2014 FIVB World Grand Prix

  • so italy cannot have costagrande AND sorokaite together in the team?


    No, they can't have Costagrande and Aguero. Sorokaite never played for Lithuania, but Costa and Tai did play for Argentina and Cuba before receiving Italian citizienship. The rule about one naturalized player in the NT is about someone who had already played for their home country. Costa and Indre were both in the team last season.

  • who here was complaining about arrighettii's attitude? i LOVE valentina! just because she's quiet, who cares????? she's a great player and she's not nasty like obmochaeva, so what's your problem?


    and yes, the chinese players in the bench need to stop screaming like a dying banshee…

  • Interesting article in Voleybolextra: http://www.voleybolextra.com/3…rinin-kaleminden-anakara/


    Unfortunately it's in Turkish but in summary, it claims that Polen is not injured or out of shape. She is not in the team due to some other reasons?! Adds that she could contribute more than all other 4 players played as OPP last weekend for Turkey.
    Praises Kubra Akman, Neriman, Gözde and Meliha while critisizing Bahar Toksoy harshly. Claiming that she is very lucky to get constant chances in the national team although she neither scores nor blocks properly. Moreover makes alot of serve errors.


    I agree the article except the part about Polen. I think Barbolini made the right decision by avoiding a player who chose to sit on bench whole season (and will keep sitting). However after this weekend, I'm sure a dead Polen is even better than Seda & Yeliz.

  • Interesting article in Voleybolextra: http://www.voleybolextra.com/3…rinin-kaleminden-anakara/


    Unfortunately it's in Turkish but in summary, it claims that Polen is not injured or out of shape. She is not in the team due to some other reasons?! Adds that she could contribute more than all other 4 players played as OPP last weekend for Turkey.
    Praises Kubra Akman, Neriman, Gözde and Meliha while critisizing Bahar Toksoy harshly. Claiming that she is very lucky to get constant chances in the national team although she neither scores nor blocks properly. Moreover makes alot of serve errors.


    I agree the article except the part about Polen. I think Barbolini made the right decision by avoiding a player who chose to sit on bench whole season (and will keep sitting). However after this weekend, I'm sure a dead Polen is even better than Seda & Yeliz.


    I think Neriman should play as Opp and Meliha must start as OH2 besides Gözde. I believe Neriman attacks better from zone 2 and Meliha is from zone 4. Meliha has good quality, just need more sets to prove her offensive skills as well.


    By the way, did anyone notice that Neriman is always playing better in the absence of Neslihan :whistle:

  • I think Neriman should play as Opp and Meliha must start as OH2 besides Gözde. I believe Neriman attacks better from zone 2 and Meliha is from zone 4. Meliha has good quality, just need more sets to prove her offensive skills as well.


    By the way, did anyone notice that Neriman is always playing better in the absence of Neslihan :whistle:

    I agree! I actually expected Barbolini to make this change before the Russia game, but I have a feeling that Neriman does not really like to play as OPP and attack from zone 1&2 although she is good at it. We saw her doing a very good job in GsD last season when Montano was injured.
    I think due to that, Barbolini decided to use Neriman like Calderon (attacking from zone 4) and opp receives/defends. However this strategy failed many times in GsD with Molnar as receiving opp and then Saori several times. Barbolini needs better strategies then this.
    I believe Meliha was fine in attacking from zone 2 but the main problem was zone 1 where noone basically attacked from.

  • When will we know couples for F4 DIVISION 3 AND 2 ? :D

  • I agree! I actually expected Barbolini to make this change before the Russia game, but I have a feeling that Neriman does not really like to play as OPP and attack from zone 1&2 although she is good at it. We saw her doing a very good job in GsD last season when Montano was injured.
    I think due to that, Barbolini decided to use Neriman like Calderon (attacking from zone 4) and opp receives/defends. However this strategy failed many times in GsD with Molnar as receiving opp and then Saori several times. Barbolini needs better strategies then this.
    I believe Meliha was fine in attacking from zone 2 but the main problem was zone 1 where noone basically attacked from.


    Well I have to disagree because I think Neriman is much better attacker from zone 4. In GsD she was making way too many errors from the OPP slot.. Amd by many I mean too many for an OPP, she just kept hitting out or was blocked like 388 times.. I think she is a very good attacker from 4 and the pipe

  • taking the winner of second group to f6 of first group doest make sense to me.......this means one of the good teams in group 1 staying out of the final 6...
    what thoughts do you have about it?


    The system worked well in case of men's WL as there are fewer really strong teams. In female volleyball though it should be final 8 as there are 12 teams in the 1st division. Another option is to limit the 1 division to 8 teams, then 8 in the second and another 8 in the third but in this case Czech Republic and Bulgaria wouldn't be able to participate.


  • The system worked well in case of men's WL as there are fewer really strong teams. In female volleyball though it should be final 8 as there are 12 teams in the 1st division. Another option is to limit the 1 division to 8 teams, then 8 in the second and another 8 in the third but in this case Czech Republic and Bulgaria wouldn't be able to participate.

    That's a really bad formula. I would prefer a playoff between the 6th of 1st division and winner of 2nd division to qualify for F6.

  • I'm going to Doetinchem, Netherlands this Friday, can't wait. Puerto Rico is the lucky guest that was invited to the European Party :D


    Czech NT players arrived in Prague and they will rest for a couple of days and then will gather and practice for the Final round that is held in Bulgaria.