Honestly, this. Now let's wait, maybe they won't have one of their usual mental implosions and lose 3:0 to Poland. For what I'm concerned, if they play like this then nobody will stop them all the way to the gold medal.
As for Italy... Let's say I'm not exactly in a hurry to see them lose 3:0 to Brazil once again and over and over. Our ambitions have been enormously reduced though. A bronze would be a success as of now.
Very true.. Sadly
The expectation around Italy are very high. People keep saying this is the strongest NT of the last 20 years. I don't think so.
About Ivovic, IMHO that is mostly ignorance. Everything starts and ends on Superlega for many italian commentators, so Ivovic is a surprise because he never played in Italy yet... 
I can tell the same about Nikola Rosic: this guy is a world class libero and he has always been in the last 10 years, but he never gets credits because of his position (liberos don't score, so most of the people don't even look at how amazing some of them can be) and his career in top teams from middle level leagues like Romania o Switzerland.
This is something quite surprising for me because I have never been Maxim so frustrated and doing such a kind of mistakes!
me neither! and still, I wouldn't say he is playing 'bad'.
Russia will surely be motivated in tomorrow's game against the USA as it's a do or die for them. Mikhaylov is the missing link so far, if he finds his game tomorrow I think Russia can beat the US.
Serbia x Poland meanwhile will be interesting. Let's see if Serbia will still be guns blazing against the Poles tomorrow.
The level wasn't the best we've seen for a Finals but the first day surely was interesting. I am glad the question that kept bothering me for some days was briefly mentioned here, but let me emphasize on the topic more - where is the Russian team from the VNL? Not just Alekno, we all saw what they can do this summer and it was natural to name them WCH favourites. And it brings me back to an old opinion of mine that when Russia are considered favourites, they do tend to be overconfident, start slowly or somehow miraculously lose rhythm and momentun at times. The winner of the WL not always wins the major event after that, of course, but rarely the form drop is significant. Based on the US performance so far, I could accept the First Round defeat and even neglect the Serbian defeat for other reasons. But I would've never thought this year's Russia could drop a two-set advantage against this year's Brazil. Obviously, the Russians didn't either. After the relatively solid first two sets, they just stopped and probably took the game for granted. At least this is what I believe in. They made a ton of serve mistakes in the third set and invited Brazil back into the match. Yes, William was amazing and Brazil changed the strategy, but the Russian team was already gone. I am still deliberating on how such a drop of form/attitude (also compared to the VNL, not just the first two sets) is possible.
Tomorrow's clash with the Monstars is going to be such a candy to watch!
In the last few days, USA demonstrated a game that is worthy of a WCH final. And just when you are slowly getting ready for a RUS vs. USA final, Russia and Maxim Mikhaylov disappear, whereas Serbia deliver one of the tournament's performances. I'd rarely seen an Eastern European team defend and transition like the Serbs did tonight, kudos to Grbic and big congrats on their almost theoretical semifinal berth.
On a note of relief, I was utterly disappointed by the Bulgarian inability to serve, mostly vivid in the First Round match against Iran (especially the legendary first set) and I thought a top team won't do that, or at least not when it matters. Well, Russia in the third set and then Italy throught the entire match actually did. So it happens to (almost) everyone, it seems.
Imagine a country having a very good Opp that amazing player like Luburic has to become a sub. Atanisjevic is a monster,
It is absolutely nuts to think how this is the first tournament Maique is playing with the adult Brazilian squad. He is a natural. This was an insane bet from the coaching staff, but damn, did they get it right. And to think he was just a sub in his club (probably will not be anymore though)...
Missed both matches due to work, but it seemed like a great start for this Final Six. Hopefully the games tomorrow are just as crazy.
has anyone found a video for today's matches?
oooh... found these.
Atanasijevic is in the form of his life! Absolutely unstoppable.
Atanasijevic is in the form of his life! Absolutely unstoppable.
I wouldn’t say that, he was stopped quite a few times.
Team Italy was unusually slow on court in the match vs Serbia. There were quite a few rallies that the Italian players moved or reacted too slow to dig the balls that indeed were not that hard to reach. What happened to the team?
On the other hand, congrats to the Serbian team. What a clinical performance for this big win!
Italy's math was awful. We faced 2 strong teams (Russia and Serbia) and we lost twice.
This team just doesn't work.
Giannelli is too young and he ALWAYS plays bad in the most important matches. It's easy to play well when you are facing a poor opponent but the great players come out in the match that means something.
Lanza = do I really need to say something about him?
Junatorena = maybe he was thinking about his newborn daughter, he wasn't with the head on the game
Zaytsev = it looks like Serbia worked just on how to block and defend him
The middles = with the poor reception, Giannelli couldn't use them a lot, but they scored some interesting blocks
As I said a lot of times, our problem is that we can't play with Lanza. He is a mess. SInce we don't have Parodi or Kovar, we should play with Zaytesv as a outside hitter along with Juantorena. Nelli should play as a OPP (but I think both Sabbi or vettori would have been a better choise)
Maruotti showed better thinks than Lanza and he should have played more IMO. I also think yesterday Bara should have come in the court way before than in the 3rd set.
PS: Ravens, I can't watch it on TV because I'm abroad...
Giannelli is too young and he ALWAYS plays bad in the most important matches.
C'mon, that's not true. He DID played bad in more than one important match, but also the opposite is true, and I'm thinking also to the matches he plays with Trento, since I follow the team.
Or what, yesterday match was important and the OG semifinal vs USA wasn't? And what about the CL final vs Kazan, loss by 2 points in the tie break? Or the match vs Poland in the 2015 WC? And two season ago, the semifinal vs Perugia? (but also last year I don't remember Giannelli playing that semifinal badly, even if Trento lost it)
And he won a Scudetto as titular in his first season in A1, in 2015...
Antonov is clearly missed.
Pippo's nickname is cursed. It's close to the portuguese term pipoquiero. Maybe he should change that to lift the curse. 
About Kovar, why is he out of NT, I love him!!!!! Has his level dropped a lot?
About Kovar, why is he out of NT, I love him!!!!! Has his level dropped a lot?
he was tested positive on doping test
Display MoreItaly's math was awful. We faced 2 strong teams (Russia and Serbia) and we lost twice.
This team just doesn't work.
Giannelli is too young and he ALWAYS plays bad in the most important matches. It's easy to play well when you are facing a poor opponentLanza = do I really need to say something about him?
Junatorena = maybe he was thinking about his newborn daughter, he wasn't with the head on the game
Zaytsev = it looks like Serbia worked just on how to block and defend him
The middles = with the poor reception, Giannelli couldn't use them a lot, but they scored some interesting blocks
As I said a lot of times, our problem is that we can't play with Lanza. He is a mess. SInce we don't have Parodi or Kovar, we should play with Zaytesv as a outside hitter along with Juantorena. Nelli should play as a OPP (but I think both Sabbi or vettori would have been a better choise)
Maruotti showed better thinks than Lanza and he should have played more IMO. I also think yesterday Bara should have come in the court way before than in the 3rd set.
PS: Ravens, I can't watch it on TV because I'm abroad...
Vettori. Seriously? 
he was tested positive on doping test
