Men's World Championship 2018

  • Just saw a video of that on Youtube and it's the dirtiest thing I've ever seen in a match, rolling a ball intentionally on court in order to prevent the opponent from getting a point, and that at 14-11 in tie-break. Velasco's misbehavior was the result of an emotional match with questionable referee calls, but what Renan did was purely disgusting :down::down::down:


    I dont know which misbehaviour is worse. This one by Renan or when a macedonian player pulled down the net in a match against Hungary for the ECH qualies.


    Anyway, I do think that only one day of suspension is such a shame :down: It is absolutely not compared to what Velasco did.

    If the sanction for this is so light, well, it shouldnt surprise us we could see this kind of behaviour again.

  • I am 100% rooting for the USA but I'm quite honestly surprised at how quickly they dispatch a very good Russian team. I though Russia would come out with guns blazing. It was fairly close but at the same time decisive for the Americans. Russia is a very likeable team so I'm kinda sad about their unexpected exit. Mikhaylov I feel wasn't his usual self throughout this tourney. Russian subs (especially Volvich) seems a bit reactionary. Kurkaev is a revelation. Poletaev is still kinda raw but reminds me so much of Taylor Sander. Volkov has a lot of youthful energy..he probably went to the same school of point celebration as Turkey's Karakurt. Lol.


    BTW Am I the only one who get distracted/chuckles at Lisinac rolling his shorts up to exposed his left thigh? He's like Angelina Jolie at the Oscars. Ha!

  • does anyone know what would have happened if BUL had made it to the final 6? would they have hosted a pool in BUL instead of all in ITA?

    No, Torino was selected for the final six and semi-finals and final regardless of who reached that stage. I don't think that they would have modified ticket sales or match times to fit Bulgarian team as such as all of this was predetermined before the tournament began.

  • Very bad idea for Russia and France picking up in july for the useless World Nations League: they sucked both phisically and athletically in this World Championship. And the most ironic part is that they won VNL with a mixed A/B team. No Verbov (best russian player in this tournament), no Butko, no Grankin, no Kurkaev. :whistle:

    Exactly because Russia won the VNL with a mixed team fatigue shouldn't be counted as an excuse. The setters and Mikhaylov who got time off underperformed at the WCH. Although Maxim played in Lille and played great, actually, which makes it even stranger why he was not that effective at the WCH. Obviously, they couldn't find the right rhythm during the WCH preparation. There were only few moments when Russia came close to the summer shape. I believe the strategy to play with the youngsters in the summer and get them ready for the WCH worked, they were OK even in the past few weeks, but it was probably the more experienced players that disappointed. Which means that the head coach must've made mistakes with the selection and with the preparation in general.

    Nico

    They said Serbia – for point ratio – is already sure to be qualified, but at the same time, theoretically Italy has the chance to be first of the pool (if Poland lose 3-0 with less than 52 points...)

    So I guess – if it's all true – that Serbia is sure, while Poland not?

    Absolutely, Serbia are through! Because they have a neutral set ration and a positive points ratio. They can still finish second in the group, Italy might even top the group if they deliver a Monstar performance tonight, but Serbia cannot be eliminated.

    Italy won't even sweat to beat this Polish team. I would love to see Italy vs Brazil in the SF.

    Hmm, I don't know where this confidence comes from. Italy are, of course, capable of beating Poland in theory. However, not with the level they demonstrated against Serbia and not easily against this Poland. Don't underestimate Heynen's Poland, I posted a comment about his contribution some days ago. Although not as threatening as the 2014 WCH team, this is a very well-organized squad that plays its best volleyball since, probably, 2014 exactly.

  • I am sorry Russia didn't demonstrate their VNL form at the WCH, it would have been really cool to watch them against this very much improved US team. True that the scoreline was unexpected, but so was Russia's form drop, too. And credits due where credits due, this is a really efficient, versatile, athletic, tactically and physically well-prepared American team. I like them even more than the team with Ball & co. that won the 2008 major events. Actually, USA could've been a serious title contenders already in 2014, after the great WL, and back then they always seemed an Argentina defeat away from making the last step. Now they can still lose it all in a single match, but this looks less likely at the moment. I believe they are ready for that last step, now that they beat Russia twice. Maybe Serbia would have most arguments against this US team, but let's see if Speraw will hold their momentum for another weekend. It's all they need.


    It was interesting to finally see another tactical match on a higher level. When you have a universal spiker like Matt Anderson you can improvise. When Anderson played on position 6, he practically stayed there throughout the entire match in that rotation (I missed the first set, but I guess they didn't change it afterwards), helped with the reception (which he already did during the tournament) and let Russell, a shakier receiver, attack from 1 (as opposite). Russell did fine in the very few situations he was set the ball from zone 1. Using Anderson in the reception line while in back row contributed to better reception and more options against Mikhaylov's serve bombs. Speraw's plan worked great and his team looks as a real threat out there. Not just because of their form, team spirit or individual skills, but also because of the splendid serving game. This is the only team at the WCH with 6 amazing jump servers who can all do damage. I also liked Sander in that match and I wish he had shown the same efficiency in the last few situations in the CL final in Kazan against Zenit where Christenson probably trusted him more than he should have, based on the fact that an almost flawless Sokolov had been waiting behind him. The real MVP yesterday was maybe Christenson.


    On the other side, Shlyapnikov made some mistakes, in my opinion. I missed the first set and I don't know what happened to Klyuka or why Volkov was taken out and Mikhaylov switched to OH. However, although Mikhaylov didn't do bad as a receiver, he wasn't also targeted as much as I thought by the Americans, yet still he is not someone that can carry the reception. Then the logical question arises - why didn't Volkov play in the second and third sets? The latter is a guy who grew a lot these past two years and the VNL title gave him extra confidence which he shows after each won point. Or even in between sometimes. Also, I don't know where to start with the decision to play with Volvich for that long. The guy did almost everything wrong and yet Kurkaev kept warming the bench on the sides. Most of all, Shlyapnikov is responsible for the form of his team, or rather for the devastating lack of such, and maybe the selection he brought to Italy.

  • Did Italian commentators really conspire about the outcome of SER-POL instead of analyzing what went wrong with Blengini's team? That's a pity.


    Serbia didn't play that well as against Italy. Mostly they weren't as effective in defence and from the service line. The 3-0 defeat was a bit harsh, Poland didn't play much, much better, only more solidly towards the end of the sets. In fact, they finished those sets like you would expect from a Heynen's team. They looked differently in the second round, though, so I guess Kubiak is indeed an irreplaceable figure for them. Unlike USA, who are the most lethal servers (all well-functioning jump servers), to me, Poland is among the most cleverly serving teams with the largest variety of serve techniques and speed. Bieniek and Szalpuk are examples for that. History and tradition is often mentioned as a factor when opponents meet or are preferred, but recent form should play a bigger role, in my opinion. So I doubt Italy or any other team will have a walkover against Poland right now. Ask Serbia, who thought a mesmerizing straight-sets win against Italy should scare the Poles away.


    Following Wednesday's 3-0 shocker vs. Italy, Serbia may have been a bit overconfident and I hope they don't make as many mistakes till the end of the week. Serbia and Poland have a tradition of recent important, straight-sets matches between them (WCH 2014 opener, ECH 2017 opener) where tension was involved. Yes, Serbia weren't motivated enough in Varna, but they won't easily accept another 3-0 defeat against Poland.


    By the way, I always thought Uros Kovacevic to be the most cunning volleyball player of the new generation and last night's match proved it to a large extent.

  • It’s a surprise from Speraw to send McDonald to start yesterday’s game against Russia. Jendryk originally should be the first sub behind Holt and Smith, but it turns out that Averill is used the most in this WCH, and suddenly the coach changed to use McDonald to play this big game. MB is the weakest link of this otherwise very strong USA team.

  • suspension of only one match is such a light discipline measure against such unsportsmanlike behavior. He should be banned for the rest of this tournament.

    And he wrote an apology letter saying that the suspension was harsh. Brazil NT is just a group of awful people :(

  • suspension of only one match is such a light discipline measure against such unsportsmanlike behavior. He should be banned for the rest of this tournament.

    I totally agree! What a trashy move😱 I haven't seen such a cheap and unsportsmanlike behavior even junior levels😮 fivb should give a severe fine for this to prevent future attempts