2020 Olympic Games - Tokyo (Female)

    First of all, I must say I didnt watch the match cuz I was sleeping :( But after checking the scoreline, well, it isnt a surprise! So, congrats to Serbian team and Serbian fans here! If it was a match that you could crash Italy, it was this one, cuz of all the pressure was on their side as well as the trean was goind down (check the last 2 matches played before, it was like going from day to night).

    Furthermore, it is a relief. Because it is hard to always be the "bad guy" or one of the most hated teams. They also shut mouths up.


    It is a pity that Moki ends her career like this. Italy bench (the coach + federation) approach really nad this tournament, from the players selected and the preparation. As well as their best player, Egonu, never came to play to Tokyo. This is it. It happes? Sure. We have seen many stars and favourites underperform (cuz of injuries, mentral pressure, etc): Djokovic, USA football women nt, Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, etc. Could this happen to a 22 yo player? Yes of course. I think that later we will know what happened with her here. But aside that, it isnt an excuse to the bad planning from Italian bench.


    And btw, I find it really ridiculous that just cuz two users, who arent Italians btw, had praised in an obnoxious way Italy, most people here dont feel sorry as what happened to China and Turkey. Just two bother so many here? :D

    Tbh, I havent seen any Italian user so enthusiasthic as those two.

    As it was pointed some comments before, this defeat wasnt heartbreaking. It was quick and without anesthesia (as expected for me at least). Total different from the first match.

    So at the end we also come to this: "don't do what you don't want them to do to you"


    Quote from hakin12

    Hmm, I am not as convinced as you are. Italy has looked downright sloppy so far, yet I consider them to be slightly better - on paper - than Serbia. Simply, while Bosko-Egonu might be fairly even the Italians have visibly better wingers in Pietrini and Bosetti which, I presume, might very well decide the outcome in their favour. Serbia would have needed Mihajlovic in much better shape in order to be able to over Italy, imo.

    Well, I was very convinced and it paid off! As it was Italy playing (two consecutive matches playing really bad), I didnt see how they could win this match.


    Ps: 8th straight Olympic without an European team grabbing the gold medal is loading:!:

    I really don’t think it’s that people don’t feel sorry for Italy’s loss. I think it’s more so that it doesn’t receive such an emotional or shocked reaction on here because it wasn’t as unexpected as China not making it out of the pool stages or Korea beating Turkey. It was really a coin toss on which team would come out on top in this game and we were all mentally prepared to be saying goodbye to a team who we all expected to be fighting for medals no matter who lost this match

    someone sppke here and is truth. Manzzanti should have played NVL with his setters and some players for the entire vnl. The most tired players should come later as China did.

    Like mdacs wrote, Italy shouldn't have rested their first team like they've won all the tournaments they've played in before.


    Italy's new generation doesn't even have a championship tradition yet and they've chosen to do that during the time of olympics where every bit of experience matters.


    If they're doing this, they have to win the group no matter what to get the best qf match but they failed and even lost three games in a row.


    It is what it is and nothing can change it. They got to use this failure to try and win the Eurovolley and finally start the winning tradition that eluded them for the past 10 years or so.


    No more excuses.

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

    Egonu heavily relied on check balls (which is a hit and miss and cost them some challenges), where we know she can hit the ball cleanly. She had a bad tournament.


    Hoping Serbia wins against USA, they way KK treats/ed Hill and Carlini.

    both setters are young. Even the subs he didnt put on court to prove themselfs in vnl


    He is guilty of chosen 4 MB knowing the Italy needed good reception.


    Italy has plnety of great Opps. No reason for him to choose Sorokayte and doesnt trust her.

    Quote from Mellie

    I really don’t think it’s that people don’t feel sorry for Italy’s loss. I think it’s more so that it doesn’t receive such an emotional or shocked reaction on here because it wasn’t as unexpected as China not making it out of the pool stages or Korea beating Turkey. It was really a coin toss on which team would come out on top in this game and we were all mentally prepared to be saying goodbye to a team who we all expected to be fighting for medals no matter who lost this match


    Trust me, not all think like this. Otherwise there wouldnt be a mean comment which says how sweet it would be to see Italy eliminated with so many likes. It is called hypocrisy, double standard. As I mentioned it again: we are in Olympic Games, not Olympic wars.

    It is never sweet to see Olympic dreams crashed, for every single team. From the teams without medal hopes (Kenya or Argentina), to top contedors as Italy and China were.

    In the end, the biggest failure is the head coach and coaching staff. They failed to plan everything — be it in terms of conditioning and skills, to selection of players.


    I still don’t believe that these are the two Best Setter in Italy. Maybe allowing 4 foreign players in your league is not a good idea for the development of your local players after all.

    Quote from Realista

    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.

    I don't mean pressure for the games, I mean pressure even before getting to Tokyo. All the press about Olympics was on her ("Egonu will lead us to the gold" and stuff like that), everyone was putting all the pressure on her and not the team. To that add that she's black and gay so she recieved even more attention (mostly neutral/positive, but also stuff like this just to quote one that became famous), and while I don't want to dwell too much on armchair psychology I don't know how able she was to handle all of that, considering she never had to deal with it before (no one cares about club season in Italy, and she recieved extensive media coverage only after the WCH)

    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.

    Maybe the fact that there are 3 players on reception now made her more confident. Less worried with reception and focus on defense.

    Quote from akitoakie

    In the end, the biggest failure is the head coach and coaching staff. They failed to plan everything — be it in terms of conditioning and skills, to selection of players.


    I still don’t believe that these are the two Best Setter in Italy. Maybe allowing 4 foreign players in your league is not a good idea for the development of your local players after all.

    IMO Italy has now the best pool of players in the world. Italy youth program is great.

    on facebook (volleyball world page), people are a lot more critical on Italy. :roll: really though, based on italy's performance in the qualifying rounds, people shouldn't be surprised.


    congrats serbia!

    Quote from akitoakie

    do they have better setters than these 2?

    I think setter can be a main issue because all of their great prospects are young. But they need time on court. Quite strange the fact for Italy that the setters were alrrady locked even without proven themselves. They are too young to be treated as a veteran.


    But there is the Chieri setter if im not mistaken and he brought the back up setter of Conegliano for training.

    this is the second Olympic participation for Orro.

    Boskovic lost to China ( Zhu) and Now are trying to take the gold. She has been amazing.


    For Sure Egonu will come stronger in Paris.


    Mazzanti words after the loss: I am deeply sorry for the "movement". Because I think that every single thing that the Nt does it is important for the "movement". Yesterday men team was eliminated, today us. I am deeply sorry for this movement because the movements is fed for this kind of victories, like it was fed for the WCH we did. We have not been able to give what we had in our heads, but this team has still a lot to tell. And after this failure, we will start to tell "important things".


    Btw, with the "movement", he meant to the uprising interest on vball in Italian public opinion + federation investment.


    To be honest, his answer as well as the previous one to the question: why did you start with Malinov when Orro was key to overcome the third set against USA? is just :gone::gone::gone:


    Ok Davide, we knew that when you started your path with this team, the fruits of your team would be seen just in WCH 2022. He said that in the press conference. Nevertheless, first a silver medal came in WGP 2017 (unexpected), as well as a silver medal came in WCH 2018 (this was even more unexpected, cuz not even the stronger tifoso would have thought to get to the final. On the paper and cuz of the pool where they were, Italy was expected to at least arrive in the final6 or be place 8-7th). Hence, the goals were "reformulated" when the team wasnt still ready. Those two medals were an overachievement. And the plan after those medals has been really bad.

    Quote from voulter

    I don't mean pressure for the games, I mean pressure even before getting to Tokyo. All the press about Olympics was on her ("Egonu will lead us to the gold" and stuff like that), everyone was putting all the pressure on her and not the team. To that add that she's black and gay so she recieved even more attention (mostly neutral/positive, but also stuff like this just to quote one that became famous), and while I don't want to dwell too much on armchair psychology I don't know how able she was to handle all of that, considering she never had to deal with it before (no one cares about club season in Italy, and she recieved extensive media coverage only after the WCH)

    Okay, I see your point.


    But still, I would buy this theory if other players played on their normal level, but that's not a case here, since a match against China they looked messy both individual and as a team. I'm not saying it didn't affect Egonu at all, but I don't think it was a main reason of Paola flopping, that's her limitations as a player and physical shape of her and a team, IMHO. We criticize Egonu, because she's a leader of this team, to some degree deservedly so, but the same we can say about Bosetti or middles, and they all had great seasons in a league. That's why I referred to game against China, because there was no pressure with China being eliminated already, and yet Italy as a team was pathetic, that's ''pure'' example how bad they were at the latter stage of a tournament after okay beginning for me.


    Leonardo.D - I don't think Mazzanti should stay as a HC, and I hope he won't, but he probably will, so he can say whatever nonsense he wants to, I guess.

    Quote from akitoakie

    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.

    This. Egonu has really poor technique and relies mainly on her jumping ability. And I noticed whenever she spikes she looks where the ball is going not where the blockers' hands are. That is why she always hits out and asks for touch challenges.