2020 Olympics - Tokyo, Japan

    Ok, I missed most of ARG-ITA so I'm gonna do a whole nice rewatch now.



    Obviously, so happy :dance6:


    And it's great that our team has to play France now, at least there is a chance with them. Poland is simply unplayable for Argentina.



    I wonder if Tillie will still play Brizard. He was bad in the group game with ARG while Toniutti changed the match positively for the team in that match, even though they lost at the end.

    Gosh talk about having a decent backup setter.


    Sanchez: contributed well in double sub vs. USA and made great decision today in 5th set vs. ITA

    Brizard: direct sub today and turned the match around

    Fernando: saved Bruno's ass a few times


    OTOH, there are Lomacz and K Shoji:gone:

    Leading up to to the SFs, who's your dream team so far? Here's mine:


    S: De Cecco

    Opp: Patry

    MB: Iakovlev, Lucas, Le Goff

    OH: Volkov, Conte, Clevenot

    L: Grebennikov, Danani


    Group B is much tougher than group A in preliminary round. Every team in group B had to fight hard to get a spot, therefore they already got used to the intense competition.


    Italy and Poland had a few "easy games" in group A. But when the competition level suddenly raised in knockout, they were not fully prepared.


    It's like a copy of Women's volley in Rio 2016, all 4 teams from host group were eliminated in 1/4.

    Quote from Bush

    Of course the best match so far had to be between the two best technical teams. :whistle:


    France will upset someone at QF and I'm living for it.

    I saw that happening. Poland and OG just don't match each other. Congrats France, well game played!


    But especially: CONGRATS ARGENTINA! Tremendous win, they deserved this, this generation deserves the chance to fight for a medal at OG.


    Danani, Conte, De Cecco, Lima: my heart is yours. :heart:

    Ever since 2015, France has been my favorite team. (I remember also enjoying very much that generation that got bronze medal in the WCH in Argentina, in 2002, with Daquin, Antiga, Henno, etc. It was disappointing when they didn't make past the group stage in the 2004 Olympics. I also have a soft spot for Pierre Pujol.) It was heartbreaking how again they weren't able to move past the group phase in 2016. Their win in the world league in 2017 gave the fans new hope. But ever since that time, it felt, at least for me, that something had been broken in this group of players. I started readjusting my expectations. Thus, it took me by surprise when they won the Qualification Tournament in Berlin, early 2020, against all odds, losing Boyer, all of Ngapeth's ... (let's call baggage), and everything. I thought "Cool, maybe they can redeem themselves in Tokyo", but still with very low expectations.


    Didn't watch the match against USA, but learning the result slapped reality in my face. (Or maybe reality slapped me in the face). I watched the match against Argentina and was kinda horrified by the amount of mistakes these guys were making. I went back to a safe place in my heart that said France had no business being in the knockout round and history would just repeat itself again. Didn't watch the match against Russia and I'm still wondering what happened there that brought this guys back from volleyball hell, because I sure saw them being kicked out of the Olympics after that, like, duh, no brainer.


    In this match against Poland I still had my expectations held very low, and imagined they could actually play pretty well, and thought they actually had the capacity of beating Poland, but, being very frank, didn't believe and didn't expect them to do so.


    Now rationality is out the door and I simply have no idea what to expect, except that I hope they can keep this momentum, but you never know. But after learning of the result of Argentina and before the last match of quarterfinals, I produced a twisted fantasy in my mind that I didn't expect to be anything but a fantasy. I feel a bit ashamed of sharing it, but in the very odd scenario that it might eventually happen, I need to at least register it, because if I don't, no one will believe I actually called it.


    France beats Poland in the quarterfinals (this happened, but that's one thing). In the semis, France beats Argentina (I'll be gutted if it happens, because I really like Argentina, but that's life. If Argentina wins, i'll be super stoked for "nuestros hermanos" and just a tiny bit disappointed that France probably won't have a medal, but I can tell right now that the feeling of France arriving 4th it's already a good feeling compared to the feelings of the past). Russia beats Brazil (won't be too mad if this happens, but it won't). Bronze medal: Argentina pulls a Seoul-88 and beats Brazil. Gold medal: France beats Russia.


    None of this will happen, since it's just a fantasy of mine. But if it happens, I fantasized it first.

    Stats:


    Best Scorer (clap2x)


    1. Bruno Lime

    2. Jean Patry

    3. Earvin N'Gapeth

    4. Facundo Conte

    5. Trevor Clevenot

    Stats:


    Best Attacker


    01. Jean Patry

    02. Trevor Clevenot

    03. Ricardo Lucarelli

    04. Yoandy Leal

    05. Ezequiel Palacios

    06. Earvin N'Gapeth

    07. Bruno Lima

    08. Wallace de Souza

    09. Maxim Mikhaylov

    10. Dmitry Volkov

    11. Egor Kliuka

    12. Facundo Conte

    Just an observation: they erased the players who have been eliminated from the rankings.

    Yes, they put NR on eliminated players.

    I’m so nervous right now! Let’s go Brazil!!! We got this!