Men's European Championship 2017

    Quote from scarpetta

    I will say what you want me to say; Vettori is not Zaytsev. He lacks the star power but he isn't the reason why Italy lost . Lanza is the only world class OH Italy has and when he has a subpar game, their whole attack affected .I also don't understand why Mazzone is in the starting six. Is he better than Anzani, Buti or even Cester? I don't think so


    How can they attack properly if Vettori has rhythm issues? It took him the whole three sets to be good. That's not going to work against more disciplined teams. His job is a specialized position... You can't be incompetent at that when everyone has a role to play. It is not like he is doing the reception and considering how badly armed Italy is without Zaytsev. They have no leeway to be making those kind of mistakes anymore.


    Daniele Mazzone is Italy's best player of the match so he deserves to be a starter imo.

    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

    Edited once, last by Rains_of_Castamere ().

    Now that was a tough, and in parts, ugly match. :white:


    At a certain point of the match, the whole system was close to a complete collapse but credit to the guys that they did not give up and kept on trying. Special credit goes out to Geörgy was forced into so many high, an i mean really high, balls that it was almost painful to watch. It wasn't a perfect match for him but as i said, he overcame difficult moments and scored important points later in the match.


    But the match winner today for me was Markus Böhme. He scored some important points, hits his serves and gave a lot of stability to the blocking. As a slight criticism to Giani, he should have been subbed in much earlier. Tobi Krick hardly touched a ball today and was visibly overwhelmed.


    Much respect to the czech team who defended like hell and as i feared, were much more dangerous with a working opposite. They had a good strategy and looked like a really well coached team :thumbup:


    Haven't seen the serbian team so far in this tournament and I don't think there is a special need to be afraid of them. But after this rather shaky performance, the german team surely isn't the favourite in this match.


    Thanks for reading, now you can continue the "Vettori slaughterfest" ^^

    Quote from Kaziyski

    Krakow here I come :drink: :super:

    Not thats really cool. Have fun :drink:


    You can do the "Jimmy Jump" stunt for us. Just let us know the exact time, you will invade the court. 8)

    Spiridonov is killing me with his instagram posts. :rolll:

    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

    Quote from Rains_of_Castamere


    How can they attack properly if Vettori has rhythm issues? It took him the whole three sets to be good. That's not going to work against more disciplined teams. His job is a specialized position... You can't be incompetent at that when everyone has a role to play. It is not like he is doing the reception and considering how badly armed Italy is without Zaytsev. They have no leeway to be making those kind of mistakes anymore.


    Daniele Mazzone is Italy's best player of the match so he deserves to be a starter imo.


    Apparently "quality" of Italy wasn't enough today :rolleyes:

    Quote from bella

    Well. It's hard to be bulgarian NT fan as well. I'm polish fan naturally. It's hard to be polish fan. And then I also pick another favourite team in which the level of helplessness is more or less the same, as if it wasn't enough. I think I must be some kind of mental masochist.


    My dear Bella, you're back: that's what matters the most about this ECH! :flower:

    Quote from SHAME


    My dear Bella, you're back: that's what matters the most about this ECH! :flower:


    Awwwwww I hope that people here won't eat us for this a little bit of private affairs but grazie :rose:

    Well, the Serbia vs. Bulgaria rivalry often witnessed different outcome until a few years ago. The golden Serbian Olympic generation had a lot of difficulties playing against Bulgaria back then, I guess only the current Bulgarian players struggle with the Serbians. Besides, this Serbian generation is great and also successful, something that you can't say about the present Bulgarian one. Technically they stand a bit better, although I wouldn't say Serbia is way more dominant in general, but the biggest difference comes from the team spirit and sacrifice, quite obvious in the second and the third sets last night.


    The comparison to Poland is irrelevant, in my opinion. We have no right to compare the reigning World champions, former Olympic and European champions and World League winners, a country with a thriving volleyball league and development to a NT that is a could-have-been. Let's not turn this into another rant about Bulgaria's past and presence. After all, talking about this ECH, if you have read my previous posts, we could say Bulgaria probably reached its peak at the tournament and there is absolutely no surprise they lost. There were some serious, alarming problems that were not addressed and their overall form, confidence, ambition, and skills matched their results completely. This time, I have to say, I was right they would "only" reach the quarterfinals, hence this match together with the Russian one were easy to predict. Surprises still happened, fortunately, as no one really expected Belgium's super convincing win and before that the great performance by the Czechs on another occasion.


    We can say the 4 best teams made it to Krakow, these 4 won their respective groups, after all. Very happy for Heynen also, the guy may be everything but he knows what he does.


    Kaziyski: Have fun in Krakow! I probably won't be able to watch the finals even online and I missed large parts of the tournament already, so I will be waiting for something from you ;)

    Hi guys! I finally had time to read your comments and wrote mine... after mouring :lol:
    Forgive me if I will make more mistake than usual but I'm writing on my phone without the automatic corrector.
    Plus, chrome crushed when I had wrote half comment so now I'm writing on my note app out of disperation xD and for the record I even finished the space on my note xD


    First of all, let me say that (as expected) Belgium was great. Big congrats to them.
    They blocked-defended perfectly as we knew they would have (even if our players forgot that...); they controlled the whole match, also when the score said it was almost even (I couldn't believe it was 19-20 at the third set!); they did very little errors in attack (and that was more than I expected - I think they had 0 errors in the firs two sets! :white:); they did very few errors in all the other compartment (and that I expected, especially in serve since they have several floay server); they were better in the key moments of the two tight (at least, the score said so even if imho the court said otherwise...) sets, and there is were I hoped Italy could do better than Belgium (being effective in these moments was my true hope for Italy, after all, since I knew we don't have a better game organization). I was wrong ;)
    They generally showed all of Italian limits, those that showed also in the victories and those that I hoped we could hide again.


    Poor block defense (block poorer than defense, so little positively touched balls), low use of Vettori and him being incostant and not perfect intesa Giannelli-Vettori, short bench, not champion MBs, a coach that wait centuries to make a sub, are all defect we have and that showed in every match, sometime more, sometime less.


    What I think we could have done better is first of all serving: I think it was difficult to serve worst than that. Not only a tons of errors, but also bad errors, many errors in a row, errors right after finally and difficulty closing a point (I think first of all of the third set, everything slightly good we did, we wasted it on serve; I reallt can't understand how we could be so close to Belgium playing that badly xD).
    And yes, obviously I'm not happy Vetto send the last serve out, but I can't blame him becayse he was the only one serving decently in the last set and I blamed way more Buti for that amatorial-level serve in the end. You're the captain, be a captain and show us some balls!


    Beside the serve, the other main reason for our defet (having said of all Belgium merits!) Is obviously Lanza performance. Probably the worst of the whole year, I can think of 2-3 matches like this on more than 60.
    As I kept saying, he is the key player for us. Not Vettori (even if of course it comes handy when he plays well), not even Giannelli.
    When Lanza plays well, Italy wins. When Lanza plays bad, Italt loss. It's almost mathematical to me. We depend on him, more than on everybody else. I guess he is 'contagious', in the good and in the worse.
    I know that may think he sucks, especially (more reasonable) who follow more the NT than the Italian Championship, but having watched many Trento matches I know how well he can play, and not once in a while.
    On the other hand who knows him should realize that when he goes down, he rarely woke up. Putting him back again in the third set was wirth a try, but also putting Botto inat Lanza first blocked attack was worth a try too. Also for Giannelli'sake.
    Ironic thing that is first (and probably even only!) error was actually touched xD


    Anyway, the thing I didn't like the most with the poor serve was the inability of suffering, covering, be patient when Belgium kept digging/blocking our attacks. I mean, you do know that's their game! You can't got nervous after the first block!


    So, our summer has been a failure so far: before the ECh in Italy we generally all agreed that not getting the semifinal (that we got for three years in a row) can't be considered satysfaying.
    The court clearly said it wasn't in the pocket of these players, but anyway for the Italian vollyball movement is a failure to miss a semifinal in an ECh, whoever is playing or missing.


    Congrats to Serbia as well, even if I didn't watched the match at all. I was kinda sure they would have won ;)



    Quote from Leonardo.D

    Wasnt Sabbi the last top scorer of the Italian League? I dont think he could be worse than Vettori.


    And yet he could :lol:
    Beside kidding, I'm among who prefer Vettori, but I agree he would have been changed earlier. And given another chance in the third unless Sabbi played flawlessly, about that I agree with Blengini that after the second set we had to try at first the titulars (chsnging them at the first or max second difficulty)



    Quote from vabo

    Sabbi fell out of favor since he was sent home along with Zaytsev, Travica and Randazzo.


    I don't think that's the reason at all. I think it's a technical choice (right or not right, but a technical choice) + the fact Blengini has is titular and stubbornly stuck with them.



    Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

    Italy is going to have a hard time without a functional opposite. :gone:


    For me it was a bigger problem not to have a funtional OH (Lanza; Antonov after all played at his level, excpet in serve)



    Quote from Leonardo.D

    Nelli seemed promising, but then I didnt hear much about him, just a bench player in Trentino last season.


    Actually he was the titular until he had an injury and stayd more than a month out of court. In that period Stokr started playing better and the team was playing better and the important matches were close, so he didn't gain the titular spot back. He also played a lot the previous season when Djuric was injuried, and did it well.
    For now he isn't on oustanding player, but I have faith in him. He also like to play with Giannelli game.
    Next yera he will be in Padova.



    Quote from Leonardo.D

    Too many service errores from Italy. Really, I guess more than 4 in just 11 points of the fourth set.


    I would have forgave it if it was actualky the 4th set :lol:



    Quote from scarpetta


    Vettori is the best Player of Italy so far .What makes the difference is Lanza's poor performance.


    I agree (I guess you were talking about the third set, anyway)



    Quote from Leonardo.D

    So, there would be a new podium!


    Nice thing, I didn't notice! Obviously I hoped Italy was going to be on the podium (I was ok with a different position, anyway :P), but for volleyball I think it's a good thing.
    Now go Belgium, even if with this Russia...



    Quote from scarpetta

    .I also don't understand why Mazzone is in the starting six. Is he better than Anzani, Buti or even Cester?


    I don't he played that badly, considering he is not a champion obviously. In case I wonder why Candellaro isn't here while Buti is... at least he could have been more useful than Spirito for the float serve. I'm still not sure I understant why he isn't there and why we were used Spirito to serve...

    OMG the last was a very long post xD sorry XD thank you if you will have the patient to read it (YavorD, I will read yours when I'll watch Serbia-Bulgaria)


    Quote from scarpetta

    Can someone tell me what is this Kovar love? When was the last time he saved Italy? Has he ever played as a starter in NT?


    I found him a very strong and complete players (he wasn't Italian Champions and MVP of the final twice by chance!), one that can change the equilibrium of a team as this year was prooved in Lube.
    But you're may be right to say he didn't made miracles with the NT.
    In fact I don't actually have memories of him in the NT beside the terrible 2014 WCh :lol:

    Quote from bella


    Awwwwww I hope that people here won't eat us for this a little bit of private affairs but grazie :rose:


    Don't worry, they won't. ;)


    BTW 2 of my favorite teams (Bulgaria and Slovenia) got eliminated yesterday, so I go with Germany (I hope they won't suffer the same destiny).


    Talking about Kovar, of course he would improve Italy, but they still need another OH since I see Jiri mostly over Lanza (which doesn't belong to NT or can't be anything more than a back up IMHO) than Antonov. Let's see who FIPAV will naturalize next time... :lol:

    ace Ace/set


    ITA 36 2,12


    BUL 23 1,77


    POL 21 1,75


    SRB 19 1,73


    FIN 25 1,67


    RUS 19 1,58


    BEL 20 1,25


    GER 18 1,20


    FRA 20 1,18


    CZE 21 1,17


    SLO 17 1,13


    ESP 10 1,11


    SVK 11 1,10


    TUR 14 0,93


    EST 7 0,54


    NED 5 0,42



    Block block/set


    BEL 60 3,75


    RUS 43 3,58


    BUL 43 3,31


    GER 44 2,93


    CZE 45 2,50


    POL 28 2,33


    SLO 34 2,27


    TUR 33 2,20


    SRB 24 2,18


    ITA 36 2,12


    EST 27 2,08


    NED 22 1,83


    SVK 15 1,50


    FRA 25 1,47


    FIN 22 1,47


    ESP 13 1,44



    Attack %


    RUS 57,04


    BUL 55,81


    TUR 53,28


    SRB 51,97


    NED 51,75


    EST 49,51


    FRA 49,41


    ITA 49,33


    SVK 47,53


    SLO 47,16


    BEL 47,14


    GER 46,57


    POL 45,97


    CZE 45,90


    FIN 45,22


    ESP 39,00



    Reception % positive


    FRA 38,74


    NED 38,46


    BEL 33,21


    TUR 27,52


    POL 26,11


    GER 25,78


    CZE 24,05


    ITA 23,95


    RUS 21,78


    SRB 19,29


    SLO 18,57


    SVK 18,31


    FIN 15,85


    BUL 15,57


    EST 12,71


    ESP 9,52




    Quote

    ace Ace/set


    ITA 36 2,12


    Oh, that's hurt badly.
    Best 'acer' team and we sucked in serve in the (second) most important match!

    Surely Belgium vs Russia will be extremely interesting this evening. Who would have thought that Belgians will appear to be such monsters in block. I didn't watch much of their game but these stats look good. Go go Belgium!