showed they wanted to win, even though they lost the first set I think they controlled the entire match! De Cecco has been fantastic, it is obvious to say it, he outclassed Travica (and also this is normal lately).
    Trento-Piacenza can be a really good final...really looking forward to it! :box:

    I can not stop to say that De Cecco is an amazing setter! :super:

    It's possible, you just have to believe in yourself and really not care what other people say, because I've heard it all.
    If you let someone else dictate what you're going to do in life, then you won't get there.


    Non so neanche come onestamente: in due mesi ero di nuovo in campo.



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    Remember the Dinamo Moscow series; Kruglov played the best matches of his life by only hitting parallel (he was fantastic in that aspect by the way) Trentino must be the worst team or more clearly Osmany and Matey must be the worst due at blocking a parallel shot from position 2. Considering how good Piacenza's middles are , they will try to help the middle blocker and the net will be wide open for the opposite. I think Fei/Vettori's performance will be significant.


    In the first final between this teams , we saw fantastic performances from the Bulgarian spikers. This time I hope to see the same from the Cubans.