2015 World Cup - Japan - 9/8

    I have this feeling Russia won't make it. They looked so poor to my eyes. They need some extra fire. I'd like to watch Pavlov and Mikhaylov together. Shchrbinin and Musersky in the middle. Biryukov instead of that useless Spiridonov. And Moroz's fire is really needed.

    I'm extremely sad about our team. I've seen some our players crying. It was awful to see, how "happy" and "satisfied" they were, after being 3rd best team in such a challenging tournament.


    Anyway, it's a sport. Sometimes, you have to deal with defeats. Our boys just need to forget about that and fight in all upcoming competitions. It's not the end of the world, still we can qualify for Olympics! :)

    Quote from scarpetta

    So right now;
    Only 3 teams between last Olympic champion(Russia), Olympic semi-finalist (Bulgaria),World champion (Poland), World Championship bronze medalist (Germany), World league winner (France), world league finalist (Serbia) will be in Rio.



    Hell will be in wintry Germany in January.

    Having watched again a couple of Italy's matches in the tournament, I have to praise Blegnini for the fantastic job he has done with this team.


    The change of mentality is easy to notice: during Berruto's kingdom, all we saw were players arguing with the referee, Berruto torturing his face and spending half the match with his fingers up his nose, jumping and screaming obscenities, tormenting the players like everyone was going to die because of that missed ball. All his timeouts were a complete waste of time (Italian volleyball fans on the net mock him as "the philosopher", and not in a nice way), where our guys would just interrupt whatever bullshit he was talking about as soon as the game resumed, cutting his speeches in half and walking off trying to motivate each other.
    Not to mention his idiotic choices (Travica, Giovi, Randazzo, not letting Baranowicz and Juantorena into the team because Travica doesn't like them).



    Blegnini instead talks little, gives some technical advice on how to react to the occasional three aces in a row, tells Zaytsev to **** off from the referee's chair... like a real coach would do.


    Today the old Italy would have thrown away the match at the beginning of set 3, after that stream of aces by Bienek.


    Blegnini called time out, Zaytsev went ballistic as soon as he sat in his chair. Blegnini just shut him up right there and said "guys, I told you in the locker room that this would have been a boxing match, the one delivering the final punch in the face will win. Go back and start punching them over again". And we did it.

    Quote from Matt_Chemik

    Of course, congratulations to United States and Italy. You showed a great volleyball in that tournament and fully deserved, to make it to the Olympic tournament ;)


    Would have been deserved even Poland, but FIVB rules......


    vabo. Where did you watch the game? I'm trying but I don't find anything online

    Per un pir, un pam un persec per na brogna e na rumleina, nuetr'a sam d'la Ghirlandeina nuetr'a sam da rispeter




    Quote from ravens#7

    I have this feeling Russia won't make it. They looked so poor to my eyes. They need some extra fire. I'd like to watch Pavlov and Mikhaylov together. Shchrbinin and Musersky in the middle. Biryukov instead of that useless Spiridonov. And Moroz's fire is really needed.

    I'm betting on Poland, France and Russia. Looking at other potential candidates for the spot (Bulgaria, Serbia, Germany), I think right now only Serbia could cause an upset to these three (Russia in particular), but who knows - perhaps Bulgaria can come back from the dead eventually. :whistle: Heynen's antics could pay off in the end too, which would be interesting and hilarious at the same time. :gone:

    Quote from saishuu

    I'm betting on Poland, France and Russia. Looking at other potential candidates for the spot (Bulgaria, Serbia, Germany), I think right now only Serbia could cause an upset to these three (Russia in particular), but who knows - perhaps Bulgaria can come back from the dead eventually. :whistle: Heynen's antics could pay off in the end too, which would be interesting and hilarious at the same time. :gone:


    We have to deal with the fact that the only international player that Russia have is Muserskiy, the others can be good players, but not stars (even Mikhaylov by now is not the player that he used to be anymore). On the contrary, Serbia has a lot of individual talents, even if they needs to improve their teamplay (too much focused, right now, on serve and block). By the way I think Serbia has much more chances than Russia.

    Per un pir, un pam un persec per na brogna e na rumleina, nuetr'a sam d'la Ghirlandeina nuetr'a sam da rispeter




    I think Poland, Germany and Russia will make it.


    France will once again collapse due to pressure, Germany prepared for months just for this tournament and plays home, Russia has 3 months of Alekno's gulag treatment to qualify

    Nightmare tournament for Iran but at least they helped my second favorite team Italy to qualify for Rio by taking a set from Poland. :D

    Quote from scarpetta

    So right now;
    Only 3 teams between last Olympic champion(Russia), Olympic semi-finalist (Bulgaria),World champion (Poland), World Championship bronze medalist (Germany), World league winner (France), world league finalist (Serbia) will be in Rio. What a shame!
    Great escape from Italy.


    am i missing something? you keep saying there'll be only 3 euro teams in rio. but there might be 4, italy, plus euro qual. and 2 from world qual. whether that's too few, that's another story, but there probably will be 4, not 3.


    i'm sorry for POL. i don't blame them for crying.


    RUS barely held off JPN. it doesn't look good for the defending olymp. champions to go to rio. i hope the other 3 euro teams will be FRA, POL and SER.

    1 european team will qualifie in January, 2 will go to the world qualifications in May. So, one among Russia, France, Serbia and Poland will stay at home for sure


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…%27s_qualification#Europe

    Per un pir, un pam un persec per na brogna e na rumleina, nuetr'a sam d'la Ghirlandeina nuetr'a sam da rispeter




    Edited once, last by Mamdani ().

    Quote from ossubtus

    am i missing something? you keep saying there'll be only 3 euro teams in rio. but there might be 4, italy, plus euro qual. and 2 from world qual. whether that's too few, that's another story, but there probably will be 4, not 3.


    i'm sorry for POL. i don't blame them for crying.


    RUS barely held off JPN. it doesn't look good for the defending olymp. champions to go to rio. i hope the other 3 euro teams will be FRA, POL and SER.


    I'm not saying there will be 3 teams , I'm trying to tell that only 3 spots are left. It is Italy (+) 3 Europeans teams so total will be 4 ;) But there are at least 6 very successful and powerful candidates for the remaining 3 tickets.

    Someone wrote here that no one expected Italy to get something here after the problems at the WL. I expected it and wrote it two weeks ago - Zaytsev and Juantorena /their infair advantage/ are making them favorite.


    Btw, FIVB officials wouldn't pass elementary logic test with me as a teacher. 3 medals and 2 quotes for the OG = WTF

    Quote from vabo


    I haven't seen a single picture of Poland on the podium, did they get any medal at all? Or are they flying back home with a bunch of vabochans?


    Yes, they got a medal, I saw it in the FIVB gallery.


    World Cup, the competition where you can be second winning the last match and third losing it. So weird xD

    I think it will be france because of great team chemistry, poland because of their burning desire to get a spot, and serbia because grbic is now their coach and started to show team chemistry. these three teams are my prediction to get tickets to rio. germany is my darkhorse because they are literally together building their team rapport.