2016 Olympic Games - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Quote from Dimsok

    The biggest dissapointemnt is not even players but Alekno. He is not so genious coach as many think here, Just was lucky 4 years ago. Interesting which progress we had achieved if Velasco has working with our team. And win with players like Leon and Anderson will can even Blendgini. French team for example plays so many times with the same players, and we have too many changes with his "probing" new players. Divish, Markin, Vlasov etc. Need more time to play with the same players to get understanding each other.

    Alekno is not a genius but there is a big gap between a hero and a villain if you see what I mean. He is definitely an experienced pro and, apart from those wins with Leon, there were some decent games too. The best of Alekno imo were the games against Iskra Odintsovo back in 2008-2009, in the final of the domestic league. Where you are correct is that he could have made the guys play together for a longer period, i.e. have Klyuka-Volkov-Bakun playing in say the WL this year instead of trying Divis-Poletaev out. In my view, his two serious crimes were (i) leaving the NT after the Olympics, i.e. when he had a credit to experiment and bring young players in and (ii) populating his own club with strong foreign OHs at the cost of benching the local NT members.


    Otherwise, there are many issues that Alekno has very little to do with. I doubt it was from his prompt that Dinamo Msk was eating tons of meldonium two weeks before it was banned. It wasn't Alekno either who kept ageing Tetykhin and Khtei as two as main OHs in Belgorod thus kicking out all the young perspective players. Let's put it like that, the chap has what he has and let's see what he can do with this.


    P.S. Guys and gals, this is BBC showing volleyball:



    YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!


    :D :D :D :D


    A special heart for Max Colaci :heart: and another for Bira :heart:


    And HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIMOOOO!!! :flower: :drink:




    Ps after the initial surprise it's a nice idea to have Rossini in for Piano, but once the substitution is 'wasted' I would close it when Piano come back on the first line (with Colaci on Rossini), so in case Colaci has bad moments/problems you have another libero already in.

    Italy played as a team, really congratulations. Besides Juantorena and Zaytsev, tonight Colaci's performance was awesome: reception was basically always perfect (and the US were hitting hard) and he also took many balls in defense. Great also Giannelli! 20 years old and he plays so great. Good, keep on like this!

    Very intense match and fun to watch. Congrats to Italy :thumbup:


    They played great in defence and, unlike team USA, performed in crunch time. Gianelli was fantastic tonight and created and saved much much more than he made mistakes. I think Italy would not play as good with a more "conservative" setter. Outstanding talent :teach:

    Italy with two wins against great oponents in this beginning: I would have never bet it, especially after seeing the end of the WL. Nothing is done, they must stay focused and kepp on playing like that!
    Now the US are in danger as they still have to face Brasil and France, I think the loss to Canada can cost them really much... today they played better and I'm confident they can show good game in the next matches but their path is all uphill..


    Does Iran want to try to do something? They look pissed off, Poland is playing their game, without doing anything so special.

    I said 3-0 for Italy. I was very close. In crucial moments Anderson is the last player to go. It's all on Russell's shoulders. What if Sander reminds he's a volleyball player, like he did in the last part of the 4th set? We can't keep going on without a serious opposite and a wing spiker and most of all without any leader in terms of spirit. This american trend which puts the team above everything else is killing our volleybakk NTs: there aren't any scorer leader, any moral leader, any fighting spirits (maybe Russell). The team has very young players, who can reach their best for the next OGs. I'm not so pissed off after all. I know we can be gold medal material. I'm waiting for Patch to be our opposite as well. Anderson is better to play as WS, expecially if he can't deal with crucial points yet. Speraw can say he trusts Anderson as much as he wants: to me he's the last one to run during the end of sets. Too bad for him Leon isn't there to save his ass while he plays for the NT... :whistle:

    Quote from ravens#7

    I said 3-0 for Italy. I was very close. In crucial moments Anderson is the last player to go. It's all on Russell's shoulders. What if Sander reminds he's a volleyball player, like he did in the last part of the 4th set? We can't keep going on without a serious opposite and a wing spiker and most of all without any leader in terms of spirit. This american trend which puts the team above everything else is killing our volleybakk NTs: there aren't any scorer leader, any moral leader, any fighting spirits (maybe Russell). The team has very young players, who can reach their best for the next OGs. I'm not so pissed off after all. I know we can be gold medal material. I'm waiting for Patch to be our opposite as well. Anderson is better to play as WS, expecially if he can't deal with crucial points yet. Speraw can say he trusts Anderson as much as he wants: to me he's the last one to run during the end of sets. Too bad for him Leon isn't there to save his ass while he plays for the NT... :whistle:


    Maybe they don't have a clear leader but today they fought so much and the match was close: the american idea is to give responsabilities to all their players, without relying on only one or two great scorers.. to me it works as system, today maybe they made too many mistakes (also Russell made a serve error and gave the set point in the third set).
    Anyway if you don't like Anderson as OPP, who'd you put?

    Quote from Diesse14


    Maybe they don't have a clear leader but today they fought so much and the match was close: the arimecan idea is to give responsabilities to all their players, without relying on only one or two great scorers.. to me it works as system, today maybe they made too many mistakes (also Russell made a serve error and gave the set point in the third set).
    Anyway if you don't like Anderson as OPP, who'd you put?


    This is exactly the problem of both the USA NTs. When the system fails (and it is happening very often lately) you need something different. You need a player to go. You need a moral leader. You need an ignorant/brave/killer spiker. I can't see any of this from Anderson. And I'm sorry, because I found him one of the most impressive players around; so classy, so elegant, but not a leader. Ad I said Ben Patch shall be our opposite from next summer. I'm waiting for him. I have very big expectations for him. :teach:


    I wrote it a page ago.


    Quote from ravens#7

    Easy win for Italy tonight. Italy has a tradition when it comes to OGs. They reach medals almost always. USA has a curse with Italy on the other hand. :whistle:


    I was 100% sure they'll grab a medal. Now without Birarelli I'm not so sure. But when it comes to be brave and take the balls off Italy is always a step ahead. :teach:

    Quote from ravens#7

    This is exactly the problem of both the USA NTs. When the system fails (and it is happening very often lately) you need something different. You need a player to go. You need a moral leader. You need an ignorant/brave/killer spiker. I can't see any of this from Anderson. And I'm sorry, because I found him one of the most impressive players around; so classy, so elegant, but not a leader. Ad I said Ben Patch shall be our opposite from next summer. I'm waiting for him. I have very big expectations for him. :teach:


    I got your point but to me it is not the system that failed but overall the players' condition is not so brilliant... Sander is playing really bad, too many mistakes on the serve and sometimes their block (and so the defense) doesn't work so well (Lee could do much more)...if you start adjusting these things and you count that the defense tonight did great things and Russell played well. The responsabilities can't be only on Anderson.

    Quote from ravens#7


    This is exactly the problem of both the USA NTs. When the system fails (and it is happening very often lately) you need something different. You need a player to go. You need a moral leader. You need an ignorant/brave/killer spiker. I can't see any of this from Anderson. And I'm sorry, because I found him one of the most impressive players around; so classy, so elegant, but not a leader. Ad I said Ben Patch shall be our opposite from next summer. I'm waiting for him. I have very big expectations for him. :teach:


    I agree Patch is a great opposite but he's even worse at crucial times. 2 NCAA final he has hit near negative.
    You would hate him when he's on the national team just like how you hate Anderson right now

    Quote from vabo

    I thought you were being sarcastic :flower:


    I wasn't. And these OGs turned into a nightmare after the World League finals. I had a little hope for the men's team, but I saw Anderson ruining everything and getting blocked time after time in any crucial point. :wall: And most of all I would like to understand what's wrong with Taylor Sander in the last 2 years, he's the shadow of the player he was in BYU and 2014 NT season. :white:


    Women's team in the best on this Earth, but Kiraly is Kiraly. You know. I'm even tired of being writing the same stuff over and over. ;( He called 3 setter because Courtney Thompson is the leader of the team in his opinion. How can she be a leader, when she doesn't take a step on court? Oh, yes, she's a CHEERleader, since she sings and dances in the back ups corner. :wall: Please, wake me up and tell me this is a nightmare.

    Quote from elvis


    I agree Patch is a great opposite but he's even worse at crucial times. 2 NCAA final he has hit near negative.
    You would hate him when he's on the national team just like how you hate Anderson right now


    I don't hate Anderson, I'm just hopeless with him. ^^
    I know Patch played very bad against Ohio State, but seriously: he's 22 and missed 2 years of training and volleyball because of his religious mission, there is time to work on it; Anderson is 29 and never learned to deal with crucial points after 4 years as opposite with the USA Team.

    Quote from vabo

    -Italy ALWAYS delivers in must-win matches that somehow involve the Olympics


    Please, do not say it that loud before the OG is ended xD
    *me being superstitious* :P


    BTW, vs USA I would have betted on Italy too.


    On the other hand, I didn't expected such a clear victory vs France, even if I was still hoping in a – struggled – victory.
    When a friend asked when I was going to reach him on the beach in the afternoon of the match, I thought 'I hope it will be late, because if the match will be short it will means that France crushed us' xD
    I ended up going to the beach before him xD


    About Brazil, a little part of me thinks they're kinda impossibile to beat twice and so I'm not sure I hope Italy will win the pool-match...
    Of course it's not obvious we are going to play twice vs Brazil, it's just a speculation (an optimistic one, because it will mean we pass the pool and especially won the QF).


    Another team that I fear for Italy is Argentina (also before the OG started, but now even more).



    Quote from ravens#7

    And most of all I would like to understand what's wrong with Taylor Sander in the last 2 years, he's the shadow of the player he was in BYU and 2014 NT season.


    And now he is going to 'grow' in China... :aww: