I watched Turkey only against USA and Russia. One thing that grabbed my attention in both games was Eda's subpar blocking. She attacked quite well after Naz started leading the team against US but was consistently late to block in both matches. Neither Poulter nor Startseva are special at 'hiding' their sets but particularly worrying for her to be such slow against Russia. I am really surprised Turkey managed to win today with minimal contribution from MBs in attack. Once Zehra loses her rythm and timing, she finds it very difficult to get back into the game and her tendency towards hitting one side is getting quite obvious. She completely lost it in CL finals and today was not much different. She was dealing with Startseva instead of Wolosz though so she fortunately managed to make some truly amazing blocks. Despite playing together with Cansu for quite a long time, she couldn't obviously trust Zehra today at all even with perfect reception. I doubt Turkey's both OHs will be equally efficient in the following matches to pull some big wins without MBs. I do hope to watch Turkey one more time in semis though. I guess this is Naz's last tournament with NT and would love to see her farewell on a happy note as much as I wish the same for Jordan Larson.
There is probably nothing unexpected about USA and Italy. I personally can't remember whether there has ever been an American setter struggling to use MBs to this extent or an Italian team having such trouble with reception. It will obviously depend on the rivals as well but if this team couldn't get the gold with Alisha Glass, it will definitely be much more difficult with Poulter. One can never know with Egonu but she will need some decent sets at the end of the day and it can't be easy for an error-prone hitter not being able to trust her setter and not knowing if she will get the same set twice in a row.