2020 Olympic Games - Tokyo (Female)

I'm going to share a potentially unpopular opinion about the planning of most European teams in important tournaments.

If we go back and look at the way European teams managed their presence in international competitions, we can see that they don't take it very seriously. During the past VNLs, we could watch several prospects being tested but NEVER making to the main roster. As a matter of example, look at the [countless] outside hitters we've watched from Turkey, Russia and Italy in these past years...

Also, we can see that European teams often rest players that, in my opinion, are not that good to be granted some sort of rest. What's the point of resting Egonu in important competitions such as the VNL? She's a 22-year-old girl who never won anything meaningful with the Italian NT. The result is this: she's used to winning matches of the European championship, playing well in a super team like Conegliano, but totally disconnected from her NT after a 3 months absence from actually playing. I won't even mention how crazy it is to rest players like Fahr, Danesi, Caterina, Pietrini... As a Brazilian, this is even crazier for me because I remember that Fabiana and Sheilla were first invited to the main NT in 2003 and got to rest in 2015 - after 12 years of service! They got to rest as established players, perhaps considered as the best in their positions.

I am saying all of this just to make a point: I don't see continuity in the work of most European teams, and teams are built through the years and not after training in a 3-month bubble.

Every year we get to see a completely different roster from most European teams... Players are invited and then disappear, many get to rest and then they are invited back out of nowhere. That's why I think the USA and Brazil, despite not having the best players individually, have always shown a more balanced game. This is the result of forcing their best players to participate in training and important competitions, and I think super young NTs such as Italy should adopt this strategy as well. Team building is not about taking players that did a great season and putting them together to train [and sometimes not even that], but it's about creating a team out of a roster.

Serbia is my top contender for gold. ❤️

Quote from akitoakie

Kinda sad knowing that Egonu will only be playing good with good sets.

Meh lets not act now as if she's a bad or even mediocre player. She had an awful tournament, but it's not like she was never been able to work well with Malinov, she was way better in 2018 Wch and it's not like Malinov was good back then (still can't get over the fact she won best setter lol). It's obviously worrying she flopped so hard here, but this one tourney doesn't cancel all the amazing stuff she has done so far

As an ITA fan, I would never even say that Egonu > Boskovic | Zhu Ting | KYK.

She could be the best attacker among them, but this is circumstantial (dependent on the setter, inconsistent). The past few matches showed that Boskovic or KYK are more complete players than her.

My EQ can't take another USA defeat against Serbia. I hope they're going to be the better team. Tough match ahead for our girls, Serbia showing that they're the favorites.

Italy team is like China NT in some way. Both teams heavily rely on their core player's performance. If Egonu chokes, Italy can lose the match easily like what happened today. Same thing to China (Zhu) and Serbia (Boskovic).

Brazil and USA are different, a more balanced style

Quote from suminj

Putting my hopes on Brazil vs ROC to be the most exciting match from QFs without all the clean sweeps and coach drama

+ btw what are your favourite matches from the Pool stages? I only watched a few (this could be the reason why), but it just felt like watching which team played worse & lost, rather than seeing which team played well & won, so this Olympics has been pretty disappointing.

my favourites are Brazil vs Serbia ; Brazil vs RD and Russia vs China

How is the sports fanatic in Italy? Will Egonu go through a witch hunt because of this?

It's dangerous to be cocky nowadays specially with how this Olympics is turning out. But I feel really sad for Italy. I was rooting for them next to Russia and believed they'll finally break the Olympic curse and win the gold.

Quote from suminj

Putting my hopes on Brazil vs ROC to be the most exciting match from QFs without all the clean sweeps and coach drama

+ btw what are your favourite matches from the Pool stages? I only watched a few (this could be the reason why), but it just felt like watching which team played worse & lost, rather than seeing which team played well & won, so this Olympics has been pretty disappointing.

Turkey vs Russia
China vs Russia
Korea vs Japan

On Instagram everyone is commenting about:

- Egonu not being subbe even with the enormous number of errors

- Malinov and Orro being both bad

- Bringing 4 MBs and not a receiving OH

- Mazzanti picking subs blindfolded and not doing the right things

- Players smiling even when they were 9 points down. Not that you have do be desperate but nothing to laugh about, be concentrate! (and Mazzanti not screaming some sense into them but smiling and talking like everything was ok)

Quote from werka

My EQ can't take another USA defeat against Serbia. I hope they're going to be the better team. Tough match ahead for our girls, Serbia showing that they're the favorites.

I still remembered only Lowe can score in set #5 in Rio's semi. Robinson/Larson's attack was missing.

USA vs Serbia are a nice pairing in upcoming semi. Serbia for sure is top dog, but USA can beat Serbia if Drews is on fire.

Quote from Arii

On Instagram everyone is commenting about:

- Egonu not being subbe even with the enormous number of errors

- Malinov and Orro being both bad

- Bringing 4 MBs and not a receiving OH

- Mazzanti picking subs blindfolded and not doing the right things

- Players smiling even when they were 9 points down. Not that you have do be desperate but nothing to laugh about, be concentrate!

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That smiling thing just annoyed me the most all throughout the game.

sad for Moki. I mentioned before that Egonu is like Ebrar in terms of consistency and someone said I was over reacting.

Don't get me wrong though. With her athleticism, Egonu still have the best potential. She just needs to learn how to control it.

But there is also this thing called “ball control”. The ability to adjust and control your wrist work. You can’t blame everything on the setter all the time.

Quote from crovolley

She needs better setter nothing else. Her confidence is destroyed from day one.

CONFIDENCE IS THE KEY.

She needed to adjust her approach all the time, her arm swing was off. Than She started to push only with her power.

Watching her all season with Conegliano and how perfect She was I can’t stop blaming Mazzanti and setters. All of them were terrible.

Not really though, she was actually very bad. She wasn't able to kill many good balls, and a lot of not great balls that she would have killed if she was in good shape. I don't know if it was an issue on a physical level (not in terms of injuries, just not being fit enough for whatever reason) or a mental level (expectations on her were very high with everyone acting as if she was the second coming of Jesus), if I had to guess I would say the latter, but the point remains that she was bad (and everyone around her was too, obviously)

Quote from kyle7in1

I am impressed by Serbia's libero. She's not stable in Rio 2016, esp in Gold match.

But today she was amazing with some big digs, which helped the momentum shift back to Serbia in set #3.

Ognjenovic again, proved herself one of the best setters in the world, even at her age.

IMO Popovic has always been a pretty excellent libero, although she really flopped in the final in Rio. But in the past both her and Serbia’s passing OH have had to cover for Mihajlovic, which is not an easy thing to do, so it looks messy, but she still manages to get the job done. She’s often unappreciated but I would say she is the main reasons for Serbia to have been able to successfully play with a 2 man receiving system the last few years

Quote from voulter

Not really though, she was actually very bad. She wasn't able to kill many good balls, and a lot of not great balls that she would have killed if she was in good shape. I don't know if it was an issue on a physical level (not in terms of injuries, just not being fit enough for whatever reason) or a mental level (expectations on her were very high with everyone acting as if she was the second coming of Jesus), if I had to guess I would say the latter, but the point remains that she was bad (and everyone around her was too, obviously)I

I agree, although I think it was all related to physical level, because Bosetti past 3 games was atrocious, and almost every other player as well. Some people may dislike Italy for whatever reason, but it's not their actual level.

And it's not like there's so much pressure in playing against Zhu-less China, and Italy was horrendous already back then, if Poulter hadn't gotten injured, Italy would have won a single set against China, USA and Serbia, they were that bad prepared.

That being said, while Egonu wasn't in a good shape physically, this tournament also shows obvious technical limitations of her as a player.