World League 2013

    Quote from ravens#7

    Come on, this is ridiculus!


    Zaytsev played just a match as OH, but he took anyway the award instead of Sivozhelez, Spiridonov, Dante, Savani and the others.

    It's not fair, totally agree :down: he played only 1 match as OH

    Gold medal - World League 2013 Prediction Game
    Bronze medal - World League 2012 Prediction Game

    Quote from ravens#7

    Bruninho, I love you, but Grankin played much more better, FIVB sucks as usual. :thumbdown:

    Again wrong choice :down:

    Gold medal - World League 2013 Prediction Game
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    Wing spiker: Zaytsev
    2nd wing spiker: Lucarelli
    Middle-blocker: Muserskiy
    2nd middle-blocker: Birarelli
    Libero: Mario
    Setter: Bruno
    Opposite: Sokolov??!?!?!?!?!?!?!
    MVP: Pavlov



    FIVB, GO AND F*CK YOURSELF! DID YOU WATCH MATCHES?????

    Sokolov best opposite. Is this a joke? :mad:


    Sivozhelez, who played like a monster nothing?


    RIDICULUS.


    Grankin, who played perfectly nothing?


    RIDICULUS.


    I supported Brasil in the final. But these 2 guys from Russia really deserved the awards. :down:

    What a joke :down: Pavlov should've got two awards :down: I agree only with half of this (in bold). Maybe FIVB wants not to give 2 awards for the same player.

    Gold medal - World League 2013 Prediction Game
    Bronze medal - World League 2012 Prediction Game

    And probably in World Grand Prix we'll see the same ridiculous story with individual awards :down: can't they choose people who deserve most?

    Gold medal - World League 2013 Prediction Game
    Bronze medal - World League 2012 Prediction Game

    Quote from kondzio

    What a joke :down: Pavlov should've got two awards :down: I agree only with half of this (in bold). Maybe FIVB wants not to give 2 awards for the same player.


    I recall the same player could get 2 awards in the youth championships. FIVB may wanna give a consolation to Bulgaria that would leave empty-handed otherwise.


    Pavlov's performance is definitely deserved to win both awards.

    Quote from kondzio

    And probably in World Grand Prix we'll see the same ridiculous story with individual awards :down: can't they choose people who deserve most?


    :wall: :wall: :wall:


    Mario and Salparov were just amazing and deserved to fight for best libero and best digger awards. Dante, Parodi and Rossini played deserved to compete with them for the best receiver award. Muserskiy best blocker, Grankin best setter and Sivozhelez best server, no doubt. Pavlov or Sivozhelez MVP. And Pavlov best spiker and scorer of course.


    FIVB, I won't be surprised anymore. :whistle:

    DAVAI RUSSIA !!!


    Damn! Watching Russia demolishing Brazil like this is not something we've seen often, such a new and fresh team who has played without pressure, and especially fighting for his spot, cause even though they got teh title, many will be cut.... Voronkov got have tough time to decide the main russian line up especially on OH. Who would you guys choose? Biryiukov, Berezhko, Khtey, Zhilin, Spiridonov, Rodichev, Antonov, Illinykh, Sivozhelez ? I Would certainly choose Pavlov as the one naturalised over Butko, cause for me Grankin is better, and i still wait Ostapenko to receive another choice....


    Brazil, yes we are not used to loose, like this so :what: But i am glad with this team, Lucarelli is one of my favorite players and has proved he is the best brazilian OH in this moment, i hope Bernardo keep him on the team when Murilo be back. Yes, we can play better, especially Wallace who always struggle on big matches, and Lucão whom in brazilian superleague is a monster, but the reallity is tha in the moment Russia is the best.


    Bulgaria and Italy stay as the ones which can battle for something, but still with many weak positions, Poland is the only other team i see with podium potenial


    CONGRATS RUSSIA, CONGRATS PAVLOV :super:


    OBS: I feel so sorry for Ukraine, nobody wants this shirt ehehehheheh, imagine they could have a team with Pavlov, Muserkyi, Khtey, Panteleymolenko, the same goes with girls, Goncharova, Mammadova, Makarova ...

    Quote from powsoff

    As you may know, there can be only one naturalized player in the official squad and Butko is regarded a more valuable asset than Pavlov.

    Muserskiy also represented Ukraine and got a Russian passport in 2006, Butko is Belarussian. A team is allowed two naturalized players and Alekno chose Butko as a back up setter, as Mikhaylov was playing great and Ilinykh could substitute him in case of an emergency. You've been fooled by that Mr Sunderland on laola1.tv, who made a bad impression on me by being unprepared. I mean, he wears a total access badge and couldn't find one journalist to tell him Pavlov's story or even ask his buddy Muserskiy?!?



    As for the final tonight - for the second evening in a row I'm baffled by Brazil's serving. What's the deal with Bernardinho making all of them serve mediocre float??? It was working ok against Bulgaria (pessimistic to say as a Bulgarian, but any serve inside the court would be a problem for our starting receivers) yesterday, but today it didn't pose any threat. Didn't Bernardinho watch how well Russia was receiving in the semifinal vs Italy?

    Someone was saying that this Russian team lacks talent :D

    Quote from volley17

    Muserskiy also represented Ukraine and got a Russian passport in 2006, Butko is Belarussian. A team is allowed two naturalized players and Alekno chose Butko as a back up setter, as Mikhaylov was playing great and Ilinykh could substitute him in case of an emergency. You've been fooled by that Mr Sunderland on laola1.tv, who made a bad impression on me by being unprepared. I mean, he wears a total access badge and couldn't find one journalist to tell him Pavlov's story or even ask his buddy Muserskiy?!?



    As for the final tonight - for the second evening in a row I'm baffled by Brazil's serving. What's the deal with Bernardinho making all of them serve mediocre float??? It was working ok against Bulgaria (pessimistic to say as a Bulgarian, but any serve inside the court would be a problem for our starting receivers) yesterday, but today it didn't pose any threat. Didn't Bernardinho watch how well Russia was receiving in the semifinal vs Italy?


    As I recall, in the very beginning there could be three naturalized players in the official squad. Such a rule changed in the late 90's because of the Croatian women's team and since then only one naturalized player is allowed. That's why Makarova paved way for Obmochaeva, and Aguero and Costagrande could not appear at NT at the same time. As powsoff has explained, this restriction should apply to players who represent their original country in the senior team before. If Pavlov and Muserskiy play together, Muserskiy shouldn't have represented Ukraine in his senior team before?

    Quote from powsoff

    The Russian team is a joke. Yes, Pavlov is arguably the best opposite in the world at the moment (!) and this is probably his only chance to win a major international competition, due to the citizenship issues. But otherwise they have out of shape Grankin and Muserskiy and seriously out of shape Mikhailov on the bench. Both Alexeys (Verbov and Spirik), though very talented players, have been deservedly kicked out of the national team by Alekno. Verbov is known to be a total disaster for the team spirit... and Spirik got famous for using the other kind of spirit on the regular basis :). Sivozhelez, Zhilin and Apalikov are all middle-age bench-players. They all have exceptionally strong and stable service but otherwise should not appear in the top-level matches. Sivo and Zhilin normally struggle with a single block when hitting from four, and their reception is usually poor. Aschev is by far a better blocker and middle attacker than Apalikov.


    This team reminds me of Bulgaria at London Olympics: they lacked talent but at the same time they were not under big pressure. I think the Russian team from the Universiade would have no problems beating this nominally first team. Would be actually nice to see a game between the two :).


    Those Russian OHs you mentioned are not exceptional players, but if they could be exported, I'm sure many NTs would welcome them and they could even be starters. There're not many OHs who can spike and receive well nowadays.

    Yes, volley17 prolly didn't read the wiki article he gave carefully. Muserskiy played for Ukraine on junior and youth level.

    Clearly a political decision. Bruno, Zaytsev and especially Lucarelli (pls watch the final once again) shouldn't be be there. Sokolov sounded like a joke. The problem is that in a couple of years some people would say that Sokolov "almost gave Bulgaria a medal of WL" and was "definitely best opposite of the world back in 2013" :).

    Ideal team of WL final six:


    Grankin,
    Pavlov,
    Muserskiy.
    Lucao,
    Aleksiev,
    Sivozhelez
    Rossini


    P.S. Remember what I wrote about Vettori? Something to say, powsoff :wavy:

    Quote from powsoff

    I would refer to what Vlado Nikolov was saying in London ("We are the tourists here"), and no offence, this World League proves his point. Salparov is OK, Todorov is promising but otherwise there was nothing special in London for Bulgaria. Aleksiev is a nice chap and great player but not a great talent. Sokolov, widely regarded as a biggest Bulgarian rising star, is somewhat like Spiridonov (i.e. is "mental" in his performance, may either play very well or very badly). He is already 24, he's been "rising" for last three years... and what has he won so far? The setter Bratoev played in Russian 2nd league and, I regret to say, it looks like he switches positions with his twin brother from time to time. Very readable. People like Yosifov, Nikolov N, Skrimov... who are they? Kaziyski and Zhekov were very much "the bright side" of the Bulgarian team, just like Konstantinov and to a certain extend Nikolov V were. Don't forget that sometime in 2007 Bulgaria would beat Brazil in the World league finals and that was a very different Brazil :).


    Correct me if I'm wrong but after that scandal in Bulgarian federation the national team suddenly became regarded as an underdog at the Olympics. A good position especially for mentally weak characters like Sokolov.



    It's true that talented players could bring success to a team, but volleyball as a team sport, you don't need a full squad of talented players to bring a title back to home. Also, not being talented doesn't mean that a player is "average". If you see G. Bratoev could set to anywhere within a 3-m radius of his targeted spikers, you should realize that Toshko actually is quite a good spiker indeed. How many times he scored by making a soft touch-out when Georgi invariably set too close to the net. Yosifov is a very good blocker and at the same time spikes well. N. Nikolov who's missing in this WL is also a balanced MB. Milushev is not a "talented" player as Sokolov, but he's good enough to be a starter. I actually think that Placi may consider to let Milushev start a match if Sokolov continues to be so inconsistent. The real "average" player on the starting lineup is G. Bratoev. Most folks here give negative remarks on Travica. Unfortunately, Georgi's sets are way worse than Travica's. It's a real pity that Bulgaria has many heavy hitters but couldn't fully utilize their offensive power of these good players on the team.


    With many good players on the team, Bulgaria suffers a lot from the consistency issue. That's because the capability of the good players on the team are not complementary, leaving many holes on the squad. The setter position is a big headache. Reception is another well-known issue of the team after Plamen Konstantinov retired from NT. The instability of the reception system also partially leads to shaky offensive performance of all the OHs at times, as consistently spiking in broken plays is both mentally and physically challenging. As raylight has mentioned, they're a good blocking team (starting from 2009 IMO) at both ends of the net, but they don't have a disciplined block-defense system like the other teams on this F4 due to their poor defensive skills. The blockers have to make stuff blocks at the net. Otherwise, as long as the players have to move their arms or legs a bit to save a spike, it fails most of the time.