Russian NT 2019

If Muserskiy is not playing VNL, then I hope Maxim skips VNL too so we can all have a young team. This is Poletaev's chance to prove himself that he van be main OPP, especially so with the same coach in his club now at the helm of Russia NT.

Yes Kovalev is better and more creative than Kobzar, but I don't think the gap between them is really that big considering the potency of Russia's hitters.. And since Poletaev will be the main opp, he has more connection with Kobzar

Vlasov should not be a starter, there are 10 other MBs I can name who is better than him. I would take Philippov in his place.

Volkov-Kliuka and Podlesnykh will be a good sub especially in the backrow. In the future, Yaroslav can take Berezkho's role n the NT as defensive OH.

Quote from Ryu Takamiya

One day with Russian National Team. Link

According to this, there are 16 members (as far as I recognized) .

S: Kovalev, Kobzar

OP: Poletaev, Zemchenok

OH: Volkov, Kliuka, Podlesnykh, Voronkov, Semyshev

MB: Kurkaev, Vlasov, Philippov, Yakovlev, Tavasiev

L: Martynyuk, Golubev

Is there official roster for 1st week ?

Display More

Semyshev (OH) and Tavaisev (MB) got cut. Except for Zemchenok and Martynyuk, this is a pretty young-ish team and I like it

So Russia is 5-1 after two weeks of VNL. It will be interesting if the coaching staff decides to use the same roster for the third straight week or will have some changes.. The 3rd week is the make or break week whether they will qualify to Final 6, and their next opponents are: Poland, Canada, and Iran.

Voronkov, for such a very short time against the game with Italy, made a good impression. If management decides to rest either one of Volkov or Kliuka, I think he can be a good replacement.

PS. And what's up with the other libero Martynyuk, he barely played at all the past two weeks

Russia now should already be traveling to Iran..but do we already have the official roster for 3rd week? It seems only the captain Kobzar is guaranteed to play all the 5 weeks based on his interview.

Yaroslav's latest IG post a selfie with the team in Iran and not in the photo were: Volkov, Kliuka, and Poletaev I wonder if those three did not travel with the team

So Russia will have the same roster in Iran as last week after all

Russian roster for 3rd week:

S:- Dmitry Kovalev ("Ural"), Igor Kobzar ("Kuzbass");

OPP:- Denis Zemchenok ("Belogorye"), Victor Poletaev ("Kuzbass");

OH: - Yaroslav Podlesnykh ("Kuzbass"), Dmitry Volkov, Yegor Kluka (both - "Torch"), Fedor Voronkov ("Nova");
MB-: Ilya Vlasov (“Dinamo”), Ivan Yakovlev (“Torch”), Igor Filippov (“Ural”), Ilyas Kurkaev (“Lokomotiv”);

L: - Roman Martynyuk (“Lokomotiv”), Valentin Golubev (“Belogorie”)

So Mikhaylov is in preparations after all and will join if Russia qualifies Final 6 which is most likely. Not sure how I feel about this, as much as I love Maxim but Poletaev really needs the experience playing these big matches

Russian roster in Brazil will essentially be the same except for three players: D. Volkov, Kiluka (and Vlasov )did not travel with the team. To replace the two outside hitters, Semyshev and Ursov joined the team.. Russia just needs to win against Germany and Bulgaria and they can afford to lose to Brazil they still have a good position going to the Final 6

I know it's a bit too early, but judging from Sammelvuo from his interviews I don't think he will have regrets letting go of the veteran players since he is building a new team and that would kind of ruin the atmosphere if they bring most of the old players back. Barring any injuries to the current team, I think the only veterans that will be called back are Mikhaylov and Muserskiy and (maybe Verbov for Olympic qualifiers). So this means goodbye to Butko, Grankin, Volvich, and Berezkho

So the team would look like this:

S: Kobzar, Kovalev

OPP: Poletaev, Mikhaylov*

OH: Volkov, Kliuka, Podlesnykh, Voronkov

MB: Kurkaev, Philippov, Iakovlev, Muserskiy* (Muserskiy will most likely be MB1)

L: Golubev, Verbov*/Marytnyuk

Quote from Husky123

Russia - Universiade 2019

S: Pankov, Poroshin

OH: Bogdan, Ursov, Surmachevsky, Pakshin

MB: Konovov, Melnikov, Belogortsev

OP: Klets, Yakovlev

L: Krivitchenko

Verbov is the coach... and Semyshev isn't in this list. So... will he be part of Team A in future competitions?

Display More

My guess is that Semyshev will travel with the A team to Chicago, but he will hardly have playing time (if at all) during Final 6

Kovalev I already expected to be cut off, but I was still low-key hoping he would make the cut sigh.. I think Kobzar will now be relegated to second setter of the team. I hope Sammelvuo is gutsy and make Kobzar the starting setter.. Is Butko really unchallenged?

The rest are expected but surprised Semyshev took the 4th OH spot from Podlesnykh. This is basically like 80% the same as Russia's roster during WCH esp the middles they just replaced Vlasov with Yakovlev. Overall this is a slightly improved roster from VNL, we now have stable OPP, and of course their not-so-secret weapon Muserskiy.