CEV Champions League 2021

Quote from Toguttt

Busto is a low cost team, built with low budget, they signed the best they could with the money they had. Their management is made of very smart people who know how to make a good team with low budget, simply because they know about volleyball... and they have a 'vision'. They see where the potential is and they sign it when it's still cheap.. Jordyn Poulter and Alexa Gray this year, Herbots and Washington last year..and so on.

But CL semifinal is an overachievement that nobody would have ever expected. A huge success for this Italian club with low budget which should be taken as model example for many others.

100% agree with this statement.

Despite losing Lavarini. Orro, Herbots & Washington in a row, UYBA has become a team able to play volleyball in a modern, state-of-the art style: 3-people blockades, multiple attack combinations, quick and effective transitions from defense to attack. Vakif still may be stronger than Busto team -IMHO- but sure they will have to face a tough challenger, don't take the final exit for granted.

P.S.= Real happy to hear rumors about Poulter & Gray signin' with Busto for more year(s).

I've always prefered right handed opposites. Maybe it's just harder for Boskovic. Obviously, she's the best left-handed opposite in the world but...

...an RH opposite can do more when the team is struggling because of the availability of more shots. I think it's just nature. Some may call it evolution because of a time when people calling the right side for a righty the weak side of the court.

Yeah a lefty can spike with even the slightest open block but when it is an umbrella block... it's always a gamble even for Boskovic.

Quote from Rains

I've always prefered right handed opposites. Maybe it's just harder for Boskovic. Obviously, she's the best left-handed opposite in the world but...

...an RH opposite can do more when the team is struggling because of the availability of more shots. I think it's just nature. Some may call it evolution because of a time when people calling the right side for a righty the weak side of the court.

Yeah a lefty can spike with even the slightest open block but when it is an umbrella block... it's always a gamble even for Boskovic.

I disagree, being left handed is only an advantage for an opp, not a disadvantage. It is harder for right-handed players to hit from zone 2, that's the reason a lot of offensive OHs like Mihajlovic, Daalderop etc don't switch to Opp because their attack is not as strong from zone 2.

Quote from serdar

I disagree, being left handed is only an advantage for an opp, not a disadvantage. It is harder for right-handed players to hit from zone 2, that's the reason a lot of offensive OHs like Mihajlovic, Daalderop etc don't switch to Opp because their attack is not as strong from zone 2.

Well... the keyword is struggling.

Left handed opps are great when they aren't being figured out by the block and defense but right handed opposites IMO are constantly evolving during a game which is why I prefer them more.

I also have to count the times when setters under pressure are less likely to become erratic when passing a ball to a RHOp than to a LHOp because a righty usually can adjust to longer balls than lefties.

It's not really about who scores easier for me but who plays best when the team needs them the most which imo Boskovic is having most difficulty when facing the best clubs in Europe( which is usually where the struggle is most evident for Vitra.)

Quote from Rains

I also have to count the times when setters under pressure are less likely to become erratic when passing a ball to a RHOp than to a LHOp because a righty usually can adjust to longer balls than lefties.

Not at all, in fact, setter can be less precise in setting to the left-hander on the right wing, because if ball is too short, left-hander is able to correct her jump and body movement for a spike in much better way. That's the same reason why right-handers are generally better from a left wing.

Boskovic is among very best players past 5 years, if she gets criticized for Eczacibasi results, it's based on a fact she's no Wonder Woman nor Paola Egonu, but in fact she's only reason why Eczacibasi is any competitive this year. Tijana isn't setter-dependent, unless her setter is a mess, but then everyone is dependent on a setter but Wonder Woman and Paola Egonu.

Quote from Realista

Not at all, in fact, setter can be less precise in setting to the left-hander on the right wing, because if ball is too short, left-hander is able to correct her jump and body movement for a spike in much better way. That's the same reason why right-handers are generally better from a left wing.

Boskovic is among very best players past 5 years, if she gets criticized for Eczacibasi results, it's based on a fact she's no Wonder Woman nor Paola Egonu, but in fact she's only reason why Eczacibasi is any competitive this year. Tijana isn't setter-dependent, unless her setter is a mess, but then everyone is dependent on a setter but Wonder Woman and Paola Egonu.

That's only true for women's volleyball because there's a shortage in left handed OHs who are talented enough to play as receivers.

Trust me... if there are only female lefties who are as athletic as Boskovic but are also decent in reception, you'd see more women play like Kovacevic/Sliwka/Micheletto/Rossard as OHs.

Conegliano and Busto are playing at home second match of semi finals for CL.

Busto has something that non of Novara, Vakifbank and Conegliano has. Her name is Francesca Piccinini, Queen of CL.

The main problem with Eczacibasi was the manager. She made many bad decisions on signing contract.

In last a few years, she signed some players that the team do not really need, but missed important ones.

In 2016-17, she signed Kosheleva and missed Zhu, which turned out to be a big mistake.

And Eczacibasi always struggled to find talented local players, compared with Vakifbank.

Quote from crovolley

Conegliano and Busto are playing at home second match of semi finals for CL.

Busto has something that non of Novara, Vakifbank and Conegliano has. Her name is Francesca Piccinini, Queen of CL.

She's nightmare of turkish clubs

I was going to ask when was last time she lost to turkish and I remember they lost 2 leg of semi final

But she was victorius in tie break

Good retrospective

I dont think the team would have won even if it were Egonu who played as Opp instead of Boskovic. That team is just Eczacimessy.

Quote from yudeko

I dont think the team would have won even if it were Egonu who played as Opp instead of Boskovic. That team is just Eczacimessy.

😂

Quote from yudeko

That team is just Eczacimessy.

That sounds like good name for derby match: Eczacimessy vs Haakifbank 😍

Quote from yudeko

I dont think the team would have won even if it were Egonu who played as Opp instead of Boskovic. That team is just Eczacimessy.

I agree. Egonu was a beast and go to player when she played for Novara but her teammates were helping her a lot. I am not going to go into which one is better, to me they both are the best but different types of players. Yes, Egonu won CL almost herself but her teammates were helping her a lot in other elements of the game and she was playing with Carlini who is not the most creative setter but at least could set decently to her hitters. This is not the same situation we see in Eczacibasi. Setters are awful, Elif is promising but it doesn’t change the fact that she is not ready for this level. They transfer good locals but somehow coach cannot prepare bench players and when they get to play they play awful.

Well, I hope we get to see exciting matches in semifinals, even perhaps golden sets that decide the finalists. Fingers crossed.

Quote from Umu11

Egonu was a beast and go to player when she played for Novara but her teammates were helping her a lot.

Yeah, there's no comparison honestly, Novara had very good reception with Piccinini, good 2nd option on offense (Bartsch, who was the real MVP of the final against Conegliano), okay setter, very good middles and very good coach.

Quote from Umu11

Well, I hope we get to see exciting matches in semifinals, even perhaps golden sets that decide the finalists. Fingers crossed.

I'm in love with what Busto has been showing past few months, and I'm generally Novara supporter, but to be honest I don't predict that these semifinals will be competitive, Conegliano and Vakifbank are clearly better teams, and, although suprises are always possible, I think that in reality the advantage of these two teams over every other club team is pretty significant. This doesn't mean that those matches won't be nice to watch, I think style-wise those teams are pretty good matchups to each others, but the other question is if I really think that Busto can beat Vakifbank or Novara can overcome Conegliano: and I truly don't.

Imo this last game with savino was like a cold water shower for imoco...to reminds them that they should be always on alert

And vb i don't think they understimate busto specially that guidetti have a big respect for them

I doubt it will be a easy easy win but imo we can expect a superiority from both sides

I know Vakif and Imoco are superiors but I want Volleyball gods to be on call and bestow us exciting games.

Quote from Toguttt

But CL semifinal is an overachievement that nobody would have ever expected. A huge success for this Italian club with low budget which should be taken as model example for many others, especially some Turkish ones, who just have money but with no vision at all.

That's something that I forgot to comment about.

First of all, I'll write that I don't want to bash different league and other teams, so please don't perceive this post through prism of neverending discussions about Turkish and Italian leagues, blabla, because I don't care about that.

I think that Busto is an outlier (they won't repeat this result next year almost for sure), but at the same time, also an example why Italian league is really special: Busto has 5th/6th-highest budget in Italy (after Conegliano, Novara, Scandicci and Monza for sure), so they can't compete with top teams on trade market. That's why before this season, they lost Orro, Lavarini, Washington, Bonifacio, Lowe and Herbots, mostly to Novara, but also to Monza. On the other hand, they still have this fifth budget in very strong league, so they were able to hire interesting players from middle-level teams (Poulter from Chieri, Mingardi from Brescia, Olivotto from Bergamo), as well as nice players that for some reason didn't show their best while playing in top teams (Gray and Stevanovic from Scandicci). They also took some interesting players playing outside of Italy (Escamila from Germany).

So if you write that this is a 'model example' for some Turkish clubs, then I don't agree (although I know what did you mean). First of all, Busto has plenty of solid (Olivotto, Gennari), good (Mingardi) and very good (Leonardi) local players that weren't even with National Team in 2019, what says something about a depth of Italian NT in this specific moment. Secondly, with loose limits for foreigners, even when players like Herrera or Escamila didn't show anything special all season, it hasn't hurt Busto as a team, because other foreigners (Stevanovic and Gray) are suprisingly (in comparison to the past season) good. And thirdly, there are plenty of interesting players playing in middle-level teams, that can be a nice addition even for Champions League-calibre teams.

So this is a pure exemplification of why Italian league is really that joyful to watch: basically, within a league with solid-but-not-the-highest budget, if you're lucky enough you can build competitive team to the best teams in Europe. I know that you meant that fit, actual disoposition of players and so on are equally important to pure quality that these players possess, and this thinking some managements of Turkish clubs are lacking. But is Busto really an example to teams from other leagues? No, they're not, because outside of Italian league (depth of local players, number of foreigners, limits of foreigners, level of coaching) it would be much, much harder to create this Busto. And to create Busto in Italy is hard enough, because let's be honest, they were quite lucky that Gray has developed into first tier of offensive OHs this year, no one has truly expected she'll be among very best players of both Italian league and Champions League.

On the other hand, I wouldn't be so triumphic towards the Turkish clubs in place of Italian fans. Fenerbahce and Eczacibasi are lacking quality in fundamental areas both roster and management-wise, but it won't last forever, because those teams are still financially dominant over anybody in Europe. It's not a guarantee of a success, what is on display past few seasons in case of these two aforementioned clubs, but these clubs won't be disappointing forever. We're talking about organizations that are ~top5 European teams for over a decade, after all.

Quote from Realista

That's something that I forgot to comment about.

First of all, I'll write that I don't want to bash different league and other teams, so please don't perceive this post through prism of neverending discussions about Turkish and Italian leagues, blabla, because I don't care about that.

I think that Busto is an outlier (they won't repeat this result next year almost for sure), but at the same time, also an example why Italian league is really special: Busto has 5th/6th-highest budget in Italy (after Conegliano, Novara, Scandicci and Monza for sure), so they can't compete with top teams on trade market. That's why before this season, they lost Orro, Lavarini, Washington, Bonifacio, Lowe and Herbots, mostly to Novara, but also to Monza. On the other hand, they still have this fifth budget in very strong league, so they were able to hire interesting players from middle-level teams (Poulter from Chieri, Mingardi from Brescia, Olivotto from Bergamo), as well as nice players that for some reason didn't show their best while playing in top teams (Gray and Stevanovic from Scandicci). They also took some interesting players playing outside of Italy (Escamila from Germany).

So if you write that this is a 'model example' for some Turkish clubs, then I don't agree (although I know what did you mean). First of all, Busto has plenty of solid (Olivotto, Gennari), good (Mingardi) and very good (Leonardi) local players that weren't even with National Team in 2019, what says something about a depth of Italian NT in this specific moment. Secondly, with loose limits for foreigners, even when players like Herrera or Escamila didn't show anything special all season, it hasn't hurt Busto as a team, because other foreigners (Stevanovic and Gray) are suprisingly (in comparison to the past season) good. And thirdly, there are plenty of interesting players playing in middle-level teams, that can be a nice addition even for Champions League-calibre teams.

So this is a pure exemplification of why Italian league is really that joyful to watch: basically, within a league with solid-but-not-the-highest budget, if you're lucky enough you can build competitive team to the best teams in Europe. I know that you meant that fit, actual disoposition of players and so on are equally important to pure quality that these players possess, and this thinking some managements of Turkish clubs are lacking. But is Busto really an example to teams from other leagues? No, they're not, because outside of Italian league (depth of local players, number of foreigners, limits of foreigners, level of coaching) it would be much, much harder to create this Busto. And to create Busto in Italy is hard enough, because let's be honest, they were quite lucky that Gray has developed into first tier of offensive OHs this year, no one has truly expected she'll be among very best players of both Italian league and Champions League.

On the other hand, I wouldn't be so triumphic towards the Turkish clubs in place of Italian fans. Fenerbahce and Eczacibasi are lacking quality in fundamental areas both roster and management-wise, but it won't last forever, because those teams are still financially dominant over anybody in Europe. It's not a guarantee of a success, what is on display past few seasons in case of these two aforementioned clubs, but these clubs won't be disappointing forever. We're talking about organizations that are ~top5 European teams for over a decade, after all.

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I'm almost 100% agree about your comments

But some precision

Gray was amazing in Caserta but in Scandicci she arrived at the middle of season,she had bricio,pietrini to compete and then covid came so she couldn't show herself

Stevanovic suffered what every mb suffers in savino:MALINOV

About gray maybe for you but I follow this girl lately and she shines where she goes...she lead her team to almost win from Imoco

Was the best player in last Fivb Challenger Cup and was best score in last World Olympic Qualification Tournament,that added at what she did in caserta,I knew this girl had potential to be very BIG and now she's showing us

Quote from yudeko

I dont think the team would have won even if it were Egonu who played as Opp instead of Boskovic. That team is just Eczacimessy.

We will never know the answer to that hypothetical case, i believe otherwise. She has done it with a worse team before. She could easily do it with the current roster of eczacı as well. Carlini is not way better than Elif