2016 Olympic Games - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    What a perfect side-out efficiency by the Canadians :cheesy: Master Hoag is marching on again! The Canadians are punishing every American mistake, team USA hasn't improved since the World League finals.

    Quote from YavorD

    What a perfect side-out efficiency by the Canadians :cheesy: Master Hoag is marching on again! The Canadians are punishing every American mistake, team USA hasn't improved since the World League finals.


    Glenn Hoag is a master :obey: I can't remember when was the last time USA looked this poor. Simply, team without courage

    Great performance from Canada so far :super: Sanders impressed me quite a lot during the qualifiers and he's still pretty damn great. Hoag is doing very well too.

    PERFECT match by Canada :obey: tactically BRILLIANT, no words. Masterpiece by Hoag. USA :read: :gone: their reception was tragic on floats, even amateurs would do better tonight. This is proof they can't match expectations

    I expexted after world championship Canadá improves and show up among the best Nt's but they didnt. Now Hoag is playing well equal 2014 and Canadá Setter its a great promise. For me Micah its decline his level instead improve, same as Sander. USA is playing on Anderson uidance, that its not enough for Olympics. Imo Russel and Sander seems more a offensive oh than defensive. With a game só predictable on set the Ball tô Anderson defensive oh could be much better tô fill this position in start six.

    Quote from Gomes

    I expexted after world championship Canadá improves and show up among the best Nt's but they didnt. Now Hoag is playing well equal 2014 and Canadá Setter its a great promise. For me Micah its decline his level instead improve, same as Sander. USA is playing on Anderson uidance, that its not enough for Olympics. Imo Russel and Sander seems more a offensive oh than defensive. With a game só predictable on set the Ball tô Anderson defensive oh could be much better tô fill this position in start six.


    Anderson doesnt have skills to lead this team. Mentally he is quite shaky, Sander and Russell reception is below any level while Speraw's tactics were totally missed. He called TO way too late, didn't change anything even it was visible players are lacking energy. Christenson's level is declining, simply too predictable but he couldnt do much with such reception. Now they are in really tough situation..

    Quote from Kaziyski

    PERFECT match by Canada :obey: tactically BRILLIANT, no words. Masterpiece by Hoag. USA :read: :gone: their reception was tragic on floats, even amateurs would do better tonight. This is proof they can't match expectations



    I still think you are being too critical on USA ;) Yes, they played poorly but they are still a great team that hasn't disappointed much since the last Olympics. And they CAN match expectations, it doesn't always work ;) I think the problem is that this team played its best volleyball in 2014, right in the middle of the Olympic cycle that is. They won the WL back then and a sudden defeat to Argentina in the second round of the WCH prevented them from achieving something more. It was the only team back then that could beat the eventual world champions Poland. Anyway, it's not USA's year but there is a lot more coming in the men's tournament in Rio.


    What's funny is that USA really looks worse in comparison to all the other playoff contenders in the group. If France wakes up, then USA urgently needs a performance boost to grab a playoff spot. Right now their future in the tournament looks seriously in danger.


    I would give the MVP of the match to Sanders but it isn't the way FIVB works. Nicholas Hoag was the true leader of the canucks tonight, very reliable and with just a few mistakes in the third set, mostly before the 20th point. A very well-deserved Canadian victory! You can't just feel indifferent to this underdog and the way they play!

    @Yavor


    I'm following USA closely for last 2 years and since WCH they aren't improving. World Cup in Japan is out of comparison due things that surrounds that competition. They lacks leader on the field, Speraw's tactical skills aren't convincing and IMO he doesn't bring stability to his team. Today he looked so unsecure, constantly late reactions and missed tactics. For some unknown reason Christenson didn't use Holt and Lee in counter attacks (free balls) despite the fact Canada's weak spot are MB's. They should/must used that advantage but instead putting his players vs 1 block (Duff or Vigrass) he was sending his outside spikers on double block. If I detected that, I can only imagine what Hoag saw :D


    If we look match from Canada's point of view this should be shown to the future generations.

    One match in and people are already downplaying the favorites... :whistle:
    Both in male and female tournaments things are kinda weird, mostly due to nerves I assume. I wouldn't take any conclusions from one match alone. I wouldn't be surprised if things only got weirder from now on, especially in this death group. Never forget all the strange things that happened in London - things are always different in the Olympics.


    As far as the USA goes, I still think they can do a lot more. This loss doesn't change the fact that they have everything to beat all the other teams.

    Quote from Kaziyski

    @Yavor


    I'm following USA closely for last 2 years and since WCH they aren't improving. World Cup in Japan is out of comparison due things that surrounds that competition. They lacks leader on the field, Speraw's tactical skills aren't convincing and IMO he doesn't bring stability to his team. Today he looked so unsecure, constantly late reactions and missed tactics. For some unknown reason Christenson didn't use Holt and Lee in counter attacks (free balls) despite the fact Canada's weak spot are MB's. They should/must used that advantage but instead putting his players vs 1 block (Duff or Vigrass) he was sending his outside spikers on double block. If I detected that, I can only imagine what Hoag saw :D


    If we look match from Canada's point of view this should be shown to the future generations.

    I never said they have improved since 2014. But this US team has delivered since the 2012 Olympics and I won't scratch off the work they had done because of a bad (although very important) 2016. Yes, today they were awful in many aspects, most of which obvious, I don't want to focus on a single game because 1) it is the opening game, 2) we will undermine Canada's great match. You may neglect the World Cup as much as you want but they won it and had some tough competition there. Normal federations usually leave a carefully selected coach to complete his Olympic cycle. Speraw got his chance after the London Games and I would not say he disappointed based on the whole span of 4 years till now. Whether there is still something to add to this team and whether Speraw is the right man for the next cycle is a totally different thing and there are people to make that decision. He achieved some results, introduced some very interesting young players, found a fitting role for Matt Anderson and established USA back to the world's best again (not absolutely his contribution; there was a performance gap with the change of generations after 2008 ). To achieve more would've been equal to setting a world domination of US volleyball which is very hard to achieve with a wide roster full of collegiate players. I can't say Speraw failed because of some bad games and tactical mistakes. Besides, with that kind of logic you would say that Laurent Tillie is an idiot and Blengini is one of Europe's best because he has results with the Italian team.

    This USA team is really young. Russell, Micah, Jaeschke born in 1993, Sanders in 1992. That is 4 out of 12. Priddy is the grandfather at 38.


    For me the biggest problem is that Speraw doesn't really substitute. Even today, the only change was Priddy for Sanders in the 2nd set. He could have thrown Troy or Jaeschke out there just to see what would happen in the 2nd set.


    Looking at the stats after the game. The USA had six more hitting errors than Canada on 7 more swings. Outblocked by 2 by Canada. Canada had 18 more serves (8 fewer errors) in play than the USA (USA did have 4 aces to 2). Canada had 6 more digs (digs + dig receptions) than the USA. Canada had 47% Excellents on the Serve Receive compared to 32% for USA.


    Canada dictated the game from the serve line and forced the USA out of the middle. Only 6/13 from the middle, which is bad for the USA because of Lee and Holt's dominance there. If they are doing well, USA is going well.