2018 FIVB World Championship - Japan

    Italy is writing history with amazing Egonu but my fingers are crossed for Tesla's girls. #ajdesrbija In Boskovic, we trust. Time to show who the quenn is.

    Quote from MARCIN

    Serbia is a true and authentic European team. Unlike Italian team which has a bunch of African players with a Italian citizenship. Serbia is going to win the final.

    not really. Both Egonu and Sylla were born in Italy so of course they are Italian. I want Serbia to win as well but there’s really no need for comments like these.

    The way I look at it, to be the best you have to beat the best. the road to the championship has to go through the reigning Olympic champion China, especially for Serbia as they lost to China in rio. There'll always be doubt whether Serbia can beat China in this tournament. With Italy you don't have that question mark. And Italy plays at 100% every game except for vs Serbia when they sat sylla only to get China. It almost feels like they wanted China to remind us they are for real. I liked both teams at the start of the tournament but I find myself rooting for Italy a bit more now.

    Quote from Kk15

    This person made an account probably just in order to wrote this offensive statement (now he/she only wrote one post), please ban him/her right away :cursing:

    Oh I didn't realize it was a new account. In that case, we should just ignore it. There's always been one certain problematic person attending the forum to spread hatred and he always gets banned and makes a new acc, I'm sure it's that exact person yet again...


    I feel bad for him, he must be in a really bad place in life if he is filled with so much negative emotions and so much unnecessary anger, probably just uses this forum as an outlet to out part of his inner anger. Honestly wish the best to him...

    Bosetti can score a lot better than busa, and blocks and digs better too. Neither will get the set much but If it's a close game, busas inability to kill the ball will cost Serbia...Maja may be more experienced but it's not gonna matter when all she does is set to OPP all game, same goes to malinov. Setter play is more important in Chinas offense as they run MB a lot more.

    i hope Egonu can recover from China match and we can watch a real final fight for golden medal unlike the first meeting btw these two teams which resulted in 3-1 in favor of the Serbian team


    i suppose Sylla and the others will get more sets to give Egonu some rest during the match

    on the other hand,Serbia's formula is clear : set to Tijana and Brankica plus a third player's contribution either Raşiç or someoen else.

    if Brankica can play like in the match against Dutch team Serbia can win it...Egonu is exhausted..she will have to play a +25 point match again which wont be easy against a good blocking team called Serbia..it will be Tijana vs Paula ultimately , secondly Brankica vs Miriam


    btw..i have to express that i liked Malinov-Lo Bianco photo a lot .most probably Lo Bianco was/is her idol:heart:

    China vs Netherlands :

    i expect China to win the third place match..China just play a tough match.it wont be that easy..i expect Changning and Gong to play better..my fav.MB at this WcH Yan Ni can play well again.

    Has Serbia won a big time match with Boskovic alone, or where Brankica had a really lousy game? No sleight to the amazing Tijana, just thinking about what Italy's best strategy might/should be.

    Apart from the fatigue factor, experience also speaks in favour of the serbian side. The Balkans have obviously already been in the final of olympics and won the ECH with almost all of the players in the current main line-up being in squad as key players back then. Consequently, this team has already achieved their fair share and wont be so startled, or should not be at least, of the extraordinary circumstances as the italians side whose players lack merits from the highest surroundings. The next logical step from where Italy previously have resided in terms of level on a global scale would probably be a medal at the uppermost, however, nothing but gold could be considered as a progression for the serbs. Therefore I guess the teams might go in with a different kind of attitude/mindset into the game tomorrow. I presume a loss would be far more grievous for Serbia, the pressure from themselves, the federation and the country is higher. Obviously it might not merely be negative for the italians to be the on papper "cooler" side, it could also play into their hands as well since some teams really thrives as underdogs but ice up as "the team to beat". One thing is for sure, it will be an extremely intriguing final between two almost complete teams. My guess is that Serbia prevails in the end with a set ratio of three sets to one.

    Grande Italia..!

    Thanks both teams for this spectacular show, it was a pleasure to watch a game at this level, as a WCH semifinal should be.

    Honestly i didn't believe Italy would make it to the final even after winning 10 games in row playing some amazing volleyball in this tournament. After every game i was asking myself: how long can they keep playing like this? The SF and the F is a totally different story, do they have the confidence to beat teams like China and Serbia?

    Italy in this semifinal showed a strong character, not every team can recover from the 4th set scenario.

    I admire how Italy read and study the opponent very well. Don't know but it looked for me like De Gennaro and Bosetti knew exactly where Zhu Ting will put the ball in every situation and position. That's actually huge and takes a lot of hard work from everyone involved but especially coach Mazzanti and the staff behind him who should all get a lot of credit no matter if it's gold or silver tomorrow.

    For me i couldn't get a better final, i like both teams and i would be happy for either of them... Maybe 🇮🇹 a little bit more.

    Quote from sitenoise

    Has Serbia won a big time match with Boskovic alone, or where Brankica had a really lousy game? No sleight to the amazing Tijana, just thinking about what Italy's best strategy might/should be.

    i really don`t think so....at least I can`t remember. When they lost to China in the World Cup (2015) Brankica played well and Boskovic did only ok. In the Olympic Final Mihajlovic did not play well....last year`s GP semis against Brazil she did not play well and they lost.


    Italy strategy should be getting Brankica out of the game... They can do that by getting into her head, and we know how easily that can be...another thing is that sometimes she shows up but she simply can`t get it going....I can read her very well, like in the Olympic Final as soon as I saw her I already knew she would not play well... I`m not sure if I will be posting tonight during the game but if I do I will make my bet if she will or not play well.....When she`s not playing well she simply can`t get it together.


    Another thing they must do is what the Dutch did in the semis....serve every single ball on Busa....if Busa can`t pass under pressure Serbia is f****.

    Once Mihajlovic is out of the game or out of her game they can worry about Boskovic.

    I`m actually very worried because I`m not sure how Serbia will stop Egonu...sure they can block and Rasic is the best...but Egonu spikes like she`s on a mission, she wants Gold and MVP and nobody is standing on her way...So hopefully Serbia can get a few blocks on her right way to break her confidence right there.


    Why are u guys worried about that the Italians will be tired? Egonu is only 19, she needs no rest....they are all so young and full of energy.


    In fact not having a day break will work in favor for Italy...They will bring all the momentum and energy from last night. I wish that in Rio they played the final the next day because Serbia could bring the momentum form the semi-final but after a day break they did cool off a little.... same thing could happen here....and mostly important this won`t give Serbia any time to study them and how to stop Egonu....and this is what Maja mentioned in the interview.


    Let`s not forget Serbia played 4 sets last night....Italy only played 17 points more. And the Serbians are just as tired and they are a little older and need more time to recover while the Italians are younger and need less rest.

    I believed Bosetti Chiri and Denisi could score more, but Sylla and Egonu were outstanding in this match so they are were setted much more than other players.


    Italia libero deserve the best libero again, many times she stopped Zhu Ting just amazing. If the blockers cant stop Zhu Ting, Italia still have a hope when she behind. She and Bosetti in the back made a very strong defense which created many chances for their team.


    I think stop Boskovic is easier than Zhu Ting. Italia did it in the semi, do it again in the final :)))


    Good luck to Italia :D

    i wish more countries would be investing in women's sports, and that they would consider hosting the WCh. the USA should do it for example, also TUR, NED, BEL, GER, POL, BUL (they just co-hosted the men's WCh), even CAN (even if their women's team is still developing -- same with ARG), RUS, BRA, THA. the audiences in THA would be amazing.


    we all complain that JPN does it all the time, but we should also be grateful someone wants to do it... it's tough, it's 2 sides of the same coin. there's good and bad there.