2020 Olympic Games - Tokyo (Female)

    Because they didn't play any of these tournaments with their A-team except for maybe 1 whole VNL tournament:whistle:

    Quote from zhutingfan

    careful, people are gonna bring up ECh agaagain.

    And yes I'm gonna bring up ECH, because it's a though competition and they won it twice pretty clearly!

    disagree with this also.

    SRB and ITA didn't go to world cup 2019 (granted, ITA didn't qualify)

    SRB didn't go to WGCC (and nobody cares that much about it really)


    I would say that immediately post-Rio it was China/Serbia, then briefly Italy/Serbia around 2017-18, and the first half of 2019 China/Serbia and after ECh 2019 all China.


    Well, until Tokyo 2021 :/

    Last cycle was China, silver Wch, gold World cup, gold Olympics.


    This cycle, with the result of this Olympics, we can say no one dominates this cycle.

    The best part about today's match was that Thompson gets to rest more so she'll be ready for gold medal match whether she or Annie starts.


    So proud of everyone! JWO is my hero. Her call on that Boskovic "almost" endline shot is iconic.

    Quote from Let's go orange

    Because they didn't play any of these tournaments with their A-team except for maybe 1 whole VNL tournament:whistle:

    And yes I'm gonna bring up ECH, because it's a though competition and they won it twice pretty clearly!

    Well, that brings up the question, how can you dominate the competitions if you didn't play the competitions or lose them with your B team?

    Afterall, the teams who didn't bring their best members to VNL got rekt. China, Italy, Serbia all considered to be the gold medal contender but they didn't show their power throughout the tournament.

    On the other hand, USA, Brazil, the best performing VNL teams are playing well at this tournament.

    Even Korea spend whole VNL as a practicing competition as our 5 out of 7 starters are out. It was terrible at the beginning but we got some team spirit and precious experiences so we became much stronger compared to the beginning.

    Winning mentality and overcoming hardships must be trained before the Olympics, but you can't learn it from NT camps, and it is getting clearer as the competition proceeds.

    It seems like

    non European hegemonist (self proclaimed) even WCH count as regional level competition.


    Serbia went to World Cup 2019. But they sent a B squad. They didnt care ^^

    You are right, China didnt "clearly" dominated the last Olympic cycle, but for me, they were the team closer to do it.

    Quote from Insider

    Last cycle was China, silver Wch, gold World cup, gold Olympics.


    This cycle, with the result of this Olympics, we can say no one dominates this cycle.

    could you really say they "dominated" though?


    Yes, on paper, I agree, but

    - they barely got into the final 4 in 2014 (thank you brazil for not throwing the match against DR)

    - had to rely on other people beating USA (and each other) to win 2015

    - literally played three good matches in 2016.


    even going into Rio most people thought it was be Brazil/USA.

    Well at least this way it was less disappointing than a close match but Serbia’s level was just not good enough. I’m not going to single out players because I think they all performed below the level they are capable of but ultimately USA is simply a better team who played much better today than Serbia did, particularly in block and defence but really in all elements.


    The very dominant and impressive performance against Italy gave me some hope but they couldn’t reproduce anything like that today, perhaps it said more about Italy’s level than Serbia’s. I’m wondering what Terzic thought he would achieve by serving on Larson constantly. I know it probably wouldn’t have made a big difference to the result because MBH is a decent passer but IMO she’s clearly weaker than Larson.


    I’m also curious about the Mihajlovic situation. I guess it was decided she was too injured to play but if she was ready at all she should have been on there because even at 20% of her best she would score more than any of the 4 liberos.


    It’s a fairly pathetic end to a really incredible cycle for Serbia sadly. I’ll always focus on the Serbia side of things but lastly I’ve got to congratulate USA for a great performance. :thumbup:

    Quote from Leonardo.D

    Serbia went to World Cup 2019. But they sent a B squad. They didnt care ^^

    You are right, China didnt "clearly" dominated the last Olympic cycle, but for me, they were the team closer to do it.

    Serbia without Boskovic/Rasic/Ognjenovic is not Serbia (sorry B team members)

    Final result is everything

    Brazil vs USA please.

    Excited for their rematch again.

    Y'alll.... WC and WGCC are such mediocre tournaments c'mon lmao, I never even know when they're happening. they literally won Wch, the most important tournament besides OG without question. No doubt they were one of the dominating forces but Mihajlovic is simply not what she once was and Milenkovic and Busa alone won't cut it.

    Quote from Insider

    Well, that brings up the question, how can you dominate the competitions if you didn't play the competitions or lose them with your B team?