Kurek himself is enough to lead Poland to Turin with serves and spikes.
Men's World Championship 2018
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Am I the only one who thinks Drzyzga improved from last year?
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Italy will play with almost all the bench players against the Netherlands.
It would be nice to see them playing. Most of all Nelli and the middles, who are the weakest link in Italy.
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See, this is exactly the problem of this format. Last round matches basically become practice. Teams that have already advanced play their backup players and lack motivation, and those eliminated teams, they are just whatever, this is not fair to France, if Poland played Serbia first, things could’ve been totally different.
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France has no one but themselves to blame. They have had many gifts. First, Ned beat Brazil means they could finish first and they threw that chance away. Second, They had to beat Serbia and they had advantage but still they blew it.
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France have no one to blame but themselves for losing winnable games in this world championship.
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See, this is exactly the problem of this format. Last round matches basically become practice. Teams that have already advanced play their backup players and lack motivation, and those eliminated teams, they are just whatever, this is not fair to France, if Poland played Serbia first, things could’ve been totally different.
Serbs are playing first squad, maybe now they have changed several players because their main squad is playing trash, but Poland is just too good for them now, get over it.
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I know they should’ve won those matches, but still, had Poland played Serbia first, they would still have big chances of moving forward, and now they just have no hope at all.
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Most of all Nelli and the middles, who are the weakest link in Italy.
I'm not that sure about it: I would have said the OHs are the weakest link... May be with Nelli, but not with the MBs, which to me seems the most equilibrated department of the team... Plus Cester and Candellaro have an annoying float serve.
if Poland played Serbia first, things could’ve been totally different.
I don't like the fact that most of today matches are meaningless, but it would have made zero difference who played first today, for Poland (which would have had to win anyway) and Serbia (which wouldn't have needed to win anyway). In case, it could have make meaningless also the match between France and Argentina, since in case Poland would have win this afternoon, the games were already done.
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Serbs are playing first squad, maybe now they have changed several players because their main squad is playing trash, but Poland is just too good for them now, get over it.
Oh please, the Serbs are not even trying, we all know how bad this Poland team is.
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Oh fly, I saw the results of Pol-Set, it was a sentence!!
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I'm not that sure about it: I would have said the OHs are the weakest link... May be with Nelli, but not with the MBs, which to me seems the most equilibrated department of the team... Plus Cester and Candellaro have an annoying float serve.
Maybe I didnt write quite well. When I meant the MBs, I mean all the 4 italian MBs in general. Yes sure, the 4 are equilibrated, but any of them is a world class player. Personally, I consider Italy has the weakest pair of MBs from the big teams.
Let'se see if Cester and Candellaro show up in this match. Italy would need more contribution from their MBs if they want to get the gold.
Since Mastrangelo retired, there hasnt been any single MB who could have replaced him, at least in a half.
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Oh then I agree! Even if we finally have a slightly better attack duo...
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Vow Serbia played like crap ...so disappointing
.Only problem is that now we know the 2 semifinalist even before they play...the 2 teams in the group with Poland are moving on to the semis without a doubt. ..... But starting next season Poland will be a powerhouse with Leon.
Too bad that we did not see any dark horses like in 2014 with Germany, France and Iran.... This final 6 was expected...France out if not that socking to be honest...and Poland already made VNL final 6...... NED came close...nice try at least.
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Yes sure, there has been an improvement in the MB position in Italy. Sure, there is a slight better attack duo. But I do think that the main task from a MB is to block. And in that, italians arent between the top ones.
And well, it isnt so difficult to attack better than Piano, Buti, an old Birarelli and Beretta
, if I recall the last italian MBs. -
Oh please, the Serbs are not even trying, we all know how bad this Poland team is.
hehe, are you French?
Just advise French players to win more matches next time
Maybe let’s play the latest action from match Serbia-France and use it as a comment.
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See, this is exactly the problem of this format. Last round matches basically become practice. Teams that have already advanced play their backup players and lack motivation, and those eliminated teams, they are just whatever, this is not fair to France, if Poland played Serbia first, things could’ve been totally different.
I agree with you about the fallacy of this competition. I believe that this format is but another design to minimize the risk for the host, Italy, to miss the final six. As long as they play normal in the preliminaries, Italy would finish the first in the first round without facing the strongest opponents, setting up a huge cushion for the second round to finish as the top two in the pool. The 2014 system indeed is more sensible, since the pool ranking in the second round considered match results among the same 8 teams in a pool only. More than that, less than a half of the scores were determined from the first round, unlike this edition in which 5 out of 8 matches per team in the second round took place in the first round, even including matches against teams already eliminated. This definitely favors teams coming out of a weak pool in determining the pool ranking of the second round.
As to France, they spoiled three chances and were therefore eliminated - leading 10:7 against Brazil in the tie-break, leading 2:0 in sets against the Netherlands, and going flat-tire suddenly after dominating over Serbia for one set and a half. If you recall the Rio Olympics, France got eliminated in a similar way.
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Oh please, the Serbs are not even trying, we all know how bad this Poland team is.
Poland was the only team that took a set from Russia in VNL with compromised MB lineup because of injuries. They're not bad. They were probably adjusting from Pool D to a group of death.
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If POL had let SRB jump into the game with nice reception and kills, things could have turned the other way around and SRB could even push a bit more to gain even more confidence before F6 after a win over a good, desperate opponent. It was a big question mark what will we see on the court of the Polish side. But they came with very good energy and VERY effective game. So after 1.5 sets Grbic probably just assumed "OK it's just better to rest my players, we have it anyway so..." and it's resaonable. So yeah all the players played a great game on Polish side, but I think Kurek's serves and Zatorski's reception in the first set were absoultelly crucial for the whole game
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And well, it isnt so difficult to attack better than Piano, Buti, an old Birarelli
true XD
Maybe let’s play the latest action from match Serbia-France and use it as a comment.
oh fly, poor le goff, he must feel so gulty now
Italy is playing with all the second line (I expected Lanza for Maruotti, though).
Good match so far by Nelli (especially at the behinnibg) and mostly Baranowicz, terrible by Candellaro.
We made a lot of mistakes, and Ned are kicking us from the middle, but I must say we did some very crazy dig (all togheter in very few actions, so we're not digging well in general, but still wonderful digs).