2018 FIVB World Championship - Japan

    There was a funny moment when Maja Ognjenović was being interviewed. In the end the journalist asked her if she'll be on the team for the Tokyo Olympics, and just at that moment Maja's husband shows up and says "Yes, I just talked to Terzić, she's gonna be there, it's a done deal" :lol:

    Hi Everyone,

    I would like to share some thoughts and observations in my 1st ever post here:

    - Some people have already mentioned it but I would like to reiterate: Bosetti's all around game is simply incredible. She does everything at extremely high level, even blocking!!! On top of that she is a very intelligent player - she very rare gets stuffed hitting against 15-20 cm taller blockers. Makes me chuckle because some coaches wouldn't consider her even as a Libero because of her height :-)

    - Egonu: She still makes some silly mistakes due to her age (not always adjusting her speed and jump according to the set) but she's only 19. I can't recall another athlete of her age who carried her team all the way almost winning a WC gold ....what a mental endurance.

    - Boskovic: A natural fighter ..... I wouldn't dare to argue with her both on and off the court :-)

    - Ognjenovic: Watched her in person back in 2001 during the Junior Balkan Championship in Greece where she led her team to the 1st place. Even then she was head and shoulders above the rest,..... Congrats for the long and successful career!

    - Terzic: This is the type of coach a team needs in crunch time! I understand a few languages (even though I can't speak them) and Serbian

    is one of them. Listening to him during timeouts - he acts more like a psychologist providing emotional support to the players and this is what a player needs on the edge of his/her emotional and physical abilities..... In difference to some other coaches (USA and Japan comes to mind) where head coached let the assistants draw some intelligent tactical schemes but I'm ready to bet - no player hears them at all.

    - O. Malinov: Does anyone has an idea of what descent is she? Curious because her name is not "typical" Italian .....sounds Slavic.

    Hello, welcome to the forum. Malinov is of Bulgarian descent by the way.

    Just a question for the italian users. Could someone explain why Chirichella is the captain and not Bosetti?

    I know Mazzanti explained that in an interview from last year, but I dont find it.


    Nothing against Cri, who always cheers up her team in every single point, but I find Lucia as the leader of this team. In the clutch moments in the WCH, eventhough in some matches she was underperforming, Bosetti seemed as the link between all the players and the calmest one. And also she is one of the most experienced, as Ortolani and De Gennaro.

    Quote from ossubtus

    i think malinov’s father was a bulgarian volleyball player who moved to ITA to play there. similar to many players in the ITA men’s NT (and i think grebennikov in FRA).

    Thanks to you and Sisko95....I though Malinov could be the RASPBERRY on the top of an ice cream but I wasn't sure:/. On the other hand

    someone intentionally or not took away the A at the end of her name so now it is more masculine^^


    A couple of thoughts I forgot to share:

    - Sylla: I'm not envy to her boyfriend or future husband.... the poor guy will now who wears the pants in the house from day 1 :P

    - I could be old and out of date but this WC FF was the 1st time I saw players intentionally risking to make a mistake but definitely refusing to give a "free ball" over the net.... Example: a ball is dug but it goes side wise or all the way back. Another player gets to it but she is either backwards or side wise to the net (i.e. she has no vision) and instead of passing it safely some place in the middle of the court where another team-mate can push it over she prefers to be aggressive and tries to set the ball close to the pin....a good numbers of those ended as overpasses but I guess it must be some reason.....

    Is it just me or was the level of the top teams a bit disappointing? I think hardly any of them was able to reach their potential. Obviously injuries weakend some teams (Milenkovic-Serbia, Goncharova/Krotkova-Russia, Natalia-Brasil etc.) but even without them I would've expected a higher level from most teams.

    Quote from ignorans

    Is it just me or was the level of the top teams a bit disappointing? I think hardly any of them was able to reach their potential. Obviously injuries weakend some teams (Milenkovic-Serbia, Goncharova/Krotkova-Russia, Natalia-Brasil etc.) but even without them I would've expected a higher level from most teams.

    it is you.

    Semi finale were amazing, finals amazing, only match for 3rd place could be little more interesting.

    We watched some interesting and high level matches in pool stage, second round and final6.

    All matches can't be on high level so I'm happy with WCH performance overall

    Brazil failed that is true... Russia played overall very well because their performance wasn't good before WCH.

    Quote from Leonardo.D

    Just a question for the italian users. Could someone explain why Chirichella is the captain and not Bosetti?

    I know Mazzanti explained that in an interview from last year, but I dont find it.


    Nothing against Cri, who always cheers up her team in every single point, but I find Lucia as the leader of this team. In the clutch moments in the WCH, eventhough in some matches she was underperforming, Bosetti seemed as the link between all the players and the calmest one. And also she is one of the most experienced, as Ortolani and De Gennaro.

    I don't know Lucia personally so may be there are 'out of court' reasons for the choice (for example, I read she's introverse and riservate).


    Anyway, at the beginning I wondered the same and I thought the reason was it was sure Chirichella was going to play, while it was less sure about Lucia. Well, I was wrong, so I don't know!

    6,3Milion people watched Final of WCH only in Italy, in one moment ther was 8million fans and 43,1% share !!!

    This numbers are huge :drink:

    Quote from crovolley

    6,3Milion people watched Final of WCH only in Italy, in one moment ther was 8million fans and 43,1% share !!!

    This numbers are huge :drink:

    Good results for volleyball but for example the final of Men WCH between Poland and Brazil had 9,36 mln in Poland (59,09% share).

    I know the match was broadcasted during the prime time but 59% shares is awesome for polish tv.

    There are many others behind. Italy is World u18 and European u19 champion and European u16 runner-up. A new generation of very very strong player is growing up, many of them already playing in the A1 and A2 league. Nobody can foresee the future but Italy is probably going to be one of the World volley superpowers in the next years.

    Quote from ossubtus

    well, if she had been born and lived in BUL, her name would be malinova, but as she was born in the west, i assume that’s why they dropped the A.

    She is Italian and in Italy your second name doesn’t change according to gender

    Quote from ignorans

    Is it just me or was the level of the top teams a bit disappointing? I think hardly any of them was able to reach their potential. Obviously injuries weakend some teams (Milenkovic-Serbia, Goncharova/Krotkova-Russia, Natalia-Brasil etc.) but even without them I would've expected a higher level from most teams.


    I wouldn't exactly call it disappointing. It's true that none of them managed to show their A+ game for 100% of time and that the semis and medal macthes were very nervous affairs with lots of ups and downs, which was perhaps a bit unfortunate. On the other hand, it made for some unbelievable drama, and from the spectator point of view, it's probably better than having both teams play "well" only for the match to end in a 3-0 blowout anyway.


    I also thought that some mid- and lower-level teams showed some inspiring stuff throughout the tournament. Even though they predictably lost to their objectively better opponents, most of the time they didn't go down without a fight. It was nice to see.

    Just read this article on the FIVB site, Paola Egounu sets new record on the highest-points scored in a single match: 45 points smashing the former record of Kazakstan's Yelena Pavlova 40 points AND highest all-time scorer with 324 points breaking the previous record of Turkey's Neslihan Demir with 251 points.


    Boskovic, not to be outdone, is the most efficient scorer/spiker of the 2018 edition with an impressive 53.66% efficiency, however the record is still held by Russia's Elizaveta Tishchenko from 2002 with an amazing 65.03 effiiciency :white: I hope Russia produces another prolific scoring MB like her in the near future :lol:


    Source: http://www.fivb.org/en/Volleyb….asp?No=79816&Language=en

    Question for Italian fans, can Monica de Gennaro be compared/as good as Paula Cardullo? Or is she even better than Cardullo? Other than the obvious, I think De Gennaro really is the core of this Italian team along with Bossetti allowing Team Italia to do their counter attacks.