2013 FIVB World Grand Prix
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Beier best scorer
what a surprise. I couldn't watch match, I guess Brinker was quite bad today. -
De Gennaro
Just had a look at the FIVB Grand Prix stats and Costagrande and De Gennaro are the top two receivers and diggers of the ball....
I am not a fan of the Italian team as well but I think sometimes we are too harsh with them. I think they are similar level to their league in the last two years. They are still in the top 5/6 teams in the world, they are just losing out because the talent coming up in the other teams at the top is higher. Teams like USA and Japan, Brazil and Russia are already looking good for the next olympic cycle - but they have also played in a difficult pool so they have had to play at a high level, whereas Italy hasnt been challenged as much, and their opponents have given them enough inconsistency and errors.
Costagrande though, remains a star for Italy, and is doing a good job of being a leader, however, as I've aid before, its going to be another hard olympic cycle for Italy because they have too many limitations - theyll need a lot of luck!
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Izquierdo didn't play at all this weekend again...I really expected her to be on court much more often this summer. ErolGarip would probably say that Guidetti prepares her as secret weapon, just as he did with Saori in Vakifbank
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DOM-CZE starting delayed because of technical problems in the hall...I guess I'll only watch one set of it, I'm watching volleyball nonstop since more than 8 hours now
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You are so right! This is actually not a joke. I suggest you try to deliver this to Olihver if you're in Krasnodar.
It was better in the past when Russian NT had several players from foreign championships (mostly Italian). But if you look at the things nowadays it is a disaster. A bunch of super-rich players of the Superleague, all in their twenties, expect their 50-something Italian coach (Caprara or Bagnoli - whatever) to... learn Russian! This is simply impossible at his age, independently of the salary and the duties. The new Russian generation of players are quite lazy and education is clearly not the strongest side. Excluding Dima Muserskiy who seems to work hard :).
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DOM-CZE starting delayed because of technical problems in the hall...I guess I'll only watch one set of it, I'm watching volleyball nonstop since more than 8 hours now
Aha! I knew I wasn't alone on this weekend's volleyball marathon
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Aha! I knew I wasn't alone on this weekend's volleyball marathon
Yeah, I'm almost tempted to say Thank God tomorrow is Monday
Otherwise I'd get a volleyball overdose soon. And thinking that just 10 years ago, there was no such thing as a "live stream" at all 
Looks like DOM-CZE still isn't about to start
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hejjdeu, never say ONE bad word about Beier ever again!!!
She just could come to the serve line,but as OH still no :DIm not sure but i think there are some wrong desicions by the referees for germany but not so important italy was clearly the better one and they won,germany made some good things today but they wast so much chance even when they lead 4 points.Geerties was ok maybe guidetti could try izquierdo and hippe played so good in 4th set.For german team its sure they wont be in final round so they just should work for ech in grand prix hanke,furst are playing on lower level than their .Germany should be so much better
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This is actually not a joke. I suggest you try to deliver this to Olihver if you're in Krasnodar.
It was better in the past when Russian NT had several players from foreign championships (mostly Italian). But if you look at the things nowadays it is a disaster. A bunch of super-rich players of the Superleague, all in their twenties, expect their 50-something Italian coach (Caprara or Bagnoli - whatever) to... learn Russian! This is simply impossible at his age, independently of the salary and the duties. The new Russian generation of players are quite lazy and education is clearly not the strongest side. Excluding Dima Muserskiy who seems to work hard :).
Why is it suddenly a problem of Olikhver's? If players prefer spend their free time in Odnoklassniki rather than studying nobody on Earth can force them to learn. But I'm not agree about foreign coaches - nobody's expecting them to read Dostoevsky in original, they gotta learn volley-Russian, how many words? 40-50 probably? Why is it impossible, considering their salary, free time and being in Russia for months and months (and in Caprara's case a Russian wife too)? 50 years is a bit early for Alzheimer disease, they could learn, they just don't think it's necessary. -
DOM-CZE starting delayed because of technical problems in the hall...I guess I'll only watch one set of it, I'm watching volleyball nonstop since more than 8 hours now
Awh, you can do better! I'm watching volleyball today nonstop from Bulgaria-Cuba game and it started full 16 and a half hours ago!) -
Awh, you can do better! I'm watching volleyball today nonstop from Bulgaria-Cuba game and it started full 16 and a half hours ago!)There's one thing I like more than volleyball: sleeping
Anyway DOM-CZE finally started...
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Castillo is soon gonna slap her blockers
3rd time in this set that she makes a great save but the blockers touched the net before 
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Castillo is soon gonna slap her blockers
3rd time in this set that she makes a great save but the blockers touched the net before the same thing happened to Gizem today
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With Bethania on serve game turned from 18-14 to 18-19
game with Marte and Rodriguez looks good, hope that Marcos won't change them 
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Rivera and Arias had a crash, but fortunately without any injury
Vanzurova replaced bad as yesterday Kossanyiova -
Turkey-Japan mach was good.Japan's consistency in defence was Amazing..i have great respect for japanese girls.Turkish girls also defended the court very well sometimes. we must be better at blocking and middle attacks.btw,Japan libero and setter were pretty good.i thought Japan would have problems in Sano and Takeshita's absence but they are still a great team.
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2-0 for Dominican Republic. With quite easy serve by Czech Republic, Dominicana has stable reception (nice that Castillo plays there) and is definitely better in spike. Fortunately Marte is doing good job and Kwiek didn't use standard Opposite-Setter substitution
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Why is it suddenly a problem of Olikhver's? If players prefer spend their free time in Odnoklassniki rather than studying nobody on Earth can force them to learn. But I'm not agree about foreign coaches - nobody's expecting them to read Dostoevsky in original, they gotta learn volley-Russian, how many words? 40-50 probably? Why is it impossible, considering their salary, free time and being in Russia for months and months (and in Caprara's case a Russian wife too)? 50 years is a bit early for Alzheimer disease, they could learn, they just don't think it's necessary.Olihver is influential and open-minded and this doesn't need to be a problem. He can just suggest this to the Federation :).
The inability to learn Russian is very much about the physiology of learning and tough working circumstances. The NT coach in Russia is under tremendous pressure (as Sergei Ovchinnikov has impressively demonstrated us a year ago), he needs to deliver immediately and can be sacked without long notice. With this in mind, there are more immediate things than learning the language - i.e. get the right players/condition them/find the right schemes etc. So in a way, you're right, but it's not that they don't think it's necessary - the coach just needs to act today as they may have no tomorrow. It is not Brazil or Poland where you can lose a major competition and stay. Nobody gives them the right to make a mistake. On the other hand, everybody understands that learning the language is not a one-day exercise.
Secondly, I have spoken to tens of professionals from Western universities, dealing with Russian literature or culture. People who truly enjoyed Dostoyevskiy in original, unlike myself :). I can tell you that none of them could have delivered the right message to the Russian volleyball team during the time-out. This is not about 40-50 words, no. You may not notice this but colloquial Russian requires quite a high command. Unless you study it at an early age, you have a very little chance, independently of the salary, wife etc.
Thirdly, show me a school where you can learn sports Russian (i.e. inclusive of х**, бл**, пи****, ётм etc)? This is nothing special, normal vocabulary from the best coaches (Alekno, Voronkov, Cherednik). Marichev during the time-outs with his classical "мля" after each phrase. When Alekno says, "а ты, бл***, е**** его нах** поверх блока" - how much time you think the foreigner needs to to use this lexema efficiently?
In the end, there has been no historical precedents that a well-paid foreign coach would be able to learn Russian, in any kind of sport. Even hugely overpaid football coaches, some of whom were/are decent people wouldn't do it. So, independently of whether you agree with my arguments or not, there must be an objective reason. Let us see how much Russian Edward Snowden will learn :).
