2015 FIVB World League

Quote from TimHH

https://instagram.com/p/4dON4SoJFG/

This ball was called out. And it was a matchball for Canada.......

Yes, I saw in Volleyball Canada twitter account I don't feel proud

Quote from TimHH

Just stumbled upon this:
https://instagram.com/p/4dON4SoJFG/
This ball was called out. And it was a matchball for Canada.......

Come on! There's no evidence of the ball landing in the picture!

Serbia defeats Italy again, this time after an enjoyable five-set thriller. Italy had one break point advantage at the end of the sets they lost, but Serbia saved a set point and scored two unanswered points each time, mostly due to our errors, in what would have been a pretty mistake-free match otherwise. It was a clash of lights-out offenses and great defensive plays. In the end things balanced out and, although it sounds simpleistic, Serbia prevailed thanks to some kills out of nowhere by Atanasijevic.

Bulgaria defeated Cuba using very effectivelty the pipes and counterattacks with MBs. Both Zhekov and Agontsev can set good pipes, Todorov again spiked over Cuban blocks, but this time their player show they can spike over the block as well /and also they used more technique to get more points/,

Correction

I group

Brazil, winner of II division, 1st team (Poland/USA)

II group

Serbia, Italy, 2nd team (Poland/USA)

Question is who is gonna win II division? France? It's still tough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agq9h9KBOBE

0:03

I see the thread is burning and it's so hard to get through all of these fights... Hope' we're all good now, right? No fighting

Last two matches between Poland and Iran cost me a lot of nerves. Exciting two meetings, I have to say. Simply unreal what Iranian team is capable of if the opponent doesn't finish first attack. Their counter-attack were unstoppable, simply an execution, insane. Iranians... Like them or dislike them, this team has "something". I really enjoy watching Mirzajanpour playing, probably my fav Iranian player Pity that only one of us can survive the race as USA is already in the finals.
I think I should put a lot more faith in our guys, though being always optimistic, deep down I didn't believe we're going to win a single game in Iran, not without Kurek. I feel sorry for Jarosz sometimes. People expect god knows what from him while keep saying he'll never reach a certain level. He already knows it himself, that he will never be Wlazły, Kurek not even Bartman. I catch myself cursing in front of tv and blaming red-head when things go wrong, and I'm not proud of this Let's face it, he's not a top star but he can do just fine. First match was terrible, the second was awesome. And Bieniek has my thumb up for mentioning in an interview how good Kuba Jarosz was yesterday. This is called a TEAM. Talking about Bieniek, I hope nothing can stop him from playing like this, because for sure he's one of the most outstanding MBs in this edition so far. I barely can believe he just like that plays without any fear, being our strong point from the beginning until now and facing top teams and players without any complexes. Professor Looking at him I'm almost embarrassed when I look at Nowakowski. And I feel guilty in the same time. But no one makes me mad more than him, truly! Don't really get this, what this guy is still doing in our starting six I can understand that a player can have better and weaker moments but Nowakowski is killing me for about two last years. Ok, enough of hate speach before I go too far... To say more positives, Kubiak was just precious, with clever attacks, with being quite a cool captain considering his temper and stuff, with the pride emanating from him Love it! And it's visible that he has strong position among his teammates. Drzyzga came back to replace Łomacz when things didn't work well - it made me calmer, I was a bit confused still seeing Łomacz as a starter and it's nothing personal, really, but it's just obvious for me Drzyzga is our unquestionable number 1.

Now, after EG in Baku have finished, it's time for changes. Probably, we'll see Szalpuk and Konarski. Some people will totally freak out having duo Jarosz - Konarski but we have to face the problem with Kurek's back, if we advance to Rio, he will be needed there! Szalpuk was great during EG, same as Śliwka, I would take them both with pleasure But it means Bednorz will be out and how do we know if he can do better than Szalpuk/Śliwka if he didn't get a real chance to show himself on WL? My only regret, that Antiga didn't let him.

I can see that Bulgarians do just fine even without me watching them I hope they will play only better, inspired by the silver from Baku, and can make it to the finals. Partly, I don't like the formula with first, second and third division as I miss facing such teams like France or Argentina. I'm curious what FiVB is going to invent for next year. Russia is close to fall out and it's a pity, they were so close with USA. Once Muserskiy appeared on the court and suddenly as if the sun came out Wish them good luck in Teheran, hoping Spirik won't fight with eg. Mousavi under the net

And one my frightening discovery... I know I'm such an ignoramus lately, watching 2 out of 12 matches, and barely knowing what is going on in world of volley but I will be totally honest, I just discovered that... Italians have sleeveless jerseys! Feels like something is coming to an end because if even Italians, the epitome of elegance and style in my eyes, get rid of sleeves it's just a matter of time when the rest will do the same. I know. Players will feel much more comfortable with that. I think I just need to get used to it. But I'm telling you, it was quite a shock for me!

Why you're here quite sure abt final qulification of POL while Iran could earn 6 points and got 21pts totally. When POL has just 20pts now. Of curse, Us is no pressure for the last 2 matches, but any things can happen. Actually, I am in POL side Hope these matches could reach 5 set for the audiences and team A of Us will be on the bence for the final :)))

Quote from LeeParkHun

Why you're here quite sure abt final qulification of POL while Iran could earn 6 points and got 21pts totally. When POL has just 20pts now. Of curse, Us is no pressure for the last 2 matches, but any things can happen. Actually, I am in POL side Hope these matches could reach 5 set for the audiences and team A of Us will be on the bence for the final :)))

I'm not. All my talking is around "if we advance" and "one of us can survive" All these years of watching volleyball already taught me to not be sure of anything.

In "other" news, things seem to be heating up back in Moscow. Excerpt below:

Gennadiy Shiipulin, head coach of Belogorie Belgorod and
one of the best Russian coaches, expressed his disappointment about the
results of Russia in the World League 2015.

Shiipulinhas publicly criticized work of Andrey Voronkov, the current head coach of Russia, and added that he should immediately resign from that position.

"Russia has lost ten games in a row! That has never happened in
volleyball! Players do not want to work with this coaching staff, with
Voronkov. This was obvious even before this tournament. Voronkov has to
leave if he has at least a little respect to his colleagues and if he
loves Russia and volleyball. Because you can not make fools out of
people. I do not know who is commanding this team, head coach or someone
else? Everyone is talking about the absence of Muserskiy. Russia does
not depend only on one player. We have won games without Muserskiy. Let
the coach bring new Muserskiy and Tetyukhin. This is all a shame. We are
all hurt and offended" said Shiipulin for R-Sport and added one interesting detail.

"Who should replace Voronkov? Vladimir Alekno (head coach of Zenit Kazan) is the ideal candidate" concluded Shiipulin.

Surely Russia can't afford to be in a dire situation in EC and of course, World Cup. Interesting what happens next..

Bulgarian friends, I have question.

Head coach of national team plans to appoint several players from the Baku squad ?

Quote from pedroleon

Bulgarian friends, I have question.

Head coach of national team plans to appoint several players from the Baku squad ?

Yes, Plamen Konstantinov already calls Niki Nikolov, Svetoslav Gotsev and Todor Aleksiev in the World League squad against Argentina. It's good known that Plamen doesn't like twins Bratoevi and he shoudn't call them whatever they did.Other players from Baku are not signed in World league wide roster.

Quote from inc0gnito

"Who should replace Voronkov? Vladimir Alekno (head coach of Zenit Kazan) is the ideal candidate" concluded Shiipulin.
Surely Russia can't afford to be in a dire situation in EC and of course, World Cup. Interesting what happens next..

It was obvious that some moves will be done. I'm 99% percent sure we will soon see Alekno back. He is probably the best one ever happened to be for this team. I can even say that I already feel excited about what is he going to do Keep us informed!

Quote from deian1302

Yes, Plamen Konstantinov already calls Niki Nikolov, Svetoslav Gotsev and Todor Aleksiev in the World League squad against Argentina. It's good known that Plamen doesn't like twins Bratoevi and he shoudn't call them whatever they did.Other players from Baku are not signed in World league wide roster.

That's so great! I'm not sure about Toshko, he looked almost physically murdered lately. I hope he will have time to rest. As for Niki Nikolov he is like tireless

Bratoevi participated in all successes in 2012 and 2013 and were abscent when all failures happened in 2014. Just sayin...

Btw, the reason is that they are no longer bounded by slave contracts to Levski and Lazarov, so they can't profit from them /the evil and stupid people ahead of Bulgarian volleyball/

Quote from YavorD

Actually no, it has nothing to do with the contracts. To me, it has to do with their behaviour, meaning to disrespect rules sometimes, which for a methodical coach and person like Konstantinov is a sin. Also, both of them are known for ruining the food regime established by the medical staff. Third, there are rumours (only rumours, I don't know if it is true) that they had a squabble some time ago when the twins were still youngsters. Last, Konstantinov is an obvious fan of Agontsev, who should be given more time with the A team because he is doing fine. There is something else. You just can't completely or seriously change a team whose rhythm you've been setting up for the last almost 2 months. It is the World League team he has chosen right from the start, so let him keep it without inviting too many of the EG guys (who might be even more tired than the WL guys). However, the decision about the ECH roster will be different, depending also on how we do at the Division II finals. Then we will know if he really values the Bratoev twins or not. Because it would be detrimental to not use the momentum they have gained in Baku.

How did Bratoev brothers get loose from the contracts? Is there any update to other Bulgarian players on this regard? Before, I've only got to know that Kaziyski is one of the very few players from Bulgaria who's not bound by the slave contract.

Quote from alirrrrrr

Congratulation to Poland with showing a good performance proof that they are qualified to be in top 6 . Although I'm quite sad for this miss , I should mention that Polish players were fantastic in this game specially in serve!

U can find the full match on utube by an Iran fan. However, the quailty is 240p very difficult to see the ball

The straw that broke the camel's back.. Voronkov resigns as head coach of Russian men NT!

After disappointing losing streak (0-10) in the FIVB World League, Voronkov
has decided to resign. He took over the national team in 2013! At the
beginning of his mission, he managed to win World League and European
Championship in 2013! In 2014 he didn’t manage to take even a medal in
World League and World Championship and during this season, Voronkov recorded the one of the worst performance with Russia in World League.

Believe it or not, they have ten losses out of ten matches so far!

“The board of Russian Volleyball federation will have a meeting on July 17th and they will name new head coach” reports the official website of RVF.

Quote from YavorD

We don't know if they did.

Yes we do. They didn't
But it is a shame Georgi is not in the team. He is way better than Zhekov and Agontsev