Men's World Championship 2018

    Reasonable Dream Team.


    I'm glad Zatorski won the award. He is the best libero of this world championship final 4.:obey:

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

    ;(;(:drink::cheesy::obey:I’m so happy! My team won! Our team played the most important stage of the tournament as like the real champions and they proved it today. Congrats boys! My heroes! So happy for Kurek. He always is when NT coach calls him. <3

    POLAND....what a WIN... flawless....Brazil tried everything they could but Poland had a answer for everything they tried. I`m glad Eder and Evandro got the chance and brought Brazil back in the 3rd set. According to Bruno Voluch William and Lipe will retire from the NT.


    Kurek and Kubiak :love: just like Boskovic/Mihajlvoic...so much fun to watch....Drzyzga played really really well in the finals.....The trio Kurek/Kubiak/Leon will be unstoppable and Poland has a bunch of young guys on their roster and starters in the PlusLiga)....(something that Italy does not as every club focus are on foreign players).


    Italians fans seemed very bitter in that final...they were very cold and not cheering much at all.. I did not even see them give Poland a standing ovation in the end... Oh well...That 5th place must suck anyways LOL.


    I fell bad for Douglas as next season he will bench for Lucarelli and Conte..


    I wish Serbia had won the Bronze....at least now they are back in the mix.


    Poland gave us a show and a lesson of high level volleyball ( and so did Brazil).

    Quote from andrea

    Haven't watched the match too carefully, but it sounds like Kurek and Kubiak have swapped positions several times when both of them are in the front row in order to have Kurek blocking Wallace. It works!

    Yes, they did! At the end of the first set and then in a few other critical situations, mostly at the end of sets, when Wallace had to be stopped. It worked quite well because Kurek had an amazing tournament, you would feel he could've played MB and still get the MVP, and because Douglas was almost completely ignored by Bruno during the first set. I got the feeling Douglas had more pipe attacks than attacks from 4 throughout the match. As a matter of fact, Wallace also moved to block Kurek from 4, I don't remember at the end of which set, though. Not only did it not work, for Kurek no longer hammers the ball like an energy-pumped teenager, but Brazil's block was generally absent. I can't remember them block so bad. Seams all over the net, easily exploited by Kurek, Kubiak, and Szalpuk, inefficient in the middle against the Polish MBs. And even if Brazil served greatly (theoretically), Poland outplayed them in reception, too, and it looked overall very difficult for Brazil to turn things around. No wonder they were trailing throughout the entire match!


    I know Dal Zotto's starting line-up is not optimal and it is a matter of time for the coach to make changes. You rarely touch a winning team, so I can totally understand why he started with the usual suspects. Mauricio Souza, however, should have been replaced much earlier. The same can be said about Bruno. Although William couldn't repeat his performance from the comeback vs. Russia.

    Quote from SHAME

    Anderson best opposite is an amazing joke. His 0% in the tiebreak against Poland says it all.

    Absolutely agree! And I keep wondering how come the MVP, be it an OH or an OPP, doesn't get into the Dream Team?! So Kurek is the MVP but Anderson the Best Opposite. How is that possible?


    Congratulations to team Poland, Bartosz Kurek, Heynen, and all our Polish users, or Polish fans (yes, Martee, you, too)! A well-deserved victory by a team that needed a bit of luck during the second phase, was very determined and compact during the first one, and lethal when it mattered the most.

    Congraltulation to all teams in Finals especially Poland who well deserved title as a strong united team.

    Kurek played the best tournament since World League 2012 ! I'm proud he's back after so many "weak" years.

    I'm happy to see him alive in Stocznia Szczecin soon. :rose:

    IMHO USA Team is stronger than Poland, but Poland has Kubiak and that's the main reason why they beat us and crashed Brazil in the final.


    Anderson is probably one of the more gifted players in the world in terms of pure technical skills, but he has not a leader's behavior.

    Kubiak, that's Poland best player technically talking, looks always in control mentally talking: he screams, he celebrates, he does it all, but in the end you realize he led the team to the victory somehow.


    I predicted Anderson would choke in the tie-break and there we were: 0% spiking from the most experienced player of the team. He can't play opposite if can't stay confident the very same moment his team is in troubles. Patch, Russell, Sander and so on may be less effective, but if they make a mistake, they're all able to move on and find their best level anytime, Anderson isn't. And being the third choice of the setters of Zenit-Kazan for years didn't help him at all. He's even worse in the club.

    Going back to the WCH (final) series one last time, I am truly impressed with what Poland and Brazil have achieved over the years. But let's not forget to mention Serbia's WCH consistency, too. Let me finish with some numbers.


    1. 3rd WCH final for Poland in 4 editions.
    2. Brazil have appeared in 5 consecutive finals!
    3. Brazil have reached the semifinals 9 times in the last 10 editions!
    4. Serbia have reached the semifinals 5 times in the last 6 editions.

    Well, some teams just deserve to be there more than others, don't they? :)

    Stronger but lose, iron logic :/.

    Quote from jogo

    Stronger but lose, iron logic :/.

    Yeah, on the paper USA is stronger than Poland.


    Anderson killed the team's confidence in the fouth set, missing every possibile ball in the second half of that game. He even wasted the -1 point with a net violation after a massive digg by one of his teammates. In the tie-break he basically gave the victory to Poland being death on his feet.


    On the other hand Kurek had the tournament of his life, but he's not that player. He still comes from another epic fail in Ziraat Bankasi, just like with Dinamo Moscow, Lube and Asseco Resovia. Same goes for Anderson: he's not the machine we saw in the first matches, he's a choker when it matters.


    In the end, everything worked for Poland, kept together by Kubiak's fighting spirit; while everything didn't work for the USA, killed by Anderson's lack of bravery, as usual, which destroyed every possibile confidence the guys had that far.

    Yeah USA has the most talent in the starting lineup for sure. Their lack of depth hurt them though. They were exhausted (especially Anderson) by the end of the tournament and Poland was peaking at the exact right time. Play that final 4 over again and I think USA wins 7/10 times. But Kurek and Kubiak were just sensational and Poland got contributions from almost all their players at some point.