Italian Women NT 2021

    Quote from Umu11

    Another question, Serena Ortolani said in an interview after WCH 2018 how she was the mediator in the team, how she spent a lot of time talking to girls and solving disputes. Do you guys think that not having someone like Ortolani was the problem? Or was there someone like her? Who? I haven’t seen any negative attitude during the OG, yet having your captain changed just in the summer of OG is a bit worrisome in both ways.

    In an interview after yesterday's game Mazzanti (kind of) said Egonu was doing all that

    Quote from avid

    Italy should invest in Karch Kiraly.


    he loves to have a team and not just Egonu ball


    😌😌😌:lol:

    Sorry but he will stay in usa till los angeles and maybe there he will retire :lol::lol::lol:

    Quote from voulter

    In an interview after yesterday's game Mazzanti (kind of) said Egonu was doing all that

    Well seems like she forgot to take responsibility for herself as she was managing everyone else then. Surprised this is the case tbh, you'd expect someone a bit older/experienced or the captain to step in these moments.


    In Turkey it's definitely Simge and Eda for example.

    Quote from beri

    Well seems like she forgot to take responsibility for herself as she was managing everyone else then. Surprised this is the case tbh, you'd expect someone a bit older/experienced or the captain to step in these moments.


    In Turkey it's definitely Simge and Eda for example.

    I don't think that's fair, the team seemed to be way more relaxed among eachother than in the recent past. Then who knows what her issue has been but I wouldn't say she didn't take responsability for herself

    Quote from voulter

    The character assasination on the girls (and Egonu in particular) going on on the press/media here in Italy is honestly out of line :wacko:


    Hopefully the girls won't be affected too much but YKES

    :O what happened.

    Quote from beri

    :O what happened.

    It all started with an interview Mazzanti gave after the match with Serbia, he was asked if he thought the general context had an influence on the performance and among other things he said that he SUGGESTED the girls to not pay a lot of attention to social media because once you start reading negative comments/critiques it can be hard to shake them off, and that he didn't knew if they actually did it but regardless this is not the reason of s uch a poor performance.


    The press took the bit about social media and run with it taking it complitely out of context and editorializing it as "the trainer gave orders to not use social media but the girls were too busy taking selfies" with every single outlet reporting that news (including some ridiculous stuff as posting pictures of Conegliano instead of the actual team), I literally just saw a report on the tv news about the two faces of the Olympics with on one side athletes that got the gold sweating and hustling and on the other the volley girls taking selfies. Basically now they're seen by the general public as the vapid girls that only care about their likes and their followers instead of putting effort in what they do, which is honestly not even remotely true, none of them is even THAT active or trying to reach some "influencer" status as some players from other countries (not that there is anything wrong with that just to be clear).


    And with Egonu well she's single handedly considered the one and only reason of the loss, with every being title being like "No medals for Egonu" plus getting the usual contrarian right wing bullshit of her being there just for political reasons and pushing an agenda (being black and LGBT) and not for actual sport merits. I've even seen many people on Twitter/Facebook etc claiming she was "gifted" citizenship for no merits which is very obviously not true (she obteined citizenship in the most linear and straightforward way, with her parents getting it when she was still a minor and passing it onto her). Her Instagram was a shit show right after Serbia match, I saw the negative comments have been deleted and I hope she had someone else doing it because there was some real vile stuff.


    I honestly can't wait for the Olympic fever to get over it and everyone forgetting about them until Paris ;(

    Ugh... :thumbdown: Sadly those types of people still exist among us... and even in quite large quantities but they're a dying breed, slower than I would wish for sadly but it is what it is... Anyways all we can hope for is indeed for this to die down as you said and it surely will. Hope indeed Paola didn't read all of it

    Sigh, Egonu is the only reason Italy was a contender to begin with.

    Quote from Brazil_lover

    What do Italians think about Rachele Morello (setter of Italy in 2019 JWCH) and Gaia Guiducci (setter and MVP of 2021 JWCH)? Do you think they are good prospects for Italian team in the setter position?

    I like Guiducci more but tbh I don't see her stepping up to get an undisputed spot as starter for national team (a good/decent back up could be realistic though), but I don't think she will get much playing time in Perugia this year so in an even shorter cycle I don't see her getting an important spot on NT. I think she will be tried on some weeks of VNL in the next year and she will probably make it to the roster for minor tournaments but until Paris that's about it. And same goes for Morello (and possibly Scola) but i have even less hopes on them.


    But again considering setter position for Italy is anything but locked who knows what will happen, hopefully one of them or one of the current ones (including Bosio in this) actually steps up and locks the position but I'm going to keep my hopes (very) low about it.


    Usually italian setters are very good on youth level compared to girls from other countries but in most cases that's due to better training on technical level rather than actually being more talented

    I hate it when people think less of someone based on their social media presence. It doesn’t show anything. I mean yeah there are bad stuff but you can work hard and also have fun in life and show it on your social media. There is nothing wrong with it and I’m not big on social media.

    Quote from Umu11

    I hate it when people think less of someone based on their social media presence. It doesn’t show anything. I mean yeah there are bad stuff but you can work hard and also have fun in life and show it on your social media. There is nothing wrong with it and I’m not big on social media.

    I agree, but that narrative appeals a lot to the older generation of "kids today only think about their phones, back in my days we were actually having fun and getting to work" and all that while commenting on their social media on a subject they don't even care about other than these two weeks every four years. The cognitive dissonance is real lol

    Quote from beri

    Ugh... :thumbdown: Sadly those types of people still exist among us... and even in quite large quantities but they're a dying breed, slower than I would wish for sadly but it is what it is... Anyways all we can hope for is indeed for this to die down as you said and it surely will. Hope indeed Paola didn't read all of it

    Media is really the worst. They're the ones that piggyback off athletes/teams success, but also the ones that'll tear them down if they don't succeed. It's really sad with all the dirty tactics they have to do to stay relevant.

    I had watch matches of Conegliano and connection between Egonu and Wolosz and to compare it with Malinov/Orro.


    Egonu gets literally 1,5M closer to the net in backrow attack from position 1 from Wolosz. In this situation She is much closer to the net and block. She spikes the balls much sharper, that is why She doesn’t make so many mistakes like in NT.
    Same situation is when She attack from position 2. Even though She is front She again gets sets closer to the net that is why She is attacking much easier over the block and sharper.

    Even MBs (Robin, Folie and Fahr) when they setimg to her are setting closer to the net. (1:01-Robin set) Again Santarelli work.


    With Malinov and Orro She was always behind with her approach, than her arm swing was streched and She couldn’t attack sharp.


    And this is where problems started. Totally wrong connection, fast system hard to adjust your approach. Making mistakes, making error, confidence gone, attack without full force because of fear…


    In this video you can literally see how She gets sets much closer to the net. Santarelli really made her a beast player and pull out the best from her.


    Santarelli doesn’t gets enough credits how he turned Egonu in to the best player. He learned Egonu how to reduce mistakes because He adjust her approach and pull out the best from her arm swing.



    Egonu hasn't changed a bit in Imoco. She's just playing in a system she fits in better. Her technical skills are still quite weak for an elite player. Her physical power is unmatchable for the others, but she's overall behind Boskovic in terms of technical skills, mentality and leadership. Maybe Zhu is still better too. When she left Vakifbank to come back to China, she lost something in her game and her level dropped a bit (probably because she just played about 3 months in total during the last 2 club seasons). Egonu played for a few months this summer with Malinov and Orro and didn't manage to adapt technically (it goes both ways for her and the setters, the blame is to share). She will improve for the next Olympic Games hopefully.