2019 Volleyball Nations League (VNL)

Quote from mosi

interesting choice by Sammelvuo. not starting with Kliuka, Volkov and Kurkaev, even though two of them came to play in the 3rd set but that was probably too late. Volkov made difference in the match though . I think his decision had something to do with the Olympic qualification and Iran/Russia being in the same group.

I think Iran will be safe for final six with 2 more wins and we have to play Portugal and Australia at home next week. maybe finally Kolakovic can use his bench players for the last weekend in Bulgaria

Yeah I think F6 is already secured but if we want to fight for a trophy Kolakovic MUST send the B team to the bulgaria for the last weekend. The main six players of Iran played nonstopsince the beginning of the VNL

Thibs is passing on a dime

Quote from Nima1993

hard to predict that. If Iran keeps playing like they did against brazil and russia, they might have a chance

A lot of the teams aren't taking VNL seriously which makes this season not an accurate gauge for Iran beating Russia's strongest team in the OG qualifier.

Quote from Rains

A lot of the teams aren't taking VNL seriously which makes this season not an accurate gauge for Iran beating Russia's strongest team in the OG qualifier.

Not true for Brazil they were full-power (except bruno) against Iran. Also Leal had an excellent performance on that match. But I agree we'll see what is the teams performance in F6

You know Australia despite the losses seemed to have the most potential among every team in VNL to have a really good new generation if the cards play out well for them. I don't know but I just have a strange great feeling about this lot.

I hope Boyer use a little bit of smart with his attacks.

I can't remember the last time he made a good serve.

There's no redeeming qualities for Bulgarian play.

I hate moments like happened during match France-USA. Ball after Patch spike touched net and block, referee whistled and gave point to France so USA took challenge... and this challenge was shown from the backcourt perspective instead of 1st referee perspective. Of course 1st referee doesn’t behave smart and didn’t ask for replay from different point of view because he is paid for waving his hands only, no matter which side...

But the worst referee of this edition of VNL goes so far to Takeshi Eshida after yesterday’s 9 mistakes and many own interpretation which made everyone headache. Even Polish press wrote about him today.

Seems like Bulgaria have no leadership to control their aggression as a team.

Sokolov is trying but I also think he rolled his eyes on a teammate behind his back.

Bulgaria is improvising so much. Nothing's wrong with that but hesitation is the fine margin between smooth and rough transition and I don't mean that as everyone have to dive or set the ball when they have to. They just have to know when to do it and execute it properly so the touch is not wasted.

Honestly I think Iran may finally get a medal here.

Quote from bvolley

Totally agree. With Velasco, Mendez was not even part of the "B" team. I think other players like Nico Bruno, Zanotti or Lazo are much better than him and they should get an opportunity in this vnl.

I agree, especially with Bruno and Zanotti.

It's all cool with Iran, they are playing well, but the schedule has been incredibly lopsided in their favor this year.

They play all 4 first weekends in Asia and even in a very favorable order (from China to Japan -close by- then two consecutive weekends at home).

I know distance from Iran to China/Japan is big but in time zone is not that much, just 3/4 hours.

Quote from Nima1993

Worst Refrees ever since i'm watching the volleyball games. I think he missjudged like 7-8 balls against poland because he was affected by the audience, Also someone needs to control Mousavi everytime he plays against Poland. He wants to explode whenever the conditions are against his will. Overall it was a good game, Poland with his B team (which i think most of them are from Junior world's champion team) did a great performance.

I watched this game and agree that the referee was awful. Just that I think the wrong calls were not in favor of either team...

Quote from Rains

Bulgaria have severe problems with composure and solidarity as a team. It's just a shame with such talent at their disposal.

By talent do you mean they have physical advantage?

I also find it a pity that with a relatively stable squads over the years, Bulgaria's NT performance is getting worse. Absence of a stable OH who can receive well and manage to contribute on the offensive end is the biggest problem. In the past, Konstantinov and Aleksiev played this role well.

Quote from Nima1993

Yeah I think F6 is already secured but if we want to fight for a trophy Kolakovic MUST send the B team to the bulgaria for the last weekend. The main six players of Iran played nonstopsince the beginning of the VNL

Quote from mosi

interesting choice by Sammelvuo. not starting with Kliuka, Volkov and Kurkaev, even though two of them came to play in the 3rd set but that was probably too late. Volkov made difference in the match though . I think his decision had something to do with the Olympic qualification and Iran/Russia being in the same group.

I think Iran will be safe for final six with 2 more wins and we have to play Portugal and Australia at home next week. maybe finally Kolakovic can use his bench players for the last weekend in Bulgaria

Not enough with only 2 more wins.

Mathematically, even if Iran takes 3 wins next week with 3-0 including 3-0 France, there is still a remote chance Iran may miss F6 if they get 0-9 in the last week --

Imagine if Poland takes all 3-0 in the last 6 matches (including 3-0 Italy), Russia loses to Brazil with whatever score, Brazil loses 0-3 to both Italy and France, and Italy loses 1-3 to France in addition to the 0-3 Poland. Then Russia and Brazil will both have one more win than Iran, France will have same wins but one more point than Iran, Poland will have same wins and points but slightly better set ratio (38/17 vs 35/16), and Italy will have same wins, points, set ratio with Iran, and comparing point ratio, anything can happen...

Well, that's an extreme case just for mathematical exercise which would hardly happen. So if Iran really gets 3 3-0 next week, Iran is >99.9% in F6.

But 3 3-0 is not easy especially considering the match against France. A more realistic result might be 3-0 Australia and Portugal, and 3-2 France, then as long as Poland takes 6 wins with 3-0 or 3-1, Poland will be over Iran with 1 more point if Iran lose all 3 matches in the last week with 0-3 or 1-3. After all, Poland 3-1 Italy is not impossible, and 3-1 other remaining 5 are more possible. And the room for other teams is larger.

If Iran loses to France, and Poland beats Italy with whatever score, the door will be widely open, and Iran will have to send the regular starters to Bulgaria to fight for more wins and points to secure F6, since without them, Iran is a totally different team, hard to beat USA, Serbia, and even Bulgaria.

So, too early to say secured F6 and rest the regular 6 starters yet.

Quote from LDvolley

It's all cool with Iran, they are playing well, but the schedule has been incredibly lopsided in their favor this year.

They play all 4 first weekends in Asia and even in a very favorable order (from China to Japan -close by- then two consecutive weekends at home).

I know distance from Iran to China/Japan is big but in time zone is not that much, just 3/4 hours.

Actually that good schedule was the reason Iran decided to take VNL seriously. last year they had to travel between continents but this year they knew they can use the main players for most of the matches because the traveling schedule isn't that hard.

in fact because of USA hosting the final six, they had that question in mind if it's worth to even try it or not. (the original decision was to give up trying) because the US visa process is very long and costly. (players had to travel at least twice to another country for the visa process) they already did that few days before the first week, they don't want that to get wasted .

Quote from treVBault-pad

I hope Boyer use a little bit of smart with his attacks.

I can't remember the last time he made a good serve.

IMO Boyer is an outlier of the French squad. He COULD be a hard-hitter, but is not skillful and makes lots of errors.

Iran has been playing really well this year. They have been suffering a lot from their OH position these years along, especially the OH diagonal to Ebadipour. Ghaemi has been tragic in offense, but he had to stay on court for reception, and none of the others (Mirza, Sharifi and Minavi) can produce consistent performance on both ends of offense and defense. After many years of absence from NT, Fayazi has upped his level a lot and completes this missing hole on the starting squad finally. Irrespective of his behavior, his reinforcement is crucial to bring Iran back to the winning track this year.

When I follow the games of VNL this edition, I've been wondering why this challenge system is so outdated and does not allow for challenging overreach above the net? This seems to be an area with the most controversial calls nowadays. The challenge system in Legavolley has already become very mature and can check players' overreach at ease. Is that system much more costly than the one FIVB is using?