Serbia NT 2020

  • I thought it was just that Ana doesn’t want to be a bench player, not that they don’t like each other?

    One resulted from the other. When you spend your whole career in someone's shadow, you naturally start to resent them, and from there to mutual antipathy is a short path.

  • Part of it is a very bad luck (both for being born in the same country and within a few years of such a prodigy as Maja, as well as the injuries), but just as big a part is her stubborn pride. Her trophy collection could have been almost as impressive as Maja's (at fraction of an effort, at that), if she had only been willing to play second violin. At certain stage (after 2011), she no longer was, and the rest is history.

  • As far as I understand this is a wider list only for the Olympics, I hope that the list for the League of Nations (if any) will be joined(Replace for players that will definitely not play League of Nations (Maja, Drca, Brankica, Milena, Stefana, Silvija, Tijana) by some other players, such as Jovana Mirosavljevic certainly and possibly setter from Vizura Andjela Veselinovic. I'm glad to see Bozica Markovic on the list.

  • What happened to Radenkovic? She was considered as a big prospect and then I haven't heard anything from her for a while. Did she quit playing? Also why is Savic missing?:teach:


    This roster is quite old by the way. Among the final 12 players, only Boskovic, Milenkovic and Busa will be in the team in Paris :white:

  • What happened to Radenkovic? She was considered as a big prospect and then I haven't heard anything from her for a while. Did she quit playing? Also why is Savic missing?:teach:


    This roster is quite old by the way. Among the final 12 players, only Boskovic, Milenkovic and Busa will be in the team in Paris :white:

    Radenkovic play in Altay together with Milenkovic, but she just didn't reach that quality to be able to count on her for the biggest competitions.

    I would say that she was unlucky, in the sense that she is a couple of years younger than three Serbian fantastic setters but not young enough to be managed as their succesor, she is now an established player, she did not have her chance in the national team (she played in European the league seems to me to have been in the broader squad), and now it has been stagnant for a couple of seasons and I dare say that it plays for shade and worse than before.

    This golden generation at its end, if is not after Olympic then after Eurovolley next year in Belgrade(final phase), Serbian national team will look different (at least without Maja and Silvija, quite possible Blagojevic also,....).

    You forget only to mention third middle blocker from this year olympic squad for Paris olympic squad, be it Popovic or Aleksic( this is maybe the hardest decision for final roster, IMO that should be Popovic but i love Aleksic too that i have no problem if she will be in Tokyo).

  • Radenkovic play in Altay together with Milenkovic, but she just didn't reach that quality to be able to count on her for the biggest competitions.

    I would say that she was unlucky, in the sense that she is a couple of years younger than three Serbian fantastic setters but not young enough to be managed as their succesor, she is now an established player, she did not have her chance in the national team (she played in European the league seems to me to have been in the broader squad), and now it has been stagnant for a couple of seasons and I dare say that it plays for shade and worse than before.

    This golden generation at its end, if is not after Olympic then after Eurovolley next year in Belgrade(final phase), Serbian national team will look different (at least without Maja and Silvija, quite possible Blagojevic also,....).

    You forget only to mention third middle blocker from this year olympic squad for Paris olympic squad, be it Popovic or Aleksic( this is maybe the hardest decision for final roster, IMO that should be Popovic but i love Aleksic too that i have no problem if she will be in Tokyo).

    Thanks for the info. What do you think about Savic, I thought she was playing solid very solid last couple of years but she never made it to next level like Popovic or Stevanovic did before.


    Serbia has many prospects that were great at youth level but never reached to next level, besides Radenkovic, Sara Klisura and Drpa comes to my mind


    By the way you are right, I forget about Popovic. She will be only 30 during Paris OG. 4 experienced players are good core to start another Olympic cycle

  • Thanks for the info. What do you think about Savic, I thought she was playing solid very solid last couple of years but she never made it to next level like Popovic or Stevanovic did before.


    Serbia has many prospects that were great at youth level but never reached to next level, besides Radenkovic, Sara Klisura and Drpa comes to my mind


    By the way you are right, I forget about Popovic. She will be only 30 during Paris OG. 4 experienced players are good core to start another Olympic cycle

    Obviously, Savic cannot get over and overtake that step which is the difference between good and excellent players, who are above all mentally able to cope with the pressure that carries with them important matches such as in big clubs, and especially in the Serbian national team. She had the physical potential, she also still has a very solid block technique, but she clearly lacks confidence. She also had some injuries that slowed her down, and even now in Romania where she plays at Dinamo Bucharest this season, she played very well the first half of the season to be on the bench now, though I have to admit I doubt that the injury in question because it just suddenly stopped playing at all, and it is in the lineup so it upsets me, but I believe someone will have more accurate information.


    The carriers of the Serbian national team IMO will be Mirkovic, Busa, Lazovic, Boskovic, Popovic, Aleksic, Pusic that would be some rejuvenated first line-up with one or two more years Mihajlovic, Rasic, Veljkovic and certainly Milenkovic counting as someone who could help and of course I hope the plugins and shine will eventually be played by younger selections. (Mirosavljevic, Bozica Markovic, Djokic,......). Ofc that is far from this generation, but God no one can expect that small country like Serbia and invisible system of Volleyball in Serbia could produce so many world class player in the SAME time and connect in this gold generation.

  • What do you think is the reason for Serbia not having good generations recently. Between 1990s till 1997s, Serbia was incredibly successful at junior competitions, constantly. All of a sudden, starting from generation 1998s and younger, they are not medal contenders unlike Italy, Russia and Turkey. Of course results at junior level does not necessarily translate to senior level but I think it is a good indication. Was there are fundamental change at youth academies recently or it was just unlucky years for Serbia. To be honest, I was expecting even better generations to come up after glory times of Serbian NT in last decade since more and more girls would probably start playing volleyball thanks to this success. (This was the case for Turkey, a lot of young girls started to play volleyball in 2003 when turkey won silver medal at Ech and since then we have very good generations upcoming

  • What do you think is the reason for Serbia not having good generations recently. Between 1990s till 1997s, Serbia was incredibly successful at junior competitions, constantly. All of a sudden, starting from generation 1998s and younger, they are not medal contenders unlike Italy, Russia and Turkey. Of course results at junior level does not necessarily translate to senior level but I think it is a good indication. Was there are fundamental change at youth academies recently or it was just unlucky years for Serbia. To be honest, I was expecting even better generations to come up after glory times of Serbian NT in last decade since more and more girls would probably start playing volleyball thanks to this success. (This was the case for Turkey, a lot of young girls started to play volleyball in 2003 when turkey won silver medal at Ech and since then we have very good generations upcoming

    After basically any success of NT there is at least 3 three stories that follow, about the doom of younger selections and club volleyball in Serbia, as they try to catch short media attention they just got. There are certainly lot more girls playing volleyball, but that produced a lot of new clubs who don't develop talents but instead just give them balls to play with and they never improve technique. And in the clubs who have tradition, they try to gather biggest talents, but financial conditions are bad so some coaches would rather work abroad and they all have good CVs from being a coach of young Boskovic f.e. If they would have a way of keeping good players and coaches for a longer in a league (which is hard with no money) they would have chances for medals after some time. They are probably going with "It worked till now, it will continue working, so no need to invest", but youth academies and the whole volleyball system in Italy, Turkey are now incomparable to the one in Serbia and it started to show.

  • In addition to what penguin stated above, as far as senior success goes (and as you yourself once pointed out, serdar) it's simply not realistic for a country as small as Serbia to get another generation with 5 generational talents as this one. Even Turkey, which is much more populous, has more girls playing the sport AND invest much more in it has not (yet) had as good a generation as Serbia has had since 2015.


    Also, one of only 2 really contested places for the final 12 in Tokyo (if it's not cancelled) is the 4th OH, which could be either Blagojevic or Lazovic. If the latter, than 5 players in Tokyo will still be available in Paris.

  • In addition to what penguin stated above, as far as senior success goes (and as you yourself once pointed out, serdar) it's simply not realistic for a country as small as Serbia to get another generation with 5 generational talents as this one. Even Turkey, which is much more populous, has more girls playing the sport AND invest much more in it has not (yet) had as good a generation as Serbia has had since 2015.


    Also, one of only 2 really contested places for the final 12 in Tokyo (if it's not cancelled) is the 4th OH, which could be either Blagojevic or Lazovic. If the latter, than 5 players in Tokyo will still be available in Paris.

    I think it would make sense to bring blagojevic. Serbian system relies on 2 player reception and in the case of injury of Busa during tournament, Serbia would collapse. Blagojevic is the only one who can play Busa's role. Also she can play as Libero. To me, lazovic's competition is Milenkovic, not Blagojevic. They are similar style of players and Milenkovic hasn't proved herself after her injury

  • There are certainly lot more girls playing volleyball, but that produced a lot of new clubs who don't develop talents but instead just give them balls to play with and they never improve technique. And in the clubs who have tradition, they try to gather biggest talents, but financial conditions are bad so some coaches would rather work abroad and they all have good CVs from being a coach of young Boskovic f.e. If they would have a way of keeping good players and coaches for a longer in a league (which is hard with no money) they would have chances for medals after some time.

    That's the crucial thing. We have so many girls taking up this sport now, but what we're severely lacking are good coaches. These new clubs that are popping up everywhere are just a way for people to make a quick buck and a lot of the "coaches" are completely inexperienced and frankly disinterested in improving their skills, instead just cashing it in while there's still so much interest.

    But I wouldn't start panicking just yet, the real effect of the golden generation will be seen in a few years time, when young girls who started playing volleyball looking up to them grow up a bit. There might be some real talent there.


    Also, I'm pretty sure at least some out of Mihajlović, Rašić and Veljković will go on until Paris, although they may skip some competitions in the meantime.

    I think Brankica is counting on it - Maja has recently said that she talked to her and told her she'd be in Paris in 2024 watching them from the stands. <3

  • To me, lazovic's competition is Milenkovic, not Blagojevic. They are similar style of players and Milenkovic hasn't proved herself after her injury

    I agree with penguin+janko statements about Serbian youth category, IMO most important is what Janko said, it is simply unrealistic to expect a small country like Serbia to throw out world-class players every two or three years, not to mention how difficult it is when add what the penguin has nicely explained about the state and absence of a system for developing young players, with 0 investments, they do not have time for long camps and playoffs because most juniors already play one of the major roles in the senior teams of the clubs where they play.


    And i forget to mentioned in my previous post that actually my 4 OH for OG is Mihajlovic, Blagojevic, Busa for sure and IMO Lazovic as 4th no Milenkovic, so also absolutely agree with that.

  • That's the crucial thing. We have so many girls taking up this sport now, but what we're severely lacking are good coaches. These new clubs that are popping up everywhere are just a way for people to make a quick buck and a lot of the "coaches" are completely inexperienced and frankly disinterested in improving their skills, instead just cashing it in while there's still so much interest.

    But I wouldn't start panicking just yet, the real effect of the golden generation will be seen in a few years time, when young girls who started playing volleyball looking up to them grow up a bit. There might be some real talent there.


    Also, I'm pretty sure at least some out of Mihajlović, Rašić and Veljković will go on until Paris, although they may skip some competitions in the meantime.

    I think Brankica is counting on it - Maja has recently said that she talked to her and told her she'd be in Paris in 2024 watching them from the stands. <3

    Yeah, I meant to mention it, but I honestly expect both Brankica and Stefana to play in Paris (barring anything unforeseen). Brankica lives and breathes volleyball, loves to play for NT and 33 is not too old. As for Stefana she has, on paper, a huge mileage but in the early part of her career she had string of health problems, which meant she didn't play as much as she could have (not to mention that she spent most of her NT career prior to 2017 on the bench). That's a big part of the reason why she has played better in the last couple of years than ever before. Plus, she has a chance to enter a very exclusive club of those who played in 5 Olympics.


    But with Milena, I'm afraid there is no chance. She might not even play until the next World Championship (but she could prove me wrong).

  • Yeah, I meant to mention it, but I honestly expect both Brankica and Stefana to play in Paris (barring anything unforeseen). Brankica lives and breathes volleyball, loves to play for NT and 33 is not too old. As for Stefana she has, on paper, a huge mileage but in the early part of her career she had string of health problems, which meant she didn't play as much as she could have (not to mention that she spent most of her NT career prior to 2017 on the bench). That's a big part of the reason why she has played better in the last couple of years than ever before. Plus, she has a chance to enter a very exclusive club of those who played in 5 Olympics.


    But with Milena, I'm afraid there is no chance. She might not even play until the next World Championship (but she could prove me wrong).

    Indeed playing 5th olympics could be a big kick! Let's hope an injury free 4 years for Veljkoviç!