2020 Olympic Games - Tokyo (Female)

    Quote from suminj

    If Kim doesn't win a medal in this one, I feel like she may be back for Paris 2024 haha

    She said it was her last Olympics in Rio '16, and said it again now - works wonders in the media & also in KVA giving more support (just a guess) like hiring Lavarini


    I think Paris will be her real last

    Would be awesome to see her playing again in Paris 😊 Hopefully she can carry a much stronger Korean team by then.

    It’s been over a week that I haven’t been able to join the discussions here, as I’ve been following multiple sports at the Games, it’s very often that they were played at the same time that I simply don’t have any extra monitor for this forum:gone:. But after such a day of thrilling quarterfinals matches, I really wanna express my views and please forgive me if they’re already mentioned many times by other friends here as I probably missed out hundreds of pages of posts in this thread alone.


    The first match of the day was absolutely the most thrilling one and it was epic. KYK showed again why she’s such a legend and at this age she’s still the most complete female player in this tournament. Her team was teased by some users here during VNL, and now they are the only Asian team not only in the quarters but also in the semis! KYK repeated the miracle in London, this time with much worse conditions after the Twins scandal. Just look at how she dealt with all those inconsistent sets from her (I try my best to avoid the word horrible) setter to turn them into her own points, and how she calmed herself down in the 4th set after Park was replaced by the shorter OH who made all kinds of errors to lose the set, then regourp herself and her team in the deciding set to complete the upset. This match will be another classic like their upset over Italy in London.

    OTOH It must be very hard for the Turkish fans to take this loss. Guidetti had even worse in-game coaching and substitutions than Busato to cost Turkey losing this game. Yes he led Turkey to Tokyo, but it hurts even more when he’s the main reason to this loss when they had such a good draw and chance to reach the semis and fight for a medal. Besides, what’s wrong with Ebrar? She completely lost herself after stellar performance in her first match against China. Credits to Boz who played exceeding all our expectations, but she’s still not enough to carry the team to win with such OHs and coach in this team.


    The match between USA & DOM was the only quarterfinal match that I skipped, and it seemed to be a correct decision when looking at the final score…


    The lopsided match between Serbia & Italy was totally unexpected as this was supposed to be the most intense and close match. Boskovic just showed who is the best Opp. The power, height, speed, angles, and most importantly, PRECISION & CONSISTENCY were exactly what were missed by the Opp across the net.

    After reading million times of comments of Egonu the best player, Italy the best team on earth blablabla by you-know-who here, it’s was such a fun match to watch to see how Egonu single-handedly losing the match. I can imagine someone was blaming the setters and praising Wolosz again, but lots of sets weren’t really bad sets, and even when De Gennaro or Bosetti set to her in transitions, nearly all ended up with errors. When we just watched how KYK dealt with all kinds of bad sets to win a match in the same day, that’s what really the best player could do.


    The match between Brazil & Russia was more a better match than expected. Macris was definitely the game changer (and Thank God she recovered in time), Rosamaria proved herself again and this time in the Olympics quarterfinal!

    Russia wasted their chances in the second set to allow Brazil to bounce back. But with such coach and roaster with obvious weaknesses, winning a set from the all-around and experienced Brazilian team is already a success.


    I have learnt my lesson in this tournament not to make any predictions anymore, it’s Olympics anything can happen. Just hope there’s no more injury, all the remaining teams can play with their best roaster and form, and the best team wins!:cup:

    I've been avoiding this forum and social media since I wasn't able to watch the match between Brazil and Russia live. Now I've watched the match and I'm so happy Brazil won:woohoo:

    I was really afraid Roberta was going to ruin chances of Brazil winning a medal, because she seemed so nervous and didn't play well at all! Luckely Zé Roberto put Macris and Rosamaria on court and that changed the match^^ For me Macris was the MVP of the match, because of her distribution it became a real team effort:heart: Brait played stable in all elements! Gabi and Fe Garay compliment each other very well as outside hitter duo:super:Both middle blockers played with so much passion, it was a pleasure to watch!

    Despite their loss, I want to congratulate Russia for the performance they showed during this Olympics! This was by far the best volleyball I've seen them play in recent years:thumbup:

    so happy for BRA team and Fe Garay. IMO she is the best OH that Brazil had since i started to follow Volleyball ( 2004 Olympics). She was starter in 3 Olympics games. Brazil lost in QF for China in Rio 2016 but she give her all.


    Its quite strange to me that Garay plays better imo in NT otherwise Natalia plays better in clubs.

    Fe Garay ❤

    Zé Roberto is going for his fourth Olympic medal as a coach and all 3 so far have been gold. That's insane. The way he put this team together basically last minute... he's an absolute gem. He and Lavarini are my favorite coaches these days, hands down.

    In fact take a medal of any colour with this team its a great success.


    The womens always has troubles when playing in home. Pan Rio 2007 and Rio 2016. They are not used to it imon.

    Quote from Gomes

    so happy for BRA team and Fe Garay. IMO she is the best OH that Brazil had since i started to follow Volleyball ( 2004 Olympics). She was starter in 3 Olympics games. Brazil lost in QF for China in Rio 2016 but she give her all.


    Its quite strange to me that Garay plays better imo in NT otherwise Natalia plays better in clubs.

    But fe garay was olympic champion once,natalia twice in londres and rio :whistle:


    Koroleva posted this picture after the match ended. I forgot to say that she was one of my favourites Russian players in these Olympics. For me the best were Voronkova and Arina, but once Kosheleva was gone, I think Koroleva was the other Russian player who gives "charismatic" and good vibes. She always cheering their teammates up, smiling, laughing, "living" every match. She used to be a bit more "aggressive" on the net, but in the last years, it is simple impossible to dislike her (at least for me).

    Pity she had to limit the comments in this picture, cuz she was receiving too much hate.

    I feel like teams in Rio>>Tokyo. There are so many injuries in Tokyo, especially the starters, and many are not in good shape.


    Comparing to Rio:

    Serbia, only Boscovic got stronger, the rest are just older versions, so it evens out.

    Brazil, same level if not weaker, main setter injured.

    Italy, at least made it out of pool matches, unlike last time, slightly stronger.

    Russia, slightly stronger.

    USA, could be stronger than Rio if two of their main players didn't get injured.

    China, two main players got injured, and it's worse for the coach coz she didn't subbed them out, way weaker than Rio.


    In conclusion, weaker teams got slightly stronger, top tier teams got weaker. Only Serbia and Brazil remain their level, and they are likely facing each other in the final, a final we could've had in Rio if Brazil didn't lose to China unexpectedly.

    Maja's birthday is on the semifinal day, Olympic final would be such appropriate and really nice "gift".

    I think USA in general is stronger.


    larson does the little things better now than 2016.

    MBH has a higher potential than Hill (tho she hasn’t found it)

    JWO is light years ahead of Banwarth

    I don’t even need to talk about the opposites

    Washington/Chi are better than Adams/Harmotto


    the regresses are Foluke and setters. If only we had Glass 😔

    Quote from jt1267

    From Athens to Tokyo - what a legend.


    Who are the legitimate candidates who competed in Beijing 2008 (or London 2012) that will be in Paris 2024?

    Fabiana?:lol: In her case Athens 2004 too

    Fabiana and Thaisa. lol

    If Brasil wins this one I can see MB holy trinity of Fabiana, Thaisa and Carol Gattaz with Ana Carolina.


    Walewska? lmfao.

    Rio wasn't even that good either....

    Quote from Jules

    But fe garay was olympic champion once,natalia twice in londres and rio :whistle:

    Lol

    agree, but I think the pandemic is to blame, players prepared for years like Zhu and KYK not accepting offers to play abroad in order to gel with their local athletes.

    Quote from volleytrotter

    Macris must be possessed by Fofao... She's doing magic. :obey:


    All russian players are playing for their lives and then there's Goncha with her 'I feel annoyed' body linguage standing there like "whatever". :gone:

    And you know what? Whoever's been following the Brazilian League for the last 4 or 5 years is not one bit surprised about this performance, because that's her natural. For some years already Macris has been sistematically elevating the level of great players and making stars out of ordinary ones. The only thing she needed was the opportunity to show it in this level. Her biggest challenge was dealing with her nerves, trying not to feel selfconscious about how important this match was. Rosa talked a bit about that in her interview post match, when she said "I used to watch this big matches between Russia and Brazil, and feel excited like every other fan, but now it's surreal to think that I'm the one playing, not watching it anymore." I think this applies really well to Macris too. Her magical technical skills were always there. She just needed the opportunity to put them to use in a match with the weight that this one had.

    Quote from beri

    I might be the only one, but I think USA is the heavy favorite at this point. I love Boskovic, but Serbia has a lot of issues in their game as well atm with her getting support when needed, Brazil is epic and I can see them give a hard fight to whoever it is that meets with them but once again there are a lot of cracks as well, I love KYK and would love for her to get gold, that would actually make the entire forum euphorius I'm sure, but some of Korea's players really aren't always performing the highest level. Meanwhile USA has been like an oiled machine for years now and it feels like it's time.


    I can't complain tbh, and a good way to shush those people that claim tournaments like VNL are of no importance. Statistics are statistics and they say the more you play the better you get if you are fit, it can to a degree really be simplified to that. Also teams like Brazil and Korea in the finals also again proves the same thing as well as the generally good performances of Russia and Turkey. Just looking at Korea's game, they get better with each match each tournament, not playing those matches means simply delaying that scrappiness towards matches that matter...

    I think you're raising a very interesting point here. At the same time, can we honestly say that USA had a truly convincing performance since the Olympics started? I think their best match so far was the one they beat China (I didn't watch their match against Turkey, so I cannot comment). That match was high quality. At the same time, USA based their ofense then primarily on Thompson and, while she was in great form, China had a very poor match blockwise. I think Brazil and Serbia are teams that seem to be a lot more organized in their defensive system. Well, one of the USA's very best weapons is their ability to create different scenarios, they have a deep bench and a lot of offensive options. So far I think the USA, among the final 4, is the team that least played to their full potential. Obviously the Americans have all the ability to turn this tide around and still take home the gold. But I think in order for this to happen they'll need to quickly reach a level of performance they haven't had yet in Tokyo. Anyway, we'll see.