2014 FIVB World Grand Prix

Quote from Meatballs

Thanks a lot for response! Makes great sense

And for Taksim memories ? What does "Turkish public" think ?
There are pro Palestinian protests everywhere in the West !

Watching people all know China team was the referee number
Italy do not know how much money to the referee

Bulgaria and Mia Jerkov + Grbac 3 Croatia 1
I don't know what Angelo need to see that this 2 players are awful

Ok guys, on which points exactly referees got wrong in the 5 th set of Italy-China ?
The most important thing anyway is not here.
Many young players in both sides and the game was very pleasant

Quote from crovolley

Bulgaria and Mia Jerkov + Grbac 3 Croatia 1
I don't know what Angelo need to see that this 2 players are awful

Croatia outblocked us, had good serve, but we have big guns in attack and they are doing some defense now with Kuzyutkin / by the way, I can't understand why our coaches didn't pick up something from the russian during soviet days - spiking technique for the men and defense for the women stays mistery for the most/

So good victory for Bulgaria. I expected it but maybe with 3:2. I saw some very good moments in defence for Bulgaria so this is an element that improved a lot with Kuzyutkin. On the finals in Samokov i believe that with captain Strashi many of the mistakes will be cleaned and we will play better to win the division because i don't think so that this is our division. Someone knows when will be the draw for semifinals or it's known wet who with who will play in Samokov ?

The big surprise, if we compare predictions and results, of this leg, is the outstanding performance of the Turkish team led by ...
hum ... I don't remember his name.
So it could drive some fans to be less arrogant in their judgments about players and coaches

Quote from CarduCat

Ok guys, on which points exactly referees got wrong in the 5 th set of Italy-China ?
The most important thing anyway is not here.
Many young players in both sides and the game was very pleasant

I really liked that Cate, Diouf entered the game. moreover Crichella had a very good game. Everybody talks about the new italian team where Leo and Gioli left etc. but I personally prefer younger players in the new teams rather than a 29 yo Fiorin. I hope Centoni's injury is not serious. Someone should tell the Italian players to be more careful considering all the money turkish teams invested on them
I hope Cate will play instead of Picci and Fiorin in the 2nd week or even Costagrande.

Will the chinese officially protest?? We will see. Clearly Lang Ping was so pissed

Quote from saishuu

From the top of my head, the referee said a Chinese player made a net touch when it clearly only happened in the bottom portion of the net (which seems to have been the main thing Lang Ping complained about). Later on, a pipe attack clearly touched C. Bosetti's block and the referee gave ball out.

I agree with you about the touch in the bottom of the net. Tough decision but worth to wow the referees to the hell ? I don't think so !

Quote from CarduCat

The big surprise, if we compare predictions and results, of this leg, is the outstanding performance of the Turkish team led by ...
hum ... I don't remember his name.
So it could drive some fans to be less arrogant in their judgments about players and coaches

Totally agree. I was very impressed by Barbolini in this weekend. Playing with Meliha as receiving OPP and replacing her time to time with Guldeniz, moreover replacing right players on right times such as Busra Cansu to block and Gamze to serve were really good decisions. I hope he will keep this performance during next weekends.

Btw I hope Yeliz Basa, Seda and Guldeniz won't be in the team during next weeks.

And don't forget to mention that a Chinese player landed on Italian feet 2 points before !
What does Lang Ping think about that ?

Croatia was perfect 1. set and half 2.set than Jerkov ,Grbac happend and Angelo didn't do anything

Only the first leg and already so much drama and surprises. Loving it!

Quote from China cute boy

Watching people all know China team was the referee number
Italy do not know how much money to the referee

What!? the only error the referee made was that ball touched by C.Bosetti's block that he did not see.. all the other calls were right calls! China did a lot of faults in front row, included a very dangerous foot invasion, but protested with no shame like crazy girls
Anyway Italy has no money to give to the referee, financial crisis is still deep here!

Quote

Croatia was perfect 1. set and half 2.set than Jerkov ,Grbac happend and Angelo didn't do anything

Don't forget the phrase that every team plays how the opponent allow him to play. So first set Bulgaria performed very weak serve and defence was yet not so good. Then Nasya Dimitrova, Elitsa Vasileva, Lora Kitipova and Eva Yaneva created many problem to croatian receiving with their serve and from that started all difficulties for croatian setting. Then they become very predicatable from attacking and started with mistakes. And in this match i can say that setting of Diana Nenova wasn't so weak as other times but again Lora Kitipova saved situation.

So summing up elite:
- Brazil is the best, but they have problems with OP, fortunately they cover it successfully by top MBs and OHs
- Turkey and Russia made good impression, though in both teams there's still a place for corrections
- Serbia with good performance, but sometimes Terzic is too stubborn to make right choices
- China and USA may be too weak for WCH if they don't improve weaknesses in systems
- Germany and Dominican Republic with chaos, at least Germans will probably improve till WCH
- Korea IMHO a bit better than expected, without Kim it would look worse, but sisters Yeong-Lee did good job
- Thailand is on usual level, maybe they can still improve
- Italy without Lucia Bosetti may be in trouble, but after Aguero's leaving there's a place for Costagrande, anyway I'm glad to see Centoni with Ferretti back
- Japan and its system is just a mess I wonder what will they do till September

Quote from Toguttt

What!? the only error the referee made was that ball touched by C.Bosetti's block that he did not see.. all the other calls were right calls! China did a lot of faults in front row, included a very dangerous foot invasion, but protested with no shame like crazy girls
Anyway Italy has no money to give to the referee, financial crisis is still deep here!

oh come on please! Isaw the match and the referee didn't make any big mistakes. There has been thousands of replays and all the balls called out were clearly NOT touched by the block. I was quite surprised by the chinese players' reaction: they kept on arguing!!

Quote from raylight

Outside of topic: I like Karl Bildt, too bad European countries think more about money than secuirty otherwise Europe would not be so passive about what Putin is doing /by the way I make difference between Russia and Putin /. Invading foreign countries and taking territory should not stay unpunished otherwise it could happen everywhere. Furthermore, Both USA and RUSSIA signed a contract to keep Ukraine whole if the country surrender its nuclear weapons. Now the whole world saw that the only sure defense is to have nuclear weapons. No state will ever again surrender its missiles after that breach from both sides /Obama is not better than Putin/.

Yeah, you are right that EU is all about money, but US is also and any other country. We had a lot in last 2 and half decades crazy politics and wars in middle of Europe. Around half million Serbs were forcibly evicted out of their homes in Croatia and Kosovo and EU an US or any other country didn't do nothing to help Serbs. This genocide stayed unpunished!