2018 FIVB World Championship - Japan

  • It is difficult to compare but I think Jelic was better player than Egonu of today , so I wonder if she would have scored 50 + points regularly.


    No, she was not in absolute terms, perhaps in relative terms though (she might have been more dominant). And if you go back and watch games from the times when she was active, you would notice for example the level of play on the masculine side of the highest calibre, from global tournaments such as Olympics in Seoul ´88 or Barcelona ´92, hardly would stand out quality-wise, neither in terms of pace nor in terms of pure power, in relation to a female game of the equivalent elite level as of today, and to compare the female current female elite with the women back then is to make a parallell between to different dimensions of space, they are located in different systems figuratively. I recently watched one of the semifinals of the European Championships in Stockholm from 1989 between Soviet Union and Sweden, where Sweden won by 3-2 btw, and the level of play cannot be said to be anything less than a laughable parody in relation to the current standards of the game, it was visibly slower than the pace the best females are able to master nowadays. Without a doubt the game was not as developed when Jelic ruled it during the 90s, so its like comparing an apple with an orange.

  • I only see one real threat to the current top-teams here during this championship in the near future and that is Poland. With the addition of the most promising 200 cm+ prospect since Gamova in Magda Stysiak, while already being in possession of Smarzek, Kakolewska and Wolosz in "the right age", Poland can be a force pretty soon if they would be able to convert Malwina into an outside hitter instead of being an OPP during NT-competitions.


    Another dark horse is Russia, at least on a little bit less narrow cycle, next olympics might be to early for their new golden generation. The 15-year old opposite spiker (born 2003) Tatiana Kadochkina (192 cm) seems to be the unicorn or "super nova" of the pack. She´s acctually already dominating big time on senior level for Dinamo Kazan in the Russian Cup right now, delivering unreal bombs for her age. When her team defeated Krasnodar, with Perepelkina & co, she scored almost 30 pts for a squad that also included the likes of Bavykina, Samoilenko and Maryiuknich. I guess she will become a starter for Kazan in the domestic level as well as in Champions League straight away this season, topping Mikyskova and Malygina. Without a single doubt Russia has the potential to fill the void that emerge on the OPP-side once Goncharova retires. On a side-note, Kadochkina has been nurtured in the Gamova Sport School, established by Katya in Kazan some years ago.

  • Congratulations to both Serbia and Italy:drink:. Their performances throughout the tournament was great. I am quite sure these 2 teams will rule the championships for many years too. They have many young players at such a high level. Boskovic is 21 and Egonu is still 19 years old :white:There are many years ahead of them.

  • Interesting comments by Stefana Veljković: We played like beasts in the semifinal, it was our best performance ever. After that we couldn't sleep and eat well. We felt a lot of tension coming into this match and it shook us. It was the most difficult match we have ever played, the Italians were phenomenal.


    I think she's (understandably) exaggerating a bit. I certainly don't think the semi vs NED was the best Serbia has ever played, but I do think it was an extremely high quality and hard fought match that's always going to be overshadowed by the other semi. There's a reason why Sloetjes looked so dejected after the match - she knew her team had given it their absolute all, came very close but ultimately couldn't make it.


    About "the most difficult" match ever... I'm not sure. Perhaps it is and you could definitely see the all the tension, but IMO, the Olympic semi against the USA had everything this match had, and then some.

  • I just finished watching the final match, I had to leave after 2nd set while it was played and....wow :obey::obey::obey: What an amazing match, especially tie-break!


    For me, the main difference was setter position. Today happened what is bound to happen when a 34 year old setter who already played several Olympic tournaments and World Championships meets a 22 year old setter in her first real big tournament. Malinov is a talented girl and she has everything to become a world class setter, but by no means she was best setter of this tournament, and I believe today's match is going to haunt her for quite a while because she'll be smart enough to know that she didn't play well today. I agree with those who said that Cambi should have been given more chances, maybe she's a liability in block but she might have varied the game more than Malinov. But either way, Maja has been doing an amazing job in all elements!


    I also have to praise Busa. After a horrible first set I had no idea why Terzic kept insisting on her, and I'm not going to say that she played "well", but she played well enough for her team to win, and she surely played her heart out, especially in defense!


    Italy's day will come, maybe already in 2020. If they keep this team together and all key players stay healthy and improve even further, they'll be very good for many years.


    As for the awards, my dream team would have been

    Ognjenovic - Boskovic

    Zhu - Bosetti

    Yan Ni - Rasic (Danesi needs to improve her attacking game, then she'll surpass Rasic)

    De Gennaro

  • Interesting comments by Stefana Veljković: We played like beasts in the semifinal, it was our best performance ever. After that we couldn't sleep and eat well. We felt a lot of tension coming into this match and it shook us. It was the most difficult match we have ever played, the Italians were phenomenal.


    I think she's (understandably) exaggerating a bit. I certainly don't think the semi vs NED was the best Serbia has ever played, but I do think it was an extremely high quality and hard fought match that's always going to be overshadowed by the other semi. There's a reason why Sloetjes looked so dejected after the match - she knew her team had given it their absolute all, came very close but ultimately couldn't make it.


    About "the most difficult" match ever... I'm not sure. Perhaps it is and you could definitely see the all the tension, but IMO, the Olympic semi against the USA had everything this match had, and then some.

    I agree with this. In case Netherlands would have been so good despite having Koolhaas instead of Robin De Krujiff, undeniably one of the best, if not the best, center in the world right now its obviously scary and a great pity for them, however I somehow doubt it as well. For me it was not a "beast" performance in the semis at all, they looked tensed and after being close to losing the 1st set, dropped the second set somewhat stupendously after being up with a seemingly impregnable margin close to the end of the set. And in the third set they were down by a extensive marign initially, like 8-3 or so, before they finally woke up. In all of those sets they showed signs of weakness and yes, as you say, the dutch really tasted it and desperately wanted their slice of fortune from it. In the end, I guess the phrase "dog fight" might be a more appropriate term to use in order to describe the game. Here it was more of mental strength than technical or athletical prowess that made them prevail in the end.

  • About "the most difficult" match ever... I'm not sure. Perhaps it is and you could definitely see the all the tension, but IMO, the Olympic semi against the USA had everything this match had, and then some.

    I felt this match had much more tension. For whatever reason in the OG semis I kinda knew Serbia would win no matter what, even when they were down in the tie break....while during this final I did not feel the same way at all.... I expected Italy to show signs of pressure but they never did, they were playing super dominant and a lot of times Serbia seemed to simply be trying to catch up with them...interesting that Egonu never smiled during the semis, but in this game she was smiling the whole time......I think she was trying to send a message across the net....


    After Serbia lost that 3rd set.....I simply could not even enjoy the game anymore as I was so nervous ....and like I said I felt during the whole time Serbia was just trying to catch up with Italy....and it got to the point that I was hoping for Italy`s mistakes and celebrating it just like when Serbia would score.


    It is just more difficult when you are down 2-1 as the pressure is on you....and especially when Italy almost made a come back in the 4th.


    And things did not start well in the 5th. Serbia only caught a break after the first tech timeout....


    I like what Maja said in a interview after the semis....She said "that`s it" we have to play tomorrow to win , and it does not matter if we play well or how we play , it is all about getting the win.

  • Both this match and the OG semi were tough to watch for me. This final was a higher level of match IMO. In the semi, USA kind of fell apart after Akinradewo got hurt and then in the 4th set they raised their level while Serbia started playing badly. In the match today, of course each team had good spells and bad spells but in general I thought all the Serbian girls played good and it still almost wasn’t enough because Italy fought so hard and of course because of Egonu.

  • Honestly, really tough to watch for me was Serbian play in London 2012 Olympics. And not just tough to watch but to hear some bad things.It's a good thing that our squad and Terzic survived somehow all those troubles, it could be ugly.

    I would always prefer stressful games like this final and OI semi against USA instead some sweep wins (the joy after the match is much bigger) or losses. ;)

    I know it's not good for weak heart.

  • I think China's still the world's #1 with 322 and Serbia's at #2 with 318.

  • I think it's impossible to know the world rankings at the moment as it's still not sure how the FIVB is going to award the points for VNL or if they're going to give out any points for it in the first place.

    Indeed, I was forced to make several assumptions as pointed out, but the FIVB takes often months to bring the ranking to the current state. So I tried to analyze it as well as possible...

  • It's another example of the FIVB's shadiness. If they were going to award points for VNL, there's no reason why the rankings weren't updated already in August and why the point distribution wasn't known in advance.


    This way it looks like they're trying to manipulate the rankings in order to help someone - and no, I don't have any particular team in my mind, it's just how it feels.

    OTOH, if the VNL doesn't count, it's meaningless to have rankings based on just three events, one of them being held almost 4 years ago, at that.

    It's just a mess.

  • Hello guys!!


    I finally here to comment! And it's hard to find the words... [And of course I wrote a very long post :lol: Sorry! I'm sure you can understand me ;)]


    So, I'll start from the easy part: congrats to the Serbian girls for a very deserved gold, they were the 'team to beat' from the beginning to the end (they only lost when they didn't truly care for the victory, they've always won when they wanted to), and the only team Italy couldn't beat (twice!).

    (But it's a pity there wasn't a chance for a Serbia-China match, I would have loved to watch these two amazing teams clashing against each other!)


    Second easy part: congrats to my girls. They went way above and beyond my expectations: we knew that with Turkey and China in the pool, even not getting to the final6 was a possibility to deal with, and nothing to be truly annoyed by (unless it'd came with a terrible game), since our first real goal – a goal Mazzanti set the first day of his career as NT coach – was considered to be the 2019 ECh. Well, we won a silver at the first WGP and a silver at the WCh, second medal ever at WCh in the history of women volleyball in Italy. So, hats off to Davide, his staff and his girl. Amazing achievement, you made us dream.

    We totally deserved this silver and I'm glad many people outside Italy acknowledge that, as I'm glad that they made Italy fall in love with them. Rai transmitted all the last Italian matches on Rai2 (and also several non-Italian matches), and the response was huge. Saturday we had a peak of 8 million (43% of share). Incredible! Again, what a pity that the semifinal was on Friday (and still it was followed a lot). The social went crazy about the girls.

    Danesi and Sylla were the players that surprised me the most, especially Sylla who I believed not having great improve margin, unlike Anna.


    About the match: it was somehow quite different than I expected. To be honest, I thought it was going to be a fought 3-1, with a very well played volleyball on both side.

    And yes, the match was very fought because it ended 12-15 at the tie break, but I can't get rid of the impression that we didn't played that well, and that surprised me, because losing with such a little margin not playing that well showed to me that the distance with Serbia is little than I thought (they weren't perfect either, though). Their experience made the difference: they were more cynical when it mattered the most (that not closed smash at 12-13 it's still hunting me, and I'm afraid it will hunt Sylla for a while as well, but girl, we wouldn't be there without your amazing tournament!).


    I sadly have to admit that for the first time in the tournament I ended up thinking "well, if we'd had Caterina Bosetti and Folie, may be..."

    Which is something I hated to think, because you win and you lose with the players you have, period.


    I love when an important match ends 3-2, but I must admit that being on the losing end of a 3-2 with a close tie break is heartbreaking.

    Overall, I think it was a good final, with amazing moment of volleyball, but imho sometimes the level dropped a bit too much. I preferred the semifinal, but of course it's easier when the two more one-sided sets were won by your own team, and not the opposite.


    About the awards, I had already expressed my thought before: Maja should have gotten the best setter (but of course I'm very happy for Malinov).

    I personally made up my mind that – being Italy second – we would have got only one award between Danesi and Sylla; so, when Miriam was awarded I was prepared that Anna was out. Then Malinov got the awards and for a second I was scared they would have given to Sloetjes the best opposite or Popovic best libero (she was great, but Moki is Moki!)...

    Still, I agree with the general consideration: if they were ok with giving Italy 4 awards, then it was better to switch Malinov and Maja and Rasic and Danesi.

    I don't know if Sylla deserved it more than others (amazing tournament, not that amazing final), but I'm so happy for her: between the false doping story and the fact her mother is hill (she even thought about not coming in Japan), I felt it was the right choice. Her tears moved me a lot.




    not to state the obvious but the team with the best reception will win...

    I guess in the end you were right...


    that moment when you realize that serbia has no plan b.

    Nor did Italy, though... but I think we knew that fro us it was practically the titular or nothing.


    Egonu is enjoying herself today..smiling

    I'm glad we all noticed it! She seemed so relaxed at the beginning!


    So much respect to Egonu for a kill spike right after an error!

    She really surprised me about that.

    In the last two matches she made a lot of errors (while during the WCh she keep them quite low both in serve and attack), but in the whole tournament I think only once I remember her making 2 errors in a row.

  • It's another example of the FIVB's shadiness. If they were going to award points for VNL, there's no reason why the rankings weren't updated already in August and why the point distribution wasn't known in advance.


    This way it looks like they're trying to manipulate the rankings in order to help someone - and no, I don't have any particular team in my mind, it's just how it feels.

    OTOH, if the VNL doesn't count, it's meaningless to have rankings based on just three events, one of them being held almost 4 years ago, at that.

    It's just a mess.


    I totally agree and I was in the way to write the same.

    It has been quite surprising FIVB hasnt updated its ranking since last year. But then I realize nothing is just a mere "surprise" in the FIVB.

    It looks they are trying to set the ranking points in order to help some teams in order to get an "easier" path to Tokyo 2020. I guess we already know which are the teams which are apples of FIVB's eye.


    And then if we add that the Continental Olympic Qualification Tournment will be the last chance to qualify to the Olympics...

  • I totally agree and I was in the way to write the same.

    It has been quite surprising FIVB hasnt updated its ranking since last year. But then I realize nothing is just a mere "surprise" in the FIVB.

    It looks they are trying to set the ranking points in order to help some teams in order to get an "easier" path to Tokyo 2020. I guess we already know which are the teams which are apples of FIVB's eye.


    And then if we add that the Continental Olympic Qualification Tournment will be the last chance to qualify to the Olympics...


    Exactly this. Japan, Poland, Brazil, Italy and Russia are fundamental parts of the business of volleyball TV rights. I'm sure that in one way or another we will see the rankings calculated in a way to create easier groups for the big ones.

  • Ooooh the girls arrived in Milan airport with a crowd to greet them :flower::heart:

    I couldn't find a way to catch the link of the post, but if you go a bit down on this FB account you'll find a video!

    Fb page


    And I'm crying all over again, BTW :lol: