2018 FIVB World Championship - Japan

  • I kept thinking back to the Olympic semis/final and how Serbia won that dramatic match against USA and then ran out of steam in the next match. Like pope said last night, I've always thought that the day off after the semi worked against them and I fully expected Italy to still be high on adrenaline after yesterday's fight and give Serbia hell, which is exactly what happened.

    Serbia just had a little bit more mental toughness and big stage experience to prevail in the end. Still, Italy is a team to look out for in years to come and will certainly get even better.


    Anja Spasojević (who looks to be pregnant :flower:) was the TV studio guest after the match and she was outraged that Maja wasn't selected in the All Star team :lol: I do think some of the choices were ridiculous, but blah, who cares.


    Fifteen years ago Serbia qualified for the European championship for the first time. At the time it was considered a huge success. And how they're the World champions. It's crazy.

  • as to best middle blocker, some people say Danesi should be given.i see all statas.Block :Yan is 1st,Danesi is second,Rasic is 3th.total scores :Rasic is 1st, Yan is second.Danesi is 3th.so Yan and Rasic win

  • as to best middle blocker, some people say Danesi should be given.i see all statas.Block :Yan is 1st,Danesi is second,Rasic is 3th.total scores :Rasic is 1st, Yan is second.Danesi is 3th.so Yan and Rasic win


    Exactly, and for example, Brankica Mihajlovic has a such high digging numbers, with that play today in final, she deserved award more then anybody.

  • My only regret is that at least the final wasn't broadcast on national TV in Serbia. Sport Klub has done an amazing job showing every single match of the competition on their channels, but not everyone has access to them and with Serbia's matches not being available on a free-to-air platform, I'm a bit afraid this truly historic and remarkable success won't be appreciated as much as it should be.

  • My only regret is that at least the final wasn't broadcast on national TV in Serbia. Sport Klub has done an amazing job showing every single match of the competition on their channels, but not everyone has access to them and with Serbia's matches not being available on a free-to-air platform, I'm a bit afraid this truly historic and remarkable success won't be appreciated as much as it should be.


    Seriously? What the hell :what:

  • Seriously? What the hell :what:

    Yeah, Sport Klub has bought the exclusive rights for both men's and women's WCh and no one else, the national broadcaster included, couldn't show any games. I was hoping at least the final would be shown on national TV, but sadly, it wasn't.

    It had never happened before. For me it worked well because SK with all their 11 channels is a part of my cable package, so I had an opportunity to watch every game of the entire competition - while had it been on RTS like always before, I would only be able to see Serbia's games, semis and medals matches (and maaaaaaybe a few more).

    But SK is not available with every cable provider, not to mention people who don't have cable TV, so... A lot of people were complaining about it, but there was nothing that could be done.

  • This point in the tiebreak tied at 8-8 was the turning point for Serbia.... Egonu spikes from the back and Busa keeps it alive with a amazing defense and then Boskovic ends the rally with a insane spike.


    https://twitter.com/hashtag/volleyball?src=hash

    With the Fearsome Duo hammering away all those balls, it's easy to overlook how good Serbia was in defence all tournament long. Of course they weren't at the level of Peak Japan and never will be, but compared to their usual standards, they had improved A LOT.
    Silvija Popović in particular was impressive, I'd say this tournament was probably the best she's ever played.

  • There are preliminary results for the FIVB world ranking after both the VNL 2018 and WCh 2018, with a few likely assumptions calculated by me (the official ranking doesn't include these this year results yet):


    First of all, new world champions Serbia grabbed the top of the ranking away from China (318 to 308 points now), and also USA dropped from second to third place (now 268 points) accordingly (Serbia was third so far).


    Brazil drops due to relatively poor results in both competitions from fourth to fifth place, so Russia inherits the fourth place as second best European team.


    While Japan seems to stay on 6. Netherlands could improve more in total than World Vice Champions Italy and is now third best European team on 7. directly before Italy on 8.


    After Italy there is a bigger gap in points...

  • This point in the tiebreak tied at 8-8 was the turning point for Serbia.... Egonu spikes from the back and Busa keeps it alive with a amazing defense and then Boskovic ends the rally with a insane spike.


    https://twitter.com/hashtag/volleyball?src=hash

    Yup, Busa was great today, so Bosetti on Italian side, even on that last point of the match with good defense.A little unexpected on both sides.

    After closer look, block Mihajlovic on Chirichella in the last point of the match is maybe move of the game, amazing really.And she didn't get any award. ?(

  • There was a moment at the medal ceremony, the lights were on Ognjenović, camera zoomed in on her, crying and smiling at the same time. Looked really cool.
    I'm happy that this lady got to experience that moment. Women's volleyball basically didn't exist in Serbia before her, so it is awesome that she got to lead Serbia to this gold, now towards the end of her career.


    Feel bad for Sylla tho, love her attitude and she played an awesome tournament, it's a shame that she ends it with an error.

  • Serbia coach Zoran Terzic: It's hard to find words. We are happy and proud. It was our dream. I have been the coach since 2002. We saw Russia and the U.S. win golds at previous World Championships and thought it would be great if we could do it. This is the biggest success in the history of Serbia women's volleyball. When I took over we were ranked something like 100th in the World.:lol:

    respect for Zoran Terzic. this is his team :thumbup:

  • Who has missed the great collective team effort of previous champions? Is it going to be new 'trend'? An opposite taking 60+ sets and monopolizing the attack. How many points Barbara Jelic would have scored in todays volleyball if she was born 15 years later ?

  • Who has missed the great collective team effort of previous champions? Is it going to be new 'trend'? An opposite taking 60+ sets and monopolizing the attack. How many points Barbara Jelic would have scored in todays volleyball if she was born 15 years later ?

    I was think the very same thing. I thought Barbara Jelis was the last person who could do this. It does bother me so much but both Boskovic and Egonu hit so well and so hard it is like you cannot get enough of it.


    I am not sure what to write. Both teams played great tournament, especially Italy, their game was so fun to watch. I want to thank both teams, they both deserved it but it is sports.. although I was disturbed by Serbia’s defeats in order to help Japan. That was a no no.


    Bosetti and De Gannaro were the hidden figure of this success. Not sure they were hidden, I mean many people appreciate them but still they were just great and I am sure many wouldn’t understand how important they are to this team.


    If we were not living in a world that appreciate only spikers, I would have wanted to give MVP to De Gennaro. But it is so unrealastic to expect such thing.


    From Serbian side, it was a bit more expected but Italy was not expected. Even when important moments, They played really great.

  • Who has missed the great collective team effort of previous champions? Is it going to be new 'trend'? An opposite taking 60+ sets and monopolizing the attack. How many points Barbara Jelic would have scored in todays volleyball if she was born 15 years later ?

    Well, back in her day she was doing exactly what Egonu did in the semi against China, so it's not something new.


    But it's interesting that all top 4 teams have a very dominant player the entire team play is built around. It's clearly a trend.

  • Rahimova reminds me a bit of Jelic style-wise :D I think Egonu is maybe bit better, more athletic and she has more time also so who knows. Game is improved nowadays also, mostly in sports old school players wouldn't stand a chance against the new ones even the bests, doesn't take anything away from them ofc. But we can never really compare I guess.

  • Ten years ago nobody would have believed, that there are attackers in women's volleyball, who can speed up the ball to more than 100 km/h - today we have about a handful of those hard hitters. The entire game is now much faster.