Nobody forced Akbas to bring his B team
I find it ridiculous to define team A and B, It's an Olympic year and Russia are going to Rio soon. Agree that that played so bad tonight though.
And who said somebody forced him? My point was you can't really say how good or bad they played judging by the result wirh Turkey because this is Turkey's B team..
Are there MVP awards or any kind of awards for each pool?
Are there MVP awards or any kind of awards for each pool?
As far as I know, there's nothing like that, although each pool holds an awarding ceremony.
Any news about Gennari? Is her injury serious? And when will Bonitta kick Diouf away from NT?
.
the CHNese are playing with such a tall starting team. they must be taller than RUS by now!
yuan xinyue 200 cm (6' 7)
zhu ting 195 cm (6' 5)
xu yunli 195 cm (6' 5)
zhang changning 193 cm (6' 4)
gong xiangyu 186 cm (6' 1)
shen jingsi 186 cm (6' 1)
PUR and DOM at the top of their group, over POL, BUL, CZE.
COL beat KAZ and PER beat CRO.
latin american teams are doing well ...
Is GER really that bad or THA is improving a lot?
THA have always been a good team. maybe not top 8 yet, but didn't they beat RUS at last year's (or 2 yrs ago) WGP finals? they also beat US, DOM, top euro teams etc. in past GP, and also beat CHN to become asian champs last time.
I am going to my first International Volleyball Tournament, ever, this leg of the USA's pool. I have seen many of the USA Women players play in college and club level when they were in high school, so o this is exciting to see them competing for the USA. But I am looking forward to seeing the Turkish NT play. Hopefully their A squad. And finally I get to see if the Turkish coach is that handsome in person as he is on TV..Haha...
Even without Onuma Sittirak Thailand was playing fairly good the last time, for example missing Olympics qualification by a lost tie-break against Japan.
no, THA did not miss Olympic berth by one set, in the end that tie-break didn't matter.
In 2nd Division probably host chose, it's something like that:
Host - 4th
2nd - 3rd
Bulgaria was 3rd, while Poland 4th and they'll probably meet with each other, though when doing it normal way it should be Puerto Rico - Poland and Dominican Republic - Bulgaria
2016 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix
Intercontinental round
- Group 1, the 12 teams were drawn in 9 pools of 4 teams. In each pool, all teams will compete in round robin format. The results of all 9 pools will combine in 1 ranking table. The hosts and the top five ranked teams will play in the final round. The last ranked team after the Intercontinental Round could be relegated if the winners of the Group 2 Final Round can meet the promotion requirements set by the FIVB.
- Group 2, the 8 teams were drawn in 4 pools of 4 teams. In each pool, all teams will compete in round robin format. The results of all 4 pools will combine in 1 ranking table. The hosts and the top three ranked teams will play in the final round. The last ranked team after the Intercontinental Round could be relegated if the winners of the Group 3 Final Round can meet the promotion requirements set by the FIVB.
- Group 3, the 8 teams were drawn in 4 pools of 4 teams. In each pool, all teams will compete in round robin format. The results of all 4 pools will combine in 1 ranking table. The hosts and the top three ranked teams will play in the final round.
Final round
Group 1, the 6 teams in the final round will be divided in 2 pools determined by the serpentine system. The host team will be at the top position and the other teams will be allocated by their rankings in the preliminary round. The top 2 teams from each pool will play in the semifinals. The winning teams will play in the final match for the gold medals.
Group 2 and Group 3, the host team will face the last ranked team among the qualified teams in the semifinals. The other 2 teams will play against each other in the other semifinal. The winning teams will play in the final match for the gold medals and a chance for promotion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…lleyball_World_Grand_Prix
~~~~~~~~~~~
Note: At least based on the written regulations, the team promotion and demotion within Groups (or Divisions) 1-2-3 are not applied automatically, there are still some IF Clause to meet... "can meet the promotion requirements set by the FIVB" 
though in practices, I guess such promotion/demotion have never failed to realize.
Display Morethe CHNese are playing with such a tall starting team. they must be taller than RUS by now!
yuan xinyue 200 cm (6' 7)
zhu ting 195 cm (6' 5)
xu yunli 195 cm (6' 5)
zhang changning 193 cm (6' 4)
gong xiangyu 186 cm (6' 1)
shen jingsi 186 cm (6' 1)
it's obviously lang ping's goal to build a tall chinese team over the years.
china never lack tall players but they used to be less athletic.
the scary thing is the younger generation of chinese is getting more athletic and stronger.
you can see it from the progress they made in track & field and swimming etc.
I kinda agree with you about Lyubushkina, she's obviously the weakest blocker in the team, Van de Vyver used her MB right away after she came in, in other words opponents know that she's always in a wrong position. With Samoylenko back, I'd like Marichev to take her and two Iras.
I never expected myself to say it - I missed Pasynkova tonight
It doesn't take a coach to notice that Lyubushkina is a a liability in blocking, I think even opponents' players recognize that. In the game against Turkey, Marichev mainly used the two Iras and Samoilenko and he never let Lyubushkina in, so I think this is a postive sign. Yes and I also missed Pasynkova's serves too! In my opinion, she should have been included in the roster as a serving specialist she reminds me a lot of Kim Hill they have similar technique when serving. And lastly, to all Pankova's detractors, she proved once again, that when Russia is in serious trouble, she is the "go to" setter for this team.
The unofficial roster of Week 2 of WGP2016:
S - Shen Jing-si, Ding Xia
OP - Zeng Chun-lei, Yang Fang-xu, Gong Xiang-yu
OH - Zhu Ting, Hui Ruo-qi, Zhang Chang-ning, Liu Yan-han
MB - Yuan Xin-yue, Xu Yun-li, Yan Ni
L - Lin Li, Chen Zhan
Only Hui Ruo-qi replaced Liu Xiao-tong.
Wei Qiu-yue is not back.
The reason why the roster of FIVB app is "unofficial" is because in the last time of Week 1, Soraya replaced Jarasporn in the roster of Thai NT.
Display MoreThe unofficial roster of Week 2 of WGP2016:
S - Shen Jing-si, Ding Xia
OP - Zeng Chun-lei, Yang Fang-xu, Gong Xiang-yu
OH - Zhu Ting, Hui Ruo-qi, Zhang Chang-ning, Liu Yan-han
MB - Yuan Xin-yue, Xu Yun-li, Yan Ni
L - Lin Li, Chen Zhan
Only Hui Ruo-qi replaced Liu Xiao-tong.
Wei Qiu-yue is not back.
The reason why the roster of FIVB app is "unofficial" is because in the last time of Week 1, Soraya replaced Jarasporn in the roster of Thai NT.
And there is still no Yang Jun-jing around... pity on Liu Xiao-tong, no play at all in the week 1, and worse in the week 2, her name is not even listed now I get surer that she'll play in the final six
OT: tomen, is the FIVB application available for Android smartphone? I tried to search in the web but only saw the one for iOS 
hmmm, how can it's made exclusively as such???
The black guy? I think hottest coach is the coach of Switzerland.. Also Vakif's physical coach
No, he means the Italian looking tall guy. He is definitely not an assistant coach, not listed in WGP staff squad. I thought he was a statistician. You can see him here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFY2ndTTygg (between 27:30-27:40, behind Debby Stam).
Btw, no offense but even if Kosheleva is back now, I'm worried about her performance. How long she hasnt been playing? Besides, if she was really using Meldonium (which most people assume here), her performance can differ significantly without meldonium. So it is all a big question mark. I hope she will be back to her usual performance, at least until olympics, otherwise Russia is definitely not a medal contender. Ilchenko, Scherban. Pasynkova and whoever plays OH wont be enough for them unless they start receiving like regular teams. I won't be surprised if Marichev uses Goncharova back as OH and Malykh as opposite if they keep receiving with only 2 players.
Display MoreQuoted from "USAvolleyfan"
Quoted from "harboboy"
Quoted from "Meatballs"
According to voleyboldefteri, Gizem Örge will miss next week's edition in US because of visa problems. It is like a nightmare, Turkey played finally good thanks to her, Merve D is nowhere close to her. Not sure if there is a 3rd possible libero instead of her.
Gizem Karadayi is right now in the States with her husband maybe she will join them?
PS: hottest coach is the assistant coach of NED the italian guy who worked also with Guidetti in Vakifbank.
The black guy? I think hottest coach is the coach of Switzerland.. Also Vakif's physical coach
No, he means the Italian looking tall guy. He is definitely not an assistant coach, not listed in WGP staff squad. I thought he was a statistician. You can see him here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFY2ndTTygg (between 27:30-27:40, behind Debby Stam).
He is Alessandro Bracceschi and he's Vakifbank's ex physical trainer.Now he is working with Halkbank's men team.
Brazil, China, and Turkey have the ugliest jerseys on the tournament tbh
Brazil, China, and Turkey have the ugliest jerseys on the tournament tbh
And Germany with the awesomest ones.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Note: At least based on the written regulations, the team promotion and demotion within Groups (or Divisions) 1-2-3 are not applied automatically, there are still some IF Clause to meet... "can meet the promotion requirements set by the FIVB"
They've never published the promotion requirements for either the World GP or World League, so the only thing that I can come up with would be if they had not paid all of their fees, or did not have an arena capable of holding a "sizable crowd". Plus they've only had the new version of the World Grand Prix for 3 years (2014 expansion to 28 and Group Levels).
