CEV Men’s European Championship 2019 - hosts France, Slovenia, Belgium and the Netherlands

  • the one i miss from TUR NT is mert matic... he was/is very pretty...

    Agreed, he is not only handsome but also our best mb but he had a bad injury in his knees during final play offs at the end of season and he is not ready yet

  • That's why I already asked these questions and yet no cared to read or respond :wavy:I have the EuroVolley TV subscription, yet I have to change my IP with a VPN client/browser tool (to a Canadian one) in order to watch live what I had paid for. Still, I can't watch match highlights, they are blocked for some reason for whichever IP I use. I don't like the quality of the poor streams, the TV coverage is so little that there is no point in discussing it, so the subscription is the only option I had.


    i'm very satisfied with my subscription. I can watch it live and also replays.

  • CEV TV is HD but geoblocked, only Martian can watch because almost every single country is blocked... I watched using VPN (CEV thinks i lived in the US, Great Britain and Sweden through the competition, because they were constantly adding more geoblocked countries) But the quality is superb...

    does it mean that a US IP works for CEV TV subscription?

  • does it mean that a US IP works for CEV TV subscription?

    Most of the time, yes... But I had some problems with some games, so it's not 100% guaranteed that will work... It's a mess of a service

  • How Is he doing? As far as I remember, he got a surgery in Italy.

    As far as I heard he is almost recovered and will be ready for club season. He was just not ready for ECh

  • This championship is a huge disappointment comparing to the women's one :( Empty stadiums literally everywhere, even at host games, low quality of most matches, even weirder schedule than in the girls european championship, not to mention some weird, er, let's call them technical problems ( some weird sound issues at the Italy vs Greece game and, "pancakes" being declared as the reason of the video verification in some other group ( come on, I couldn't have been the only one who noticed that, right?)

    What's going on? I thought people in France, Slovenia and especially the Netherlands liked volleyball, why is the attendance so low :( ? Did CEV/FIVB get crazy with the ticket prices again?

    I am sorry you are disappointed, I know people are looking for different things when watching a volleyball tournament and have their own criteria as to whether it is a good pastime. To me, personally, the only real disappointment is again the ridiculous availability/streaming/general access to games. If I remember correctly, it was even more difficult back at the ECH 2017, yet things certainly haven't gone in a positive direction.


    Whereas I can't comment on the said technical situations and won't focus on a few minor issues, the attendance case has been opened almost anywhere in the world and almost always we've had lower attendance when the hosts are not playing. I don't think this championship marks a new low or sets some anti-record. Perhaps the attendance is only really disappointing in Ljubljana when Slovenia are not there. However, I can't know what the prices are, whether people can easily attend afternoon matches during the week, and so on. We've discussed it before and I don't know why we make a fuss about it.


    Now, to the more interesting part, namely the quality. I don't agree the quality of most matches is low and I certainly don't agree with Heynen who said 24 teams is way too much. European volleyball geography has been expanding, the middle-class nations have improved and inviting them more often to the continental championship is, to me, the right way to narrow the gap to Europe's very elite. Yes, there were fast matches, there were teams who disappointed a bit, yet rarely can the quality be great throughout a longer tournament. Instead, what I saw, for instance, is that when favourites decide to experiment or take it easy, things often go wrong, for they lose sets and sometimes even points. It happened already to Poland, Bulgaria, Italy, Russia. Maybe it will happen to Serbia, too, only France seem with a clear cut so far. Also, the motivation of those weaker teams is different in such a tournament. Instead of watching a demotivated Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and whoever else in a tough group with 3 allegedly better teams, they will now have another 2-3 matches to try and make it to the next round, hence providing more drama.


    I have been really enjoying this ECH so far. When you get the chance to watch matches that is, of course.

  • The Bulgarians had their minds set for the day off today already and forgot that they had to actually beat Portugal last night. Very aristocratically, they gave away huge leads in the second and third sets and allowed Portugal, who played their usual great volleyball, to make the match interesting. It is safe to say that almost the entire Bulgarian team underperformed, they relied on Sokolov who saved their win with his 33 points. Yet, with that in mind, it must have been disappointing for Portugal not to make it to a 5th set, for Bulgaria had clearly neglected their opponent. The motivation will be different against Italy and France after a day off, but there were worrisome signs on the Bulgarian field.


    I got disappointed that Ukraine couldn't win a set against the Netherlands, it wouldn't have been undeserved. But the truth is that when it mattered, Plotnytskyi and Iereshchenko let their teammates down. I didn't understand the setters' substitution by the Ukrainian coach and even if it only meant a change of rhythm, it lasted too long and was tough to watch. Apart from some terrible mistakes, the veteran Kovalchuk brought nothing and it might've been better if they had returned the younger Didenko. I am happy the Dutch are back on the volleyball map, they had a spectacular WCH and I hope they might reach the quarterfinals now. They might face a troubled Germany in the last 16 if things go like this.


    Congratulations to a historic and very spirited Montenegrin win! I thought they might win a game but didn't expect it against Estonia and not in that way. They made up for the bad start against the Netherlands.


    It's been a while since Slovakia made an impact at a ECH. It is possible thanks to the current format, of course, and they have overcome "only" Spain and Austria, but they have a high chance of reaching the last 16.

  • Horrible decision by Romania's MB to block Osmany's chance ball opportunity instead of spiking the ball or passing it instead

    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

  • I'm in the gym in Rotterdam, currently there are more polish supporters than Dutch ones in the hall:white:

  • A lot of Poles live in Benelux countries + Sunday and here you are.


    Dutches are going to break a record in service errors.

    To have a chance against Poland, Nimir needs to get beast mode at serve

  • Has Leon now played in this match? Is he beasting again as ususal lol

  • As for now Nimir is beasting.


    Polish team ball distribution is differential and Leon does what he has to do.


    Dutches did 16 service errors as for now so it’s hard to describe the game.

    Dutchies were not even serving risky or anything, a lot of easy jump float serves were also missed:what: except Nimir:super:


    Leon played well but he didn't really need to play in 'beast mode':whistle:

  • How can Leon receive only 4 services? You must force him to receive :( You can't let Kubiak and Zatorski hide him with poor services

    Everybody is playing against Poland with a loser mentality. Poor performance from Netherlands.

    So far very very poor tournament.