2020 Olympic Games - Tokyo (Female)

Teams will suffer;

1)Brazil: The oldest team. As Serdar mentioned all the names, I will only add Tandara to the list. She is not physically good, one more year will not do any favor to her.

2)Korea: KYK's performance keeps getting worse and worse.

3)Dominician Republic: Another old team. Valdez-De la Cruz-Riviera-Marte...

4)Serbia: Reception might hurt them. Popovic covers half of the court, her performance in 2019 was not as good as before. One more year will only have negative affect on her.

5)China: Yan Ni is more cruicial than Yuan. She already has many injuries and physically not perfect. LYY won't be starter next year as well.

Teams will benefit

1)Italy: Bosetti will have enough time to turn back. Pietrini will have one more year to improve her reception.

2)USA: Larson won't benefit from postponement, but it will help a lot for libero problem which is the biggest issue. They already have Robinson-Hill-Bartch, Larson is not that important. Hentz has enough time to be new Castillo.

3)Turkey: Ebrar will have enough time to play as opp before olympics. Hande will be starter next season. Eda can keep her level on, she is super fit lately.

Teams won't get affected

1)Russia

2)Japan

3)Argentina

4)Kenya

I will only write something about the teams I follow.

Serbia

I don't think it will effect the setter position. Ognjenovic is still worlds best setter and I believe she still will be next year. In fact, she seems she becomes better the older she gets I'm not a fan of Mirkovic at all, but she had a sollid season in Bergamo this year. Now she gets one extra year to become more stable and prove she deserves the second spot at the setter position. I don't expect drastic changes of Boskovic nor Bjelica. Maybe Boskovic can become a little less error prone. On the outside hitter position I'm a bit worried about Blagojevic, because she becomes 32. I would like to see her as a starter. IMO she is the perfect player to cover Michajlovic. Hope she can keep up her level of play. I like Lazovic very much and want to see her as fourth outside hitter in Tokyo. Now she has one more year to develop as a player. On the other hand Busa should transfer to a better league, so she can challenge herself more. I hope Rasic stays fit, because her level dropped already a bit last year. Next to that I hope Veljkovic will keep playing this season. Rasic and Veljkovic as middle blocker duo is just deadly! Popovic is a sollid backup and I believe they only need 3 middle blockers. As Serdar already mentioned, I don't expect that the level of play from Popovic will drop despite her age.

USA

It's great for the setters that the Olympics got postponed one year! Poulter can work on her connection with the middles and will play in a better team next season. IMO she should be the starting setter. She fits the American style with her fast sets to position 4. Next to that she is a big threat at the net with her hight. I'm espaccialy happy for Carlini, because she dind't have a good season with Dynamo Moscow. I believe she will develop in a good way in THY next season. She complements Poulter with her creativity. I want the see both of them in Tokyo and not Hancock if I'm honest. Thompson has an extra year to play overseas and become a better player. In this way she will be ready to be the backup for Drews at the opposite position when Drews doesn't deliver. USA probably has to most complete players at the outside hitter position. Bartsch and Robinson will perform at the same level. I believe Hill level will not drop either. I'm mostly happy we will see her one more year playing volleyball I think Larson shape will decline and she wouldn't be a starter anymore. I would play with Robinson- Hill. IMO Akinradewo can benefit from to delay. Now she can play a season with a club after her pregnancy. On the other hand they have lots of great prospects, for example Ogbogu, Washington, Rettke, Stivrens, Pittman, Stafford and Alhassan So if they perform better, she will lose her spot. For libero position it's also positive. Wong-Orantes played good in Schwerin, but wasn't a starter. One extra season will help her, I think. Also Hentz and White should play overseas and fight for a spot in national team. I hope Maloney will play professional, she is my favourit libero from NCAA!

Brazil

Indeed will have a hard time. They have an old squad and not many young prospects. Although they could have a good starting 7 with Macris, Tandara, Gabi, Natalia, Thaisa, Carol and Camilla Brait! They can provide a great surprise!!!

Italy

Hope L. Bosetti can come back to her old shape after her injury, but they have a good alternative with C. Bosetti and Pietrinni. They also have Sylla. I'm not a fan of her, but she played great the last years in NT. Orro on the other hand has one extra year to prove she should be the first setter.

Turkey

All the players who dind't play much last year have one more year to develop, but than they should make some smart transfers and not waste another year at the bench!

Japan

Erika Araki will be 35-36. She doesn't appear to be slowing down but I bet she was looking forward to hanging it up this fall. I don't think club ball is fun for her at this point in Toyota's state of affairs. She was chosen NT captain and that would have been good for the team, directionless as they are

Japan is such a conservative world I don't think they will trust bursting into (home court) Olympics with youngsters, no matter how much they improve over the next year. But who knows

A big upside is for Shion Hirayama. She should have been chosen this year. Fingers crossed for next year (especially if Araki retires)

Maybe Mayu Ishikawa will grow 10cm

Quote from taylor10

4)Serbia: Reception might hurt them. Popovic covers half of the court, her performance in 2019 was not as good as before. One more year will only have negative affect on her.

While I agree it might hurt us, what with being one of the oldest teams (where it counts, at least), your particular example is not quite correct, because Silvija played better in 2018 and 2019 than in most of her NT career previously.

That doesn't necessarily mean that she won't experience a sharp drop, of course.

please note it's zeng chunlei, not zheng...

people will get confused with zheng yixin, the young MB/OPP...

I agree with the assessments for USA above. I only see Larson not benefitting from the break. But who knows right? She is Jordan Larson. The next will probably be Hill but as we saw Hill is still arguably one of the Top 3 OH2’s in the world right now.

1. Akinradewo and Adams will have more time to regain their form and connection with Poulter/Carlini.

2. More seasoning for the two young setters.

3. Getting more experience for Drews and Thompson at opposite. At the same time young middle talents will rise from Ogbogu, Washington, Rettke, Butler, Tapp.

4. The libero slot will be more competitive given the year extension. I can see JWO, Hentz, White and Maloney battle it out.

5. Even if we see a decline for Larson or other OHs, the extended time will give more experience to Plummer and Foecke who are knocking on that Olympic roster.

Overall, a positive for Team USA.

Quote from taylor10

2)Korea: KYK's performance keeps getting worse and worse.

Even though I am fan of Kim but I don't think her performance is getting that bad. Rather, I expect she'll focus more on her recovery and get better shape. She always suffered from injuries because she played the national team full time. and If you watched her games she did better for Korea NT last year than in 2017 and 2018. But I admit played at Eczacibasi was the worst part of her club career.

If someone is interested, Olympic channel on Youtube is replaying the Olympics 2000 Final.. the comeback is real

And unlike LVF TV they even manage to get the aspect ratio right, a pleasure for my eyes

Btw, FIVB Facebook site also has 2004 semifinal RUS-BRA aka 24x19 online. All the young folks should have a look at it!

I was in the way to post about that epic match too, BRA x RUS:

https://www.facebook.com/FIVBV…d/posts/10157510409069007

Finally I could watch this match full, and most important, high quality! I have watched this match with Portuguese, Chinese, Russian or English comments, but never full, with editions and so on.

One of the best matches I have ever watched live (well, on TV).

So much nostalgia from this vball level...the other SF (CHN x CUB) was also epic, but it got shadowed by the other one, which had much more drama. Oh Athens 2004...last Olympic with not only drama, but also high quality vball matches.

Quote from Matthias

Btw, FIVB Facebook site also has 2004 semifinal RUS-BRA aka 24x19 online. All the young folks should have a look at it!

I'll watch the full match later. I cut right to the 24X19 chase points and wonder if folks in this forum at the time were calling for Mari Steinbrecher's retirement after her performance there

kidding, but you know how things go nowadays

Thanks China for beating Russia eventually: I couldn't stand a team where my queen Godina was kicked off.

Quote from sitenoise

I'll watch the full match later. I cut right to the 24X19 chase points and wonder if folks in this forum at the time were calling for Mari Steinbrecher's retirement after her performance there

kidding, but you know how things go nowadays

I don't know here in this forum, but here in Brazil, in general, Mari was treated like garbage, as if she was the worst thing that ever existed. Because of that, when they won in 2008, she send this message to her critics:

I'm watching the game. I just can't get enough of Fernanda Venturini. Best setter of the history.

Sassà looked so young and sweet at the same time. You can start loving her just from that.

Brazilian fans were really harsh towards Mari. She really didnt deserve all that hate and bashing. We shouldnt forget she was one of the youngest players in the squad, if Im not wrong, brazilian users feel free to correct me, she wasnt in any youth or junior NT, etc.

Despite of all that, she was the top scorer, her performance was was outstanding, 37 POINTS IN THE SEMIFINAL! I guess she still hold that record. And not only that, over 60% of spike efficiency

She wasnt the player who should carry the team over her shoulders in the clutch moments. Not at all. There were players 30 yo + with many Olympics in their CV. Im not sure, but I think Mari scored more than the half of Brazilian points in the tie-break, despite of the meltdown of the 4thset.

Brazil outspiked and outblocked Russia by faaaaaar.

In the other hand, Russia wasnt expected at all to arrive to the gold medal match. For me, it was an overachievement. Just to highlight that after Gamova (34 pts) and Sokolova (24) , the thid scorer was Plotnikova with 8 in a 5-set match.

I would have loved to watch a match between this Brazil and China. I would always remain a mystery.

Quote from Leonardo.D

In the other hand, Russia wasnt expected at all to arrive to the gold medal match. For me, it was an overachievement. Just to highlight that after Gamova (34 pts) and Sokolova (24) , the thid scorer was Plotnikova with 8 in a 5-set match.

It definitely was. Sheshenina was just 19, Tishchenko had surgery on both knees just a few months before OG and she could hardly even walk normally, Tebenikhina was good in the slide attack but I don't think I've ever seen a MB worse in blocking than her on high level. 16 years later it's still a mystery to me how they did it. Sure, Sokolova and Gamova played the major role, but apparently it was one of the matches where Karpol would unfold his magic. And to be fair, in the final Russia played really really well and pushed China to the edge!

It's so heartbreaking that amazing Brazil lost to a 2-players team.

Sassà tourning the second set around... amazing!

Chukanova had a cameo in the second set: she set the ball so high for Gamova that it disappared from the screen for a second and Gamova lost the eye contact with the court, spiking out. Karpol got crazy and it was the only ball she touched: she came back to bench right after.

Quote from Matthias

It definitely was. Sheshenina was just 19, Tishchenko had surgery on both knees just a few months before OG and she could hardly even walk normally, Tebenikhina was good in the slide attack but I don't think I've ever seen a MB worse in blocking than her on high level. 16 years later it's still a mystery to me how they did it. Sure, Sokolova and Gamova played the major role, but apparently it was one of the matches where Karpol would unfold his magic. And to be fair, in the final Russia played really really well and pushed China to the edge!

No Godina, no holy trinity, no gold medal. Simple.