2016 Olympic Games - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    I opened the live stream when Iran-Polan was 15-15 of the tie break... How was the match?
    And what the hell happened at the end of the match between Poland (firstly Kurek) and Iran? O.o
    It was definitely something you don't want to witness during the OG... (as the annoying comments between Zaytsev and N'gapeth, imho, but worse).

    Are you kidding me? Kubiak started the whole thing by provoking at the end, and then Kurek came to put some more fire to the fight. It was ridiculous, by the way.

    Quote from vabo

    Team Iran in the need of an icy cold shower, as usual when they lose a tight match

    Quote from brahmin

    Actually, that is the first win for any African team, in any Olympic Games! :woohoo:


    I have to clarify:


    It is the first victory of Egypt, but it isn't the first victory for an african team. Tunisia won the last place match in 1984 beating.... Egypt :rolll: it is however the first victory of an african team against any other continent.

    I watched the USA-Italy game on replay after work. It was a very exciting and tense game. Only 1 point separation between the two teams.


    Italy is going to be in difficulty without Birarelli's twisted ankle for the rest of the tournament. Some OH might have to be a backup middle for them.


    With the sets being so tight a mistake at the wrong time, just killed the USA. The service error at 23 in the 4th by Anderson just killed me. Plus they had lost their challenges and could not challenge on the final point.


    After two matches, I expected that the USA would have 2 wins, but I am mistaken. Right now, they've got to hope that Canada loses to Brazil, Italy and France to give the USA a chance to overtake them just to make the quarterfinals.

    Now we're talking! :super:
    Reception is still super shaky and attacking from the wings could be a lot better, but I hope they can keep a decent performance until the end and win. Canada is playing well, but they aren't really doing anything special to be honest.

    Quote from ossubtus

    well, this CUB team is not exactly their best one, although they did best CAN to take the NORCECA spot. so we can't say they shouldn't be here.

    If only half their players didn't turn out to be rapist assholes, the Cubans could actually do something in these Olympics. It's a shame.

    Could've been a 3x0 if they hadn't made so many mistakes in the first set, but overall good performance from Brazil. Serving and blocking, even without Maurício Souza, is already better than earlier this year.


    I really like this Canadian team, they have a lot of potential. If they had better middles, they could face any of the bigger teams in the same level - Duff can be good, but I find him to be rather inconsistent. I was surprised Dan Lewis got cut, but Bann is actually really good. Anyway, the game against USA on Thursday should be a tougher match for Brazil as always.

    I'm disappointed with the Brazilians fans so far during Brazil matches....not only the arena is not full but they are not cheering a lot. Maybe has to do with ticket prices and game time, playing at midnight is ridiculous.


    But Argentina's fans gave a show apart today vs Russia, lot of fans and all in white and blue and on their feet the whole time.


    Plus Iranians and Polish fans were really loud :cheesy: :box: during the best match so far.


    I really hope Canada makes to the quater-finals and Argentina to do the semis.. :heart:


    Plus Brazil's uniforms are ugly.

    Kubiak as usual is a dick

    Per un pir, un pam un persec per na brogna e na rumleina, nuetr'a sam d'la Ghirlandeina nuetr'a sam da rispeter




    Quote from Sidney

    Are you kidding me? Kubiak started the whole thing by provoking at the end, and then Kurek came to put some more fire to the fight. It was ridiculous, by the way.

    I'm sorry to disappoint you, but the whole thing started when one of Poland's players went over to shake hands with the Iranians and got pushed away by someone from their side. And Kubiak might be a d*ck, but his ability to boil the opposition's p*ss whatever the circumstances is extremely useful in team sports. There's a reason he's captain.


    EDIT: Haha, it gets better. Marouf apparently threatened two Polish journalists at the press conference.

    Quote from ladybugg

    And Kubiak might be a d*ck, but his ability to boil the opposition's p*ss whatever the circumstances is extremely useful in team sports. There's a reason he's captain.

    If that is a reason for anyone to be a team captain, then... nothing more to say really :)

    Quote from powsoff

    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.


    Alekno doesn't seem to be very valued in Russia, does he? Of course he makes mistakes, like any human would, but there are only few coaches worldwide that can match his skills. I guess it is a matter of preference :) Anything remarkable that happens we can explain with luck.