2016 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix

    Now both the team are making a "train" around the court smiling and dancing together :cheesy: :cheesy:

    I'm in Bari. This blackout is boring, but the players of both teams are making it less boring than the 1st set. There's a problem in the whole area of the city. Fortunalety it happened now and not right before, during Russia-Holland. I already imagine the faces of Russian players XD it's been more than 1 hour now.

    It's possible, you just have to believe in yourself and really not care what other people say, because I've heard it all.
    If you let someone else dictate what you're going to do in life, then you won't get there.


    Non so neanche come onestamente: in due mesi ero di nuovo in campo.



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    Edited once, last by giaval92 ().

    Bonitta said that the alternatives are two: 1) waiting for the lights till 1.00 AM according to FIVB rules and only then if the lights will be still out the match will be postponed 2) Playing tomorrow morning with informed consent of the FIVB. Unfortunately there is no other sport hall approved by the FIVB in the immediate neighborhood. The problem is a Enel cabin (Enel is the italian society wich provides energy in Italy) outside the sport hall.

    OMG now the entire sport hall is out of lights :down:

    The match is now officially suspended and postponed maybe on Sunday morning.

    Just got to watch RUS-NED and my thoughts are as follows.


    - Schoot is terrible as libero : But I don't think Knip would have done a better job. Since Stam is resting, there's no better choice. One of them should be cut anyway and I presume it will be Knip.
    - Fetisova did hell of a job both in attack and block, I hope she keeps it up. With her great current shape, Marichev will have a better range to choose MBs depending on the opponent. IMO, Fetisova is much more efficient when playing against European teams.
    - Malygina is as expected an outstanding prospect. Thank god, Marichev always has been open to young and new players. I hope she will use the chance she's given right now. If she keeps playing this well, I see a chance Malykh being cut and her going to Rio as Goncha's back-up.
    - Plak is a splendid attacker, but a super clumsy volleyball player. However, with her age(21), I think she's going to develop, let's not forget who her coach is.
    - I can't believe myself saying this, but I liked Femke much more than Laura tonight.
    - Kosheleva is definitely not ready to play full time and she herself knows it very well.
    - Resting Shcherban is wise as she looked worn out last weekend.
    - Pietersen has been pretty weak lately, I don't know what her problem is. I expected a better performance from her after the good season she had in Scandicci.
    - It was weird seeing the Cuban coach of the Dutch team singing Dutch anthem. I was like "Why would he do that?"


    Congrats to Russia.

    Turkey passed Japan with 3-2! Congrats girls!
    I really started to like this new and young team, they are really dynamic and strong in attacking and amazing serves.
    Turkey had 28 blocks in total in 5 sets, while Japan only had 5.
    Kubra was out after 2 sets and Özgenur was fantastic replacing her. I did not like Asli's performance today. Nursevil must set more to her middles, that will make things much easier for the team in general.
    I'm impressed by Ferhat today, really wise choices, substitutions and serve subs. He did everything perfectly today, he is on the right direction. The only choice I did not like was Merve staying on the court entire time as libero.
    Anyway, if Turkey keeps serving like this, they better be careful :box:

    Dang, it's 5:00 AM here, the German ladies better play good :D
    USA-Germany match is soon on.

    As expected, the US are too strong for these German girls :rolleyes: Orthmann can't simply manage to overcome the pressure she gets in reception. Lippmann not scoring at all, MBs not able to follow any blocks...

    Germans taking over a set from USA is a huge success IMO. Poll, Silge and Stigrot :super:

    Beyond expectation, GER gave a good fight to USA... better than BEL performance.


    USA 3 -1 GER (25 - 17, 24 - 26, 25 - 10, 25 - 23)


    “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

    To be honest, I didn't expect our German team to win even a set against team USA in California. So that performance was clearly better than expected and they got even a slight advantage against "rival" Belgium, because the Yellow Tigers were struck by China in straight sets. Remember, the only thing important aside from gaining experience for many players for Germany is, not going down to group two - this would be fatal, because the DVV (German volleyball federation) doesn't need any further drawback due to critical financial reasons - if no German team is in group one next season, it will become even more difficult to get a new sponsor.