2020 Men's Intercontinental Olympics Qualification Tournament

  • Creating this thread for discussions about the IQT for Tokyo OG 2020. Please share the squads of the participating teams if you’ve got the info.


    Tournament dates: Aug 9-11, 2019


    • Pool A (Varna): Brazil, Egypt, Bulgaria, Puerto Rico

    • Pool B (Rotterdam): USA, Belgium, The Netherlands, Korea

    • Pool C (Bari): Italy, Serbia, Australia, Cameroon

    • Pool D (Gdansk): Poland, France, Slovenia, Tunisia

    • Pool E (Saint Petersburg): Russia, Iran, Cuba, Mexico


    • Pool F (Ningbo): Canada, Argentina, Finland, China


  • andrea

    Changed the title of the thread from “2020 MEN'S Olympics Qualification Intercontinental Tournaments” to “2020 MEN'S Intercontinental Olympics Qualification Tournament”.
  • French TQO Roster


    Setters

    Benjamin Toniutti

    Antoine Brizard


    Receivers / Forwards:

    Earvin NGapeth

    Trevor Clevenot

    (Thibault Rossard) please 🙏🙏🙏🙏

    Julien Lyneel

    Kevin Tillie


    Central:

    Kevin Le Roux

    Nicolas Le Goff

    Daryl Bultor

    Barthelemy Chinenyeze


    Liberos:

    Jenia Grebennikov

    Nicolas Rossard (Not needed)


    OPP:

    Jean Patry

    Stephen Boyer

  • It was mistake and it was corrected by French federation. Thibault is in the roster instead of Nicolas.

  • YavorD

    Changed the title of the thread from “2020 MEN'S Intercontinental Olympics Qualification Tournament” to “2020 Men's Intercontinental Olympics Qualification Tournament”.
  • It was mistake and it was corrected by French federation. Thibault is in the roster instead of Nicolas.

    Sounds like FIVB has removed the restriction that a team has to bring two designated Liberos in a 14-player squad this year. This improves the flexibility in the coach’s decision on how to use his players each match in a tournament.

  • Poland's squad (14 players)



    Setters

    Fabian Drzyzga

    Grzegorz Łomacz




    Receivers


    Wilfredo Leon

    Michał Kubiak

    Bartosz Kwolek

    Aleksander Śliwka

    Artur Szalpuk

    Bartosz Bednorz




    OPP:

    Dawid Konarski

    Maciej Muzaj

    Łukasz Kaczmarek



    Central:

    Piotr Nowakowski

    Mateusz Bieniek

    Karol Kłos

    Jakub Kochanowski


    Liberos:

    Paweł Zatorski

    Damian Wojtaszek

  • I can not believe Bednorz did not make it. I like Kwolek but he struggles offensively sometimes. I just feel like Bednorz can be more of a threat.

    And no Kochanowski???:white:.....Klos was great at VNL finals....but I would pick Kochanowski over him.

  • Russia NT roster copying from NT thread thanks canhotorodrigo


    S: Kobzar - Butko


    MB: Mursersky - Volvich - Kurkaev - Yakovlev

    OH: Volkov - Kliuka - Voronkov - Semyshev


    OPP: Mikhaylov - Poletaev


    L: Golubev - Martyniuk

  • I can not believe Bednorz did not make it. I like Kwolek but he struggles offensively sometimes. I just feel like Bednorz can be more of a threat.

    And no Kochanowski???:white:.....Klos was great at VNL finals....but I would pick Kochanowski over him.

    Sorry to say, Heynen needs experiance for this tournament. Bednorz was good RECENTLY but he is no my type of player.

    I really like Kochanowski but … see other MBs - no comments.

  • By bringing 5 OHs, Heynan may have prepared that Leon would play as OPP when needed. If that happens, Szalpuk would take over Leon's original OH position alongside Kubiak. However, both Kwolek and Sliwka are considered Kubiak's backups, that seems more than enough, especially since Kwolek's attacks are not that OK. Bringing Bednorz instead of Kwolek is a more balanced option if bringing 5 OHs. I think Heynan's thought is that he intends to be conservative in such an important tournament and he wants to make sure that there are minimum holes (Bednorz could be a target for opponents' serves) on court. Maybe that's the same reason why Kochanowski is out when one of the MB spots has to be sacrificed (governed by players' experience).

  • Got Argentina's roster from WorldofVolley:


    S: De Cecco, Uriarte

    Opp: Lima, Pereyra

    MB: Sole, Crer, Loser, Ramos

    OH: Conte, Palacios, Poglajen, Mendez

    L: A. Gonzalez, Danani


    Everyone in the list is expected, except Mendez... I read from the VNL's thread that Mendez is the coach's son. I think this is the only reason he was selected. I watched many games from Argentina in this year's VNL, and Mendez is bad enough. Considering the 4th OH should be of a defensive style (since Palacios is the other reserve), this place should be given to Martinez. This is so unfair.

  • Very “smart” arrangement of the schedule from the Polish federation. France and Slovenia faces each other in the first match and the loser would have a slim chance of winning the pool. No matter whether France wins the match or not, it’s not going to be an easy challenge for them, and the match will likely end around 23:00. With a very short time of rest, France will then face Poland early in the afternoon the next day. I think that’s why Poland arranges their own match as the first one in the first two days, and why they don’t arrange to play France, presumably their strongest opponent of the pool, in the last match.

    I would call it a lack of sportsmanship. This was mentioned by the French in the press conference, more specifically their representatives Laurent Tillie and Toniutti complained. France will have to play 3 Olympic qualifiers in a span of about 40 hours (their last match vs. Tunisia starts at 12 on Sunday!). The reason for that is clear, of course, but it brings questions as to where the limits of any organizer's freedom to do whatever they want should lie. I am curious what the reaction of the French on the court will be. Poland vs. France will probably be the highlight of the Intercontinental Qualification round.


    On a side note, taking the distribution in Pools C and D into account, at least one among Poland, France, Italy, and Serbia won't make it to Tokyo. We had a very similar outcome in Rio already, but it still feels strange and somewhat undeserved nevertheless.

  • The fact that Martinez had to play the Pan Games instead of going to the IOQT is... yeah. Marcelo lost quite a few points with me after this one.

  • China:

    S - Yu Yao-chen, Zhan Guo-jun

    OP - Jiang Chuan, Wang Jing-yi

    OH - Liu Li-bin, Du Hai-xiang, Ji Dao-shuai, Zhang Bing-long

    MB - Zhang Zhe-jia, Chen Long-hai, Rao Shu-han, Peng Shi-kun

    L - Tong Jia-hua, Ma Xiao-teng


    Dai Qing-yao (OH/OP) is absent due to enterogastritis.

    Mao Tian-yi (S) and Miao Ruan-tong (MB) aren't in the roster.

    My favourite roster of Chinese (in 2022)
    male NT:
    S - Yu Yao-chen, Chen Lei-yang
    OP - Jiang Chuan, Dai Qing-yao
    OH - Zhang Jing-yin, Yu Yuan-tai, Liu Li-bin, Fu Hou-wen
    MB - Zhang Zhe-jia, Peng Shi-kun, Li Yong-zhen, Jiang Zhen-yang
    L - Yang Yi-ming, Yang Tian-yuan


    female NT:
    S - Yao Di, Diao Lin-yu
    OP - Gong Xiang-yu, Sun Xiao-xuan
    OH - Li Ying-ying, Wang Yi-fan, Wu Meng-jie, Zhuang Yu-shan
    MB - Yuan Xin-yue, Wang Yuan-yuan, Zheng Yi-xin, Liu Yu
    L - Ni Fei-fan, Xu Jia-nan

  • I would call it a lack of sportsmanship. This was mentioned by the French in the press conference, more specifically their representatives Laurent Tillie and Toniutti complained. France will have to play 3 Olympic qualifiers in a span of about 40 hours (their last match vs. Tunisia starts at 12 on Sunday!). The reason for that is clear, of course, but it brings questions as to where the limits of any organizer's freedom to do whatever they want should lie. I am curious what the reaction of the French on the court will be. Poland vs. France will probably be the highlight of the Intercontinental Qualification round.


    On a side note, taking the distribution in Pools C and D into account, at least one among Poland, France, Italy, and Serbia won't make it to Tokyo. We had a very similar outcome in Rio already, but it still feels strange and somewhat undeserved nevertheless.

    That's why I put "smart" in quotation marks. :)

  • I would call it a lack of sportsmanship. This was mentioned by the French in the press conference, more specifically their representatives Laurent Tillie and Toniutti complained. France will have to play 3 Olympic qualifiers in a span of about 40 hours (their last match vs. Tunisia starts at 12 on Sunday!). The reason for that is clear, of course, but it brings questions as to where the limits of any organizer's freedom to do whatever they want should lie. I am curious what the reaction of the French on the court will be. Poland vs. France will probably be the highlight of the Intercontinental Qualification round.


    On a side note, taking the distribution in Pools C and D into account, at least one among Poland, France, Italy, and Serbia won't make it to Tokyo. We had a very similar outcome in Rio already, but it still feels strange and somewhat undeserved nevertheless.

    France does have grounds to complain, but I disagree with any claim of "lack of sportsmanship" against Poland on this. This claim is based on one presumption that "France is the strongest opponent of Poland", but what if Poland does believe Slovenia, not France, is their strongest opponent? Don't forget that Poland was eliminated by Slovenia in both ECh 2015 and 2017. Surely Poland also lost to France quite many times, but one can't say it's impossible for Poland to value the match vs Slovenia harder than vs France. After all, it's Poland's call regarding who they think is their strongest rival, and Poland definitely can have enough reasons to think either France or Slovenia is.


    Also, regarding the schedule, for a 3-day tournament over the weekend, it is understandable to have the Friday matches as late as possible and Sunday matches as early as possible. That's for the sake of the fans -- Friday as late as possible so that they can come to watch after work, Sunday as early as possible so that more non-local fans may return home by train after match, no need to spend one more night in hotel. So there comes a compact schedule.


    Then given this compact schedule, it's within the limit of host advantage for Poland to choose to play the 1st match of Friday and Saturday, and the 2nd match of Sunday. It's also very natural to choose the weakest one for the first match. Then, it's inevitable either France or Slovenia will get the poor schedule as France has now. If Poland switched France with Slovenia, maybe Slovenia will complain... or maybe some fans of Slovenia here can also "accuse" Poland for "lack of sportsmanship"...

  • France does have grounds to complain, but I disagree with any claim of "lack of sportsmanship" against Poland on this. This claim is based on one presumption that "France is the strongest opponent of Poland", but what if Poland does believe Slovenia, not France, is their strongest opponent? Don't forget that Poland was eliminated by Slovenia in both ECh 2015 and 2017. Surely Poland also lost to France quite many times, but one can't say it's impossible for Poland to value the match vs Slovenia harder than vs France. After all, it's Poland's call regarding who they think is their strongest rival, and Poland definitely can have enough reasons to think either France or Slovenia is.


    Also, regarding the schedule, for a 3-day tournament over the weekend, it is understandable to have the Friday matches as late as possible and Sunday matches as early as possible. That's for the sake of the fans -- Friday as late as possible so that they can come to watch after work, Sunday as early as possible so that more non-local fans may return home by train after match, no need to spend one more night in hotel. So there comes a compact schedule.


    Then given this compact schedule, it's within the limit of host advantage for Poland to choose to play the 1st match of Friday and Saturday, and the 2nd match of Sunday. It's also very natural to choose the weakest one for the first match. Then, it's inevitable either France or Slovenia will get the poor schedule as France has now. If Poland switched France with Slovenia, maybe Slovenia will complain... or maybe some fans of Slovenia here can also "accuse" Poland for "lack of sportsmanship"...

    I understand your reasoning but these are simple/generic arguments without validation. They depict generic situations, clearly not about the one we will have over the weekend in Poland. Here is why:


    1. The program (as well as the ranking, history, the momentum) clearly suggests France are and were considered Poland's top rival for the Olympic spot. Had that been Slovenia instead, the program would've looked differently. If the reigning World champions can't handle Slovenia at home (let's leave alone the previous tournaments, back then Poland were a totally different team in terms of performance and quality), with Slovenia not taking part in almost any official games since the end of the 2018 WCH, then they will surely deserve a direct spot to the European qualifiers in January, to say the least.

    2. Yes, as hosts, they can arrange the order of matches and opponents, that's fine. It is, however, the start hours that arouse questions. Again, what you wrote is true, yet almost no one in indoor volleyball sets a game on Sunday midday (in a group of 4), let alone on the country's most important weekend in the year, because of travelling fans. And especially not in Poland where even people of Gdansk probably won't find tickets.

    3. The unsportsmanship we refer to also takes the other groups into consideration. The earliest (local times considered) match on Sunday, apart from France's one vs. Tunisia, would be at 15 in China. And all other groups have identical start hours for each day. Even if they had set a later start for Friday, they should, for the sake of sportsmanship, provide a routine or enough time to rest for the rest of the weekend. Poland failed to do that by re-arranging the schedule for Sunday. Had Poland played the late match on Friday instead, things would've looked equally difficult for everyone, but this was clearly not their plan.


    So, as you see, Poland will break France's right to recover accordingly in order to gain some advantage. It may instead make the French angry, who knows, but we can't say it is a result of an accident.

  • Dear Yavor,

    Such discussion is too long.

    As organizer Poland had a right to set schedule accordingly. It was accepted by FIVB. France did not spent money for bid.

    What I remember from "old history" of OG qualifications :

    -1992 Netherlands as organizer lost against Poland but there was such new system Poland had to play once again with them next day in Final so v.strong Netherland qualified

    - 2004 Portugal as organizer set aircondition system to such high level /or switched off/ ball was wet and game interrupted many times finally Poland qualified