Olympic Games - Brazil 2016 (qualification process)

    :aww: :lol:
    grbic catches the ball, which kampa still wants to save. Point for germany......

    Phillip Collin is absolutely on fire. Probably the best match in his NT career so far. I hope he has saved some blocks for the rest of the match....

    Quote from Bartek

    I read that during African OGQT which will start since 7 January will participate 23 Teams.. is that possible?


    Finally, only 7 teams will take part in this competition
    Pool A: Congo Brazzaville (host), Egypt, Tunisia
    Pool B: Algeria, Cameroon, RD Congo, Nigeria

    Quote from TimHH

    :aww: :lol:
    grbic catches the ball, which kampa still wants to save. Point for germany......

    Why that catching the ball is against the rules? Imagine the coach doesn't catch the ball but just stay there immobile and the ball hits him, is it still a fault?

    What a tournament.


    What can I say... I really didn't expect Germany to do anything good, especially after the awful match against Belgium. Glad to have been proven wrong.


    So Serbia is the first big team being eliminated from the Games. Germany has to eliminate another one in order to go to Rio, wonder who it will be. Because at this point I am sure that they will end up in the top 3.



    And of course, as a person from Italy I have to realize that the Olympic tournament has gotten considerably easier without Serbia. Not that I'm happy about teams being eliminated because of geopolitics rather than merits, but let's be honest.


    Germany confirms itself as a giant killer, eliminated Cuba twice and now Serbia once from the Games. Definitely one of the biggest overachieving teams in volleyball history.


    I was commenting the result with my German friend and thanked him for getting rid the Olympics of the teams that Italy almost always loses against. London 2012 would have gone in a different way with Cuba and Serbia on our way to the bronze. I wonder if they can pull the same trick with France.


    Again, sorry to Serbia for losing the Olympics in this way. Hopefully things will change in the future.

    Quote from vabo

    Because at this point I am sure that they will end up in the top 3.

    How can you he so sure? I mean they have to beat Poland/France/Russia which are much better teams imho. Not that Germany are chanceless agains any of them but still it will be very tough to do it.

    I am absolutely convinced that Germany can beat anyone in an eventual 3rd place match. It's their specialty, beating teams that are supposed to crush them, exactly in the single game where everything matters.


    France, Russia and Poland have the whole world on their shoulders in such a situation.

    Quote from rugby

    How can you he so sure? I mean they have to beat Poland/France/Russia which are much better teams imho. Not that Germany are chanceless agains any of them but still it will be very tough to do it.

    Quote from arman


    I wonder why Grbic didnt call N. Kovacevic. Sure he was better than these people.


    N. Kovačević wasnt called because he didn't play much in Lokomotiv, that's what Grbić said. I feel sorry for Serbia as I know couple guys from this team (Uroš, Brđović, Okolić) but let's be honest - they didn't deserve to be in Rio. Reception is the biggest problem, simply Uroš, Ivović and Petrić aren't good recievers and never will be. It's a mystery to me why Katić was there as he recently recovered from injury and didn't play much in Galata. On other side I doubt Nikola Kovačević would change something as his reception isnt good as well. Second problem IMO is trully weak and poor serve. Except Atanasijević the Serbs didn't have good server in Berlin. Third problem is weak field defense, I think they have the lowest digging ratio of all teams. When you combine all these problems it's obvious they couldn't cope with expectations.


    Germany isn't surprise for me, Heynen's tactical abilities are almost legendary and he knows how to play on tournaments like this one. My biggest concerne was Grozer's condition because he had exhausting rythm in Korea, spikining every match between 50 and 80 balls but it seems he is fully fit. Their mental stability and field defense are amazing, every player perfectly knows where to stand in every situation and credit for that goes to Heynen. Surely can't say they are overachievers


    Finland made it tough for Bulgaria but that was their peak. Kunnari's absence is just to big handicap while Seppanen and Kraštins aren't on same level.


    Bulgaria will have tough task to reach semifinals, roster is short and Konstantinov doesnt have much solutions, especially after Penchev pneumonia. Vlado Nikolov said he can't play 5 matches in 5 days, so Uchikov is getting playing time (IMO he will start tomorrow). I was impressed by Skrimov and Nikolay Nikolov, their serves made the difference today.

    This French team is just so different from all the others, like they're crazy, but have an incredible sense for the game, they find so many different solutions and most of the time they are good. Certainly they are so much fun to watch, even though Ngapeth is a dirty showoff and Le Roux simply refuses to wear his shorts like they're meant to be worn...

    Grbic sacked in the morning

    Per un pir, un pam un persec per na brogna e na rumleina, nuetr'a sam d'la Ghirlandeina nuetr'a sam da rispeter




    France should be given their visa for the Games right now, just based on their performance tonight. If a team like theirs fails to qualify due to the stupid distribution of quotas (highly unlikely but still possible), FIVB and all respective morons should resign immediately. Regardless of the score margins in most sets, the game was extremely entertaining. We've said it all about France, we didn't see anything new. What I figured out tonight while watching them, just think about it for a second: this must be the team with the fewest number of substitutes and injuries ever. And they are almost unbeaten in a year. Same players, absolutely predictable line-up, no subs, no need to change roster even when they lose sets, they don't even face injuries (I don't wish that to anyone, let them remain healthy so we can enjoy their game) unlike EVERY single team on Earth. And these tips, kicks, improvisation, innovations, they are a sign they read and enjoy the game perfectly well, but for God's sake they also have massive luck at times. We can't say anything more about them, I guess we can just wait and see when they will run out of luck (which makes me very sad because Bulgaria missed a golden chance to punish them, for it surely was the only moment in 2015 when they were unimpressive).


    Tomorrow's same between Russia and Bulgaria will copy the value of Germany vs. Serbia. Alekno tried all his players, and I would still give Berezhko a chance in these qualifiers, everyone else played. I watched Bakun for the first time maybe last season. I never expected him to be a NT member at the expence of either Poletaev, Kruglov, Moroz, Pavlov, etc. Well, I have to say it feels like he's always been in that NT, his appearances might be only sporadic but his powerful spikes are difficult to defend and he really fits the team well. I still think Russia played greatly until that French run in the third set. After that it was all over. I have a feeling Russia will have another chance to play France this week. Although, as a Bulgarian, I hope they won't. But realistically speaking, Bulgaria will have to show something very special to kick the Olympic champions out of the competition.


    Germany's win was fully deserved even if some, including me, would call it a surprise. It proves the male tournament is not of a lesser value compared to the female and that unexpected outcomes are possible here as well sometimes. Frankly, the last time Germany performed like this was during the WCH. I considered Serbia the pre-game favourites because Germany hadn't really demonstrated such a display for a long time. And because I didn't like their match against Belgium. Usually Serbia is a team that reacts well when put under pressure. Not this time, though. Many things went wrong in the Serbian camp indeed. Germany, on the other side, played superb volleyball. But I still don't know if they can show consistency for the rest of the tournament and repeat this performance once more on the weekend.

    :super:
    That was a cool match and a tactical masterpiece. I could only watch first two sets, but until then, everyone knew what to do on block/defence and Heynen`s plan worked almost perfectly. Of course, beating Serbia in straight sets is a little surprise but i wouldn't call this "overachieving". Serbia played badly on last WCH and ECH. Their World League result seems to be the true "overachievement".

    Quote from Kaziyski

    third problem is weak field defense, I think they have the lowest digging ratio of all teams.

    After WCH, it was proven statiscally that they were amongst the worst team at scoring from transition. As far as i can judge, not much has changed since then. Thats something Grbic has to take responsability for as well....

    Quote from arman

    Why that catching the ball is against the rules? Imagine the coach doesn't catch the ball but just stay there immobile and the ball hits him, is it still a fault?


    Look at this pic, what a great shot 8o.
    https://www.facebook.com/fancl…899556957/?type=3&theater


    Quite obvious, that if he had just stood there, Kampa could have digged the ball. There was similar action at set point for Serbia in the second set, where i am not sure whether everything was correct. i initially thought, the ball had crossed the net inside the antennas....

    Quote from etu 2013


    Finally, only 7 teams will take part in this competition
    Pool A: Congo Brazzaville (host), Egypt, Tunisia
    Pool B: Algeria, Cameroon, RD Congo, Nigeria


    Kenya's federation said they didn't have money for the men's team, and they are expecting to have enough funding for the women's team. This is actually funding from the government, so they want a winner, which is the women's team.
    Zimbabwe had no money, so why did they spend $1,000 for the entry fee for each the men and women?


    Essentially all of the federations spent their money going to the All Africa Games last year, or the African Championships. The CAVB need to make the champion from 2015, the qualifying team for the Olympics. It would save the African federations money. Because what looks worse, saying that you'll play and don't show up, or not playing at all?

    I mostly agree with what people say here regarding France but let us wait till the very end. The French were a solid number two at ECh-2013 and they haven't got worse for sure :). The major improvement has been done in the middle. The only caveat is perhaps that they depend much on one particular player. He has had an excellent game vs Russia when essentially whatever he hit would fall on the opponents side but there can be a different day.


    I was very impressed with the block-defense that Alekno was able to revive in Russia. To my major surprise, the team has outreceived France in this game, mostly thanks to Tetyukhin and Verbov. The downside is bizarrely that Russia has no reliable side-outer in the team, at least in the starting roster. Today, France was able to get six-ish break points in a row on a float serve (which was a complex serve of course but nevertheless) delivered straight onto Grankin's head.


    Grankin doesn't feel very comfortable with his MBs. Volkov is clearly not well - he may recover but will he? Scherbinin is a defensive blocker and a debutante. Aschev struggled with the tempo - he is a short MB and needs a fast set. Volvich, perhaps, was the only exclusion. Whatever people say about his condition, Muserskiy was terribly missed today. A somewhat expected problem is Max Mikhaylov who's been kill-blocked by Ngapeth one on one on two or three occasions. Not the most coordinated opposite in the world, Max has two major advantages in his blocking and serving that should kind of book him his place in the starting six. However no blocking or serving can counterbalance "minus six" in a single rotation, while the opp is trying to find himself. I would be seriously tempted to try Bakun as a starter.


    Klyuka needs to mature asap. Childhood is definitely over for this chap, he needs to use his chance to turn into a beast. I would suggest him to change his surname to something more energetic, e.g. he can become Egor Koshelev :). Tetyukhin
    is still very good but he's 40 and this is the age when Toniutti becomes a good blocker. Overall, I am very curious as for what Alekno is going to prepare for the Bulgaria game. I don't think there is a big pressure on him but the Federation is under substantial pressure now, with a big axe being sharpened on the Lubyanka. Kovalev is reportedly out of the tournament... Enter Muserskiy disguised as Kovalev?