Bjelica will definitely be going to Tokyo, if she's at all fit. I don't see anyone overtaking her in such a short time, and hell, she deserves to have her Olympic experience, after having been there for the team for so long.
Neither boskovic nor ognjenovic played the same level with their club as they did with their NT. I don't know if it is about the motivation of the player or the chemistry in the NT.
To be honest Eda also never played so good in nt except last two years although she was a beast during club season
??
Boskovic has dominated every team she has played against. The only team her level drop is against Vakifbank...Zhu and Rasic.... Who does not struggle against them? And who does not struggle against Vakifbank?
Vitra won a world tittle and many medals with Boskovic and Maja....take Vakifbank out and Vitra would have won a bunch of Gold.
Maja lead a very young team to the Italian Finals....tittles in Poland, Russia and so on...
Before I forget Boskovic has had many great games against Vakifbank...only problem is that usually she gets no help. We all know what happens when a team can stop her... There's simply nobody that can step up and help.
Egonu won 2 games game against Vakifbank on her own ... But if she had to play against them as much as Boskovic has.... I'm pretty sure Guidetti would easily find ways to stop her.
Actually, they just won 1 game plus a golden set.
I'm so pissed about that loss. But remember that I said the games against Korea, Argentina and DR would be toughest for them... and sitenoise said I was just making excuses
...
They could not keep up with Korea's speed.
At least you're not making an excuse that KYK beat them. She didn't do squat in the match until the 4th set, and said afterwards it was because she felt rusty from not playing the day before. I don't know how all that works
Serbia is doing fine 
I don't know if they have the defense to beat Japan, but probably. They lose to China, what is your prediction now against DOM?
At least you're not making an excuse that KYK beat them. She didn't do squat in the match until the 4th set, and said afterwards it was because she felt rusty from not playing the day before. I don't know how all that works
Serbia is doing fine
They could beat DR, but after loosing for China and probably Japan I'm afraid they will have lost all their confidence. DR is also super inconsistent but they have been playing relative well. I think it is 50/50.
I must say that after watching Bjelica's helpless performance against France I was thinking that Serbia might need a new OPP sooner rather than later and that she would be useless in the WC 
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Well done to her for raising her level and proving me wrong. 
Maja played very well in Russia last year. It'd be "unfair" to say that her level wasn't enough in her club. That's why Vakifbank transfered her this year even though she had a contract with her ex-club.
+ Zivkovic's performance was very good IMO last year.
I've never said that her level wasn't enough in her club. Both Boskoviç and Ognjenoviç had good seasons with their clubs but their performance in club season never been as good as their performance in their NT. This doesn't mean they played bad in Eczacıbaşı
Watch Boskovic play World Club Championship the year they won, she was imo as good or even better actually there compared to her usual NT performances (imho it was her best tournament ever) she was beasting like no player could.
This all is a bit unfair to point out towards Tijana, let's not forget; club season is all year around and they just can't keep that kind of performance up every single week for 8-10 months compared to the 2 max 3ish max serious months with NT. So their amazing performances seem to fade a little faster.
Also Tijana is still so young guys, born '97 many seem to forget that as she's been so good for so long, her game still has so much maturing it can do!
Maja on the other hand, I just don't see a drop in performance ever at all personally... The season she was with EczV, Kosheleva was the one that flopped rather and the everlasting start of the MB problem in Vitra after Thaisa got injured and Adams was just mediocre at best, not speaking of Busra at all.
Well said, beri.
I see Turkish people (presumably Vitra fans) complaining on twitter and youtube how Tijana is so much better when she plays for NT than for her club, and I'm like um...what?! I get that it's at least a little bit coloured by bitterness due to defeats to Serbia in the last 2 EChs (not talking about you here, serdar), but come on, a little perspective, people! She has carried Eczacibasi at least since 2017, even though she shouldn't have had to last year; that's why they laid out the money trunk to Kim, but she seriously dropped the ball in this past season (remember when we discussed prior to 2018-2019 season how it was tantamount to cheat code to have those 2 in the same time?).
Kosheleva had still a role in that Club World Championship, I remember her playing great in that final vs Pomì. That team was an all star team on paper but like it happened many times, it didn't work as expected.
I also want to say that facing Vakifbank is not an easy task, but teams like Pomì and Novara were able to beat Vakif in CL. I didn't expect these results back then and in my opinion, it's also about taking the chance when you have it.
Sorry for the off-topic 
Of course China is the only undefeated team left.
Of the 11 teams, 10 of them has had at least 1 loss sweep. Serbia and China are the only 2 teams that won at least 1 set in every match. 
With only 2 games left.... I hope Serbia can keep this going.
This run of defeats certainly left a bit of a bad taste in the end. IMO the game against Russia was the turning point, they really thought they could win and they had a chance, they were not the same mentally after that. It's a shame, because with a bit of more of clutch, experience and better coaching (it has to be said), the overall result and impression could have been a lot better. But, what can you do now, except take notes and move on.
This tournament was supposed to be a fine balance between giving the young players a chance as much as possible and being competitive at the same time (and not like weeks 4 and 5 of VNL, which served absolutely no purpose), and I'm not sure it succeeded in either.
The final placement is bad and few of the youngsters really made a big impression as it was mostly the experienced players carrying the team. We can't talk about Aleksić until she fixes her serve, regardless of everything else she does on the court. It's an integral part of the game. I definitely expected more from Lazović, although she wasn't used properly. Milenković did alright considering where she was a year ago, but she still has a long way to go and I'm afraid of another Malagurski scenario. Kocić was by far the biggest disappointment, I remember when she was a big prospect, she's nowhere near that now.
But it all boils down to Mirković and that she's simply not ready/good enough to take over yet. She's improved a bit and there are some positives about her game, but she'll need to do much better in the future if we're going to invest in her as the starting setter after Tokyo.
Display MoreBjelica - Tied with Goncharova for best score (209 points). If there were any doubts about her, she left no doubt that she deserves the backup spot. And playing for Osasco will just improve her game even more, as Osasco has great fans and there`s always a lot of pressure. I`m just not sure if she will play OPP or OH, but she is certainly stronger than Casanova for the OPP position. She was truly outstanding.
Mirkovic - I know she still make mistakes and sometimes her sets are off. But she`s still only 23. She`s tall and strong . Djordjevic looks like a 10 year old out there, she needs to get stronger. Cirovic is amazing but she`s short , Antanasjevic can be very good. So I think Mirkovic is the one be invested.
Mirkovic is very creative and she`s not afraid to take a risky. This is something you can not teach a setter, while the quality of sets is something that can and will be worked on.
When was the last time we saw Serbian middles getting so many sets??...It`s been a while. Of course 2 girls reception does not allow that to happen very often, but when they played without Mihajlovic and with Zivkovic VNL 2018, she would set Boskovic every single ball.. Same thing would have happened with they played with Zivkovic this WC, Bejlica would have taken 10000 swings, while the middles would get nothing.
Mina Popovic - She was already one of my favs, now I love her even more. To be very honesty I would take her over Stevanovic right now even if she comes back. Popovic is a very smart hitter. She just needs to improve her blocking. And she`s still young....she will just get better and better.
Pusic - She was great at the ECH, but her reception here was a big let down, everyone was targeting her and that`s not good for a libero. She really need to improve, but it is so hard for liberos to play in good leagues. Anyone knows where she`s playing next season?
BUT..she`s a amazing digger/defender.
Gocanin did not play much at all, but against DR she showed good reception skills.
I agree that Kocic looks lost out there. She comes off like she`s a super shy girl and is scared of people....That`s not good. Hopefully she can work on that. And Yeah Savic was super disappointing, maybe both of them did like they did because they were apart from the group during the ECH, and did not have much time together before.
I still like Lozo, she can attack well. But I`m assuming she`s not playing in any good league next season.....that won`t help.
Setting so many sets to mbs was not due to mirkovic's being very creative, it is because there wasn't anyone like boskovic or mihajlovic in the wings. Of course any setter would play with many sets to mbs when the ohs are busa and blagojevic🤣
If Mirkovic sets the middles is because she does not have strong wing spikers....if does not set the middles she`s a bad setter.
Bjelica played just like Boskovic would. And Busa-Lazovic mostly like Mihajlovic. Against Brazil Busa scored 19 and Lazovic against China 13.
No wondering why for the past season usually Chemik`s best score were the middles, and they did not have the same middles both season. So I guess Mirkovic was setting them because Smarzek and Stysaki were super weak. 
Anyways....I blocked that troll.... Personal insults is something not needed. 
Nikola Jovović said that the women's team inspired them to repeat their achievement and win the gold. They all always say how they look up to each other and push each other to be better all the time. It's really great and it's probably the only sport in Serbia where men really treat their female counterparts as their equals.
