2015 European Championships - Netherlands and Belgium

Bravo Russia, you have only 1 loss on ECH 0:3

Congrats Russia,a very well played game! Dutchies played weakly!! congrats to them too for the silver..
Russia played a very good defense..Goncharova and Kosheleva duo beat HOlland..i cant remember third player who contributeed offensively in Russia..

Best team won the tournement mvp is Kosheleva , sorry for Netherlands but but they weren't at the same level with Russia, Russia is a very tough team.

i think if we get some shape we can also beat this Dutch team in Ankara

Congrats to Russia. Deserved win from beginning to end, they were simply much better in the "scoring skills". Amazing game by Kosheleva and Goncharova, there should be 2 MVP awards so either can get one. Also Malova with a great match.

Russia likes to destroy dreams of home teams apparently But as I said, no doubt the right team won today.

Also congrats to Dutch team for playing a great tournament and winning a well deserved silver medal. And all of that after just one summer with Guidetti, if they work longer with him and get more experience on the highest level they can become a solid top team I hope

Well, not much excitement in this final. The Dutch have been fortunate not to meet Russia and Serbia before the final, but they're clearly in top 3 European teams at the moment.
Russia has showed the best overall performance in this tournament and have to be the biggest favourites to win the Olympic qualifying tournament in Ankara by some margin.

i really thought they could play head to head with Russia after their game against Italy and Turkey..unfortunately..im disappoointed...

Congrats Russia, they simply dominated the game! Their game improved consistently and managed to slow down Netherlands especially in the first se, as they usually start strong!

Congrats Russia! They have just OUTPLAYED Netherlands in all the senses. This has been the best russian performance in all the tournment. Ok, russian game isnt so attractive, but today they played well in defense and covered almost everything.

Malova and Kosanienko in te 3rd set They seemed japanese players.

Buijs was a tear during all the match. In the other hand, Ilchenko is still shaky in reception, but she also helped in defense.

My dream team would be:
Ognjenovic - Goncharova
Kosheleva - Malesevic
Rasic - Zaryazhko
Malova

But probably Dutch and Turkish players will get one award or another as well. Maybe they'll give best OPP to Sloetjes and MVP to Goncharova. But the above team would be the one that reflects the performances best IMO.

Quote from Matthias

Russian game is so boring. Even after free balls Pankova sends moon balls to Kosheleva, but then as long as she hits over the block there is no need to play "attractive" volleyball.

Who was playing an attractive volleyball at this ECh?
People at this forum are so boring repeting this over and over - Russians are boring. But then other teams play with one leader it's all ok.

Congrats Russia!

Kosheleva and Goncharova were above avarage today....so really hard to beat them! Also Ilchenko overall did quite well in reception.

Im glad Plak entered well in the game. It hurts now..but Holland should be proud of what they've achieved in this Ech.

now we can talk about Lonneke and Buijs and VB

LOnneke is good player and can help VB...Buijs seems not to be able to do more what Vasileva did in VB..

Goncharova with 20 pts and Kosheleva 19..
the rest 5 points each...with Fetisova 0 kills with 3 attempts
Zaryazhko 1 kill with 2 attempts ..
pankova with 1 point
and Ilchenko with 5 points

i feel nostalgic with this stats its like Gamova-Sokolova circa 2004

Russia were simply the best team in the tournament. Well done

Quote from Matthias

My dream team would be:
Ognjenovic - Goncharova
Kosheleva - Malesevic
Rasic - Zaryazhko
Malova

But probably Dutch and Turkish players will get one award or another as well. Maybe they'll give best OPP to Sloetjes and MVP to Goncharova. But the above team would be the one that reflects the performances best IMO.

i would only give an award to Gözde Kırdar maybe...i think no need to give any awards to turkish player so that Akbaş can prepare them better for the next tournament

Quote from semisonic

Who was playing an attractive volleyball at this ECh?
People at this forum are so boring repeting this over and over - Russians are boring. But then other teams play with one leader it's all ok.

I was hoping to see attractive volleyball from Serbia, but they were not able to show it constantly. In semifinal Dutch team also played attractive more or less. But yes, I get your point and you're not wrong Any team would play Russian style if they had hitters like Kosheleva and Goncharova. But then, Zaryazhko is a good attacker as well, she always shows it in Uralochka, and it hurts me seeing her attacking just 2 balls in this match

I think Russia is clearly capable of playing a more versatile game, but this was the best strategy today as the Dutch simply could not cope with the power of Goncharova and Kosheleva, perhaps not so surprisingly considering how they got into trouble against Poland when Skowronska caught fire for a while. So, do what works you for, as simple as that.

Quote from USAvolleyfan

No. Dijkema is setting pretty fast to her hitters, also she uses much more pipes

lol, just because she sets faster, and it's more interesting... opp/oh have spiked at least 90% of their balls, indeed, very entertaining

It will be interesting to see what the Netherlands are worth at the OQT without their home crowd. They have obviously overperformed at this tournament, it's quite obvious now that they finally faced a major power.

Anything can happen in Ankara, they could easily reach the final or even lose in the preliminary round, it really all depends on which pool they get.