2015 FIVB World League

    I'm really worried about Russia. I know they want to focus on other competitions, but they are playing poorly and some of the players that are playing the WL will be in the 2016 Olympics. I was hoping to see them here in Rio next month but they let me down.

    I can understand the arguments about Georgi Bratoev, but not about Valentin Bratoev, who is better right now than both Aleksiev and Petkov and is not chosen /match deciding serve, attack vs the block, defense, attitude/

    Glad to learn that Alekno is taking over the NT finally!

    Another weak performance for Italy in this world League... Brazil is already above as in terms of play and chemistry, if we play so down, without fighting and with little convinction, well it is over since the beginning. Too many serve mistakes, many unprecise sets and no outstanding attacks. I save only Colaci!

    Colaci was superb today! The rest of the Italians though...
    All it took to Brazil was to do their job. The game was pretty much one-sided, except for half of the second set. Murilo's backrow performance is starting to worry me though.

    Italy always had the hardest time against Brazil, so nothing radically new happened.
    Btw, Birarelli and Lanza spiked good against Brazil today, it is very hard to be efficient vs this team.

    Sét 2, Italia leaded 8-2 16-11 and then lost 24-26. It'd rather Zaytsev play OH than OH. Travica set badly, his balls to back were not effective.

    volleyball.it has provided an interesting discussion in an article with a video concerning the Challenge System. I guess they question the validity of some decisions because in the video you can see the ball clearly seems to be out of bounds in first place...


    stb2gLhBi3g

    Since Iran appearance in the world league, Russia's destiny somehow was in hands of Iran every year!
    In 2013 when Germany-Iran matches were after all other matches and Germany needed 6 points to qualify for the finals instead of Russia, Iran prevented it and caused Russia to move forward and become champion.
    In 2014 Iran 2-3 defeat against Russia caused Russia elimination from final 6.
    and now if Iran wins both matches against Russia, it will be eliminated from group 1.

    3 serves on Mário Jr., 3 points for Italy. :aww: I give up trying to understand why this guy is in the NT. No fighting spirit or group dynamic whatsoever.

    Iran forever :super:

    Congrats to Italy! Gianelli and even Antonov changed the game for them today.


    Bernardo tried everyone in the team today, surprisingly. I hope he realizes that Evandro is head to head with Wallace our best OPP. Lucas Lóh entered well in the tie-break, while Lucarelli remains our best player this year so far. Lóh-Lucarelli sounds like a good combination to be used more often.

    Zaytsev during the Worlds, Kovar during Coppa Italia, Juantorena in the Turkish Championship, now Lanza. 4 italians spikers with twisted ankle in the last year. Unbelievable bad luck for us :wall: :wall: :wall:


    p.s. Parodi injured even him (knee)

    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 Mamdani

    Zaytsev during the Worlds, Kovar during Coppa Italia, Juantorena in the Turkish Championship, now Lanza. 4 italians spikers with twisted ankle in the last year. Unbelievable bad luck for us :wall: :wall: :wall:


    p.s. Parodi injured even him (knee)

    Oh! what a bad luck. how serious is his injury?

    Quote from arman

    Oh! what a bad luck. how serious is his injury?

    At the moment I don't know. He left the game, then he put the bandage and couldn't walk. We will see next days, by the way I'm not worried for this final 6 because we have Antonov, I'm worried for the World Cup and Eurovolley, because we'll have 3 outside hitters who will come back from an injury (bad shape), 4 OHs if the 4th one will be Kovar (but I think that the 4th one will be Antonov, if he don't get injured too :mad: )

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




    Winner of USA vs. Poland match takes Pool B.


    In Group 2, Pool C, Canada must hope that Argentina loses both matches to make the final 4. Canada has more match points, but they are tied on wins and just one will put Argentina into the Final 4.


    Can Russia get a win and keep themselves in Group 1? I really doubt it right now. As I've said before the FIVB will change the number of teams in Group 1 next year to 12 to prevent Russia from dropping down. France should not have been in Group 2 this year, which such a dominating performance only losing 1 point from the maximum in their 11 matches so far.