2020 Olympics - Tokyo, Japan

  • Btw, I forgot to say this: Why did you bring your son to Tokyo if you would never let him play? Wasnt he better than Jan Martinez? To be honest, I dont remember at all Mendez Jr in a match. Not even as reception sub. I might me wrong, but I watched almost all Argentinian matches and I didnt see him.

    We all know that Martinez is far from being a Kliuka, Lucarelli or Juantorena, but please, he could have contrubuited much more than Palacios/Poglajen when these both players were playing poorly. Without a single doubt for me.


    Olympic SFs are an overachievement for Argentina and Mendez, well, yes. But I still havent "digested" not bringing Jan.

  • What spell did you cast? They were so focused. :rolll:

    by just being positive and happy. Seriously, i didnt squabble with any french haters in other platforms 😂.

  • Btw, I forgot to say this: Why did you bring your son to Tokyo if you would never let him play? Wasnt he better than Jan Martinez? To be honest, I dont remember at all Mendez Jr in a match. Not even as reception sub. I might me wrong, but I watched almost all Argentinian matches and I didnt see him.

    We all know that Martinez is far from being a Kliuka, Lucarelli or Juantorena, but please, he could have contrubuited much more than Palacios/Poglajen when these both players were playing poorly. Without a single doubt for me.


    Olympic SFs are an overachievement for Argentina and Mendez, well, yes. But I still havent "digested" not bringing Jan.

    For Paris my boys Jan, Armoa and Palonsky with one more round of Facu, please:heart: Hopefully a miracle will happen and we'll find a better opposite than Lima but I have not much of a hope on that.

  • Brazil has enough medals, give it to Argentina this time;(

    Leal has no medal and this team won VNL... World Cup... imo they deserve not to left tokyo empty hands

  • I think France gonna pull a China in 2016 for final. Coming from the 4th place in pool, and then BAMM, grab that gold. Russia is showing a good condition, but France really has a magic in their bag.

  • Argentina’s serve & reception, which was a key factor helping them going this far in Tokyo, betrayed them badly in this match. They just couldn’t stop the service errors today and France was almost always in system when they finally served the balls in… Adding that Conte & Loser were the only spikers playing in this match, it seemed to me that half of their team were mentally not ready for this stage of the biggest tournament. It’s really disappointing as they were the most enjoyable team to watch in pool stage and their win over Italy was convincing. I didn’t expect they flopped so hard just after one day.:aww:

    Credits to Clevenot & Patry, both played excellent and (finally) helped their team to shift the key attack player position away from NG. This really helped the French team a lot, no more stupid attack mistakes due to NG’s will to show off in clutch moments.

  • My baby Trevor Clevenot 🥰, Yacine Louati 😍, Antoine Brizard, Jean Patry, Bart Chinenyeze and Jenia Grebennikov 🍾🍾🍾🇨🇵🇨🇵🇨🇵🙏🙏🙏💪💪💪

    Honestly: are we dreaming, though? :lol:

    I feel like we are. France is playing the freaking gold medal match!!! At this point I'm honestly waiting for Leonardo DiCaprio to show up with his spinning totem to tell me I need to wake up.

    Les gars!!! ;(

    This week the volleyball gods have been too good to me and I'm undeserving, for I again overslept and missed everything. I feel like I haven't slept at all the past week. (Now if they could only find a way for KYK and her girls to get a medal too, I'd refrain from asking them stuff ever again...)



    And to my friends from Argentina, and everyone else who supported this team, my commiseration! I know it must be hurtful to miss the final in such a fashion, after having such an amazing tournament up until this point. For what it's worth, I'm supporting these guys all the way in the bronze medal, and hoping with all my heart they're able to channel Javier Weber and Marcos Milinkovic in 2000 (don't know if it's a coincidence, but back then I couldn't bring myself to root for the Radamés NT as well). And I just feel this guys would cherish a bronze medal so much more than Renan's guys. Anyway, I'll be with you.

  • I hope this is not the last olympic match of my man (see my avatar).

    Hoping he will go to his 5th in Paris, as at least a backup OP (or even a defensive OH lol).


    Serious question, has any OP (primarily) made olympics more than even 3 times?

  • I think France gonna pull a China in 2016 for final. Coming from the 4th place in pool, and then BAMM, grab that gold. Russia is showing a good condition, but France really has a magic in their bag.

    I think it's 50/50.


    Good to remember that France beat Russia not only here in the group match but also in VNL, so I don't they can be considered at any scenario the underdog in this final.


    But hopefully the 4th placement won't work and Russia will take it🤪

  • Last time two from the same group played the Gold match and won both games was in 2004.


    2016: Brazil lost to Italy in stage group. Brazil won Gold against Italy

    2012: Russia lost to Brazil in stage group. Russia won Gold against Brazil

    2008: not from the same group

    2004: Brazil won both games against Italy

  • Ok, I just rewatched Brazil vs Russia and now I can say a thing or two more objectively, without the hot emotions of watching it live.

    Obviously the 20 x 13 comeback was the mental core of this match. Though Brazil regrouped a bit and had a decent 4th set, it let their guard down after that. It takes a really, really, really mentally strong team to be able to overcome such a monumental setback.

    And being perfectly honest, I don't even think Brazil played that poorly to justify such a choke. It was just an amount of things that kept contributing to it, like Podlesnykh's fearlessness and precision while serving and Mikhaylov's composure in the attacks and counterattacks. Maxim knew exactly what he was doing in each decision he made.

    For Brazil, the crisis was concentrated in sideout. When Lucarelli was finally able to give Bruno decent passes, the setter did what he had to do. He had some imprecisions throughout the match, but particularly in clutch time in the 3rd, I don't think he did. Long story short: when Leal and Wallace needed to score, they weren't able to. Maybe a double substitution would've been helpful, but Renan couldn't bring himself to make it.

    This makes me think that historically Brazil male NT's biggest successes were always within a certain kind of game plan, which plays best to the Brazilians best qualities. This game plan involves having an excellent setter who's able lead a group technical, dynamic, fast and usually not very tall attackers. This is what happened in the 80's with William da Silva (silver generation), in Barcelona-1992 with Maurício and in the era of Bernardinho in the 00's with Ricardinho. Rio-2016 seems to have been something totally different, outside the curve.

    The current Brazilian NT doesn't employ this type of game plan. The impression that I have is that ever since 2019 at least, the plan is to try to more or less copy Sada Cruzeiro's style, with a strongly physical game and a "suicidal" serving tactic. This seems to match pretty well the current style of play among the strongest European teams, but I don't think it necessarily suits Brazil's biggest assets. (Plus, no William Arjona). It's not necessarily about blaming individual players, but we can see this is a choice carefully made, hence the importance of Leal's naturalization. I think Douglas, for instance, is a player that's in great form and really suits this "Brazilian school of volleyball", if we will. But if the priority is to copy Sada's style, of course it makes no theoretical sense to sub either Leal or Lucarelli. Ideas over problem solving, it seems to be.

    As for the Russians, right now they seem to me a team that reminds me a lot better of how the "old Brazil" used to be. Of course physicality is super important to them too. But with guys like Mikhaylov and Kliuka being their "go-to guys", they seem to be relying a lot more on technique and smart shots than in power.

    Interestingly, I caught an interview that Sammelvuo (kudos to him, BTW) gave to Brazilian TV where he said that his guys started the 3rd set too agressively, to the point where they lost their better judgement. (Besides Mikhaylov, this is a pretty young team, right?) Then, when it seemed that everything was lost they sorta "gave up", but in a way where they finally became more relaxed to execute their game. Coupled with Brazil's problems, this relaxed attitude worked wonders. Anyway, I'm curious to see how this golden medal final plays out.

  • Btw, at the end the score was 20x13, not 20x12. I also thought it was 20x12, but there was a mistake made by the referees.

    Moreover, Brazil was up 22-17 and 23-19 too :gone: Gosh! We know this could happen (rarely, but it happens), but what bothers me the most is that the answer from the bench came too late (Isac) or it simply didnt even come. Wallace was already struggling a lot to score, despite of Bruno left him with one only block and even WITHOUT block. Renan could have tried Alan for a while :wall:


    For Russia, well, Maxim Mikhaylov is the best OPP of the last decade. So far, his numbers in Tokyo were not so good as in the VNL and there were some matches where he got low spike efficiency to his standards (below 35%). This is the match where he got his better % (48.48), aside the one against Tunisia (52%). Maxim appeared when it mattered the most.

  • Btw, at the end the score was 20x13, not 20x12. I also thought it was 20x12, but there was a mistake made by the referees.

    Moreover, Brazil was up 22-17 and 23-19 too :gone: Gosh! We know this could happen (rarely, but it happens), but what bothers me the most is that the answer from the bench came too late (Isac) or it simply didnt even come. Wallace was already struggling a lot to score, despite of Bruno left him with one only block and even WITHOUT block. Renan could have tried Alan for a while :wall:


    For Russia, well, Maxim Mikhaylov is the best OPP of the last decade. So far, his numbers in Tokyo were not so good as in the VNL and there were some matches where he got low spike efficiency to his standards (below 35%). This is the match where he got his better % (48.48), aside the one against Tunisia (52%). Maxim appeared when it mattered the most.

    (That set that Bruno let him without block and he still couldn't score was quite brutal.)


    But, yeah, they fooled us all with the fake 20 x 12. However, I believe that 20 x 12 will be the mark that enters into the history books, because the memes already documented as if it was the real score. Throughout the day, even Felipe Neto (maybe the biggest Brazilian digital influencer?), kept reminding his followers that it was 20 x 12, and it's unbelievable. Anyways, in Brazil, at least this is the new 24 x 19.




    As for Maxim, right... I remember watching him struggling in the 1st phase against USA and thinking that eventually he would lose his spot as a starter. So, it speaks volumes that he stepped up in the one match where it mattered the most.