European Championships 2015 - hosts Italy and Bulgaria

  • To me Grebennikov and Tillie were so far the most consistent players from France aling the way. Never a weak match from them. Never!


    For once at least Rouzier played well. :rolleyes: I still find him inconsistent anyway...


    I agree on consistent performance by Grebennikov and Tillie.
    I would add Le Roux as well: big difference between French team a few years ago and the current team is their solid middle compartiment
    (Le Roux - Le Goff <=> Hardy-Dessourses - Vadeleux).
    Rouzier usually irritates me because of the amount of errors in attack he commits, but his performance in semi- and final was huge.

  • I finally found some time to write a few lines about the finals and the tournament overall. I am very happy Bulgaria had the chance to organize such an event, the crowd helped the national team to a great extent as well. We have had the chance to host events of similar length or magnitude (WL Finals, OG qualifiers), but this European Championship had a different flavour. The crowd reacted properly, there were no signs of aboriginal behaviour and it was overall a splendid volleyball feast. I am sure there must've been blunders, but CEV (and all invited guests, even from FIVB) were following the organization closely and wouldn't allow a performance similar to what happened during the draw in February. Besides, our federation changed the event managers and representatives in order to avoid another embarrassment. You can't complain Bulgaria was a bad host, after all we gave away voluntarily a position in the final to our guests France and then, not reluctantly, gave away the bronze medals to the other guests Italy, so I would say Bulgaria demonstrated quite a hospitality. Jokes aside, I hope they won't give Bulgaria and Italy the chance to organize the 2018 WCH, Bulgaria won't be ready, I guess, and I would gladly see the money invested somewhere else, e.g. anywhere down the rotten structure. But I don't want to have it again in Poland or Japan, Italy had it back in 2010, so let's hope for a wise, dear Lord, decision by FIVB.


    We saw one of the favourites survive two dramatic five-setters to gain the long-awaited title. They were among the teams expected to leave their mark, although I doubted they would take the gold. We saw the Slovenian upheaval which, based also on what I read here, made every neutral spectator happy and that is the main idea of sports in general and volleyball in particular. Luckily, despite Bulgaria's consecutive lack of medals, there were people who respected the finalists and the tournament and stayed for the final match. I was afraid this might not be the case because people are usually fans of their respective national teams, not of volleyball on a broader aspect, so at least the Bulgarian crowd was partially present on Sunday.


    A very few words from my side about the individual awards, I see you had some complaints. I agree, almost always we have weird choices, this time too. I would not give any of the OH awards to Ngapeth either. Giannelli was maybe rewarded for his amazing year, Toniutti would've deserved it as well. But where I tend to disagree is with your criticism towards the MBs. Tell me a more solidly blocking team during the whole tournament than Bulgaria. Tell me two players with better presence than Todorov and Yosifov at the net. Maybe Todorov is not the brightest attacker and you would be right, you would be right that a middle blocker is not only supposed to block, but then they are not supposed to be the best spikers either. Bulgaria, to me, was the best blocking team at the Championship and deserved these two awards. Vlado NIkolov's was a gesture for sure.


    I do not want to write about the Bulgarian team, there were many things that went well, great, or bad. Konstantinov had done a great job during the these two preparatory months, although I would surely criticize him for the choice of players, with reference to inviting two injured and utterly useless under these condition players to the bench. For the rest, I am still trying to comprehend how we lost the semifinal, but I won't get lyrical this time around. We've had it way too often.

  • But where I tend to disagree is with your criticism towards the MBs. Tell me a more solidly blocking team during the whole tournament than Bulgaria. Tell me two players with better presence than Todorov and Yosifov at the net. Maybe Todorov is not the brightest attacker and you would be right, you would be right that a middle blocker is not only supposed to block, but then they are not supposed to be the best spikers either. Bulgaria, to me, was the best blocking team at the Championship and deserved these two awards.

    Yes, indeed! Guys did an astonishing job in block, for sure one of the best performances in this element I have seen in years from them! And I say that though Niki Nikolov didn't even play and he's not only one of my fav MB but for sure a serious advantage of the team also.


    ha, bella, i've always thought le goff looked like an armoire out there, and he's cute like a big bear too. he's the opposite of le roux, who's just a big tall stick.

    Le Roux looks like an elf.

  • i knew French team was fav against Bulgaria in semi final and Slovenia in the final therefore i supported Bulgaria and Slovenia against France :D ..French team deserved the title but they didnt/dont seem to be a special team to me, anyhow.i mean they have good players but not superb ones.(maybe volleyball is not only having superb players).however i like this idea/concept too.(winning with good players instead of superb ones). f.e Italian team and Bulgarian team with full roster have better individuals than French team, doesnt it ? maybe Poland and Russia ?

    Ngapeth is an interesting player.He is kind of unpredictable to me.Rouzier is a good opposite but i dont know what to expect from him against the strongest teams. i liked Le Roux more than Le Goff. Le Roux has good serves indeed and im looking forward to watching him and his serves in the local league 8)
    the setter and the libero seem to have done their jobs well enough.


    i think i liked the French team in WGP more than in this ECH..Slovenian team could also have got the last two sets, had they played a little better.


    a question : where are Kaziyski and Sokolov in Bulgaian team ? what about Russian team ,injuries or regeneration?

  • can an elf be 208 cm tall??????? :D

    Why not? He's one hell of an elf! With hair, face and those ears mostly! :D


    i knew French team was fav against Bulgaria in semi final and Slovenia in the final therefore i supported Bulgaria and Slovenia against France :D ..French team deserved the title but they didnt/dont seem to be a special team to me, anyhow.i mean they have good players but not superb ones.(maybe volleyball is not only having superb players)

    They have superb TEAM and that's maybe the case ;) and if you ask me Grebennikov is superb, he's even more than this, he's a torpedo!


    a question : where are Kaziyski and Sokolov in Bulgaian team ? what about Russian team ,injuries or regeneration?

    Long time since Kaziyski is not playing for NT, it's all because of disagreement with the federation that had a culmination after they fired Rado Stoychev. It's already 3 years without Matey in NT... Sokolov had a serious shoulder surgery and is recovering now, probably coming back to playing in the beginning of upcoming year.