Brazil NT 2021

Quote from Realista

He's not a great receiver, so it is a serious limitation of his impact considering he's 191cm tall and he's not that great offensively, this year he was a bit disappointing tbh. Honorato or Vaccari may have chances to compete for a 3rd-4th spot in NT, cause I don't think it'll make any sense to give Mauricio a shot at the beginning of a next cycle and onwards, but only Adriano has both physical and technical tools to make an impact as a cornerstone type of player in a future, but he needs 2-3 more years to do that, and he obviously needs to develop a lot. Leal, considering he lost 9 years in NTs and a way how Brazilian NT has functioned in a while (lot of post-30yo players), should play as long as he's good enough, and Cubans have had regularly some great longevity as volleyball players.

Agreed. I don't think Vaccari is gonna have an impactful future within the NT. I really like him, but unless he greatly improves his reception and manages to be the kind of player that Kubiak for example is, he ain't gonna cut it. I think Adriano has a lot more potential than him as well -- at 199cm and 19yo, he's already shown a lot of maturity this last Superliga and now playing for a bigger team should do him good.

Aside from Adriano though, there aren't many OHs coming up so far. The one I'm the most excited for is 17yo, 204cm Arthur Bento from Minas -- everyone says he's very, very promising and he's even entered the court for short bits this last Superliga with Minas. I'm also rooting for Nathan, mostly for his attitude on court than his performances per se, but he needs to play a lot more in order to be consistent. There's also 16yo, 215cm Maicon from the U19 team (alongside Arthur), but he's still way too green as well.

Quote from Realista

I'd say Rodriguinho may have bigger chances than both Honorato and Vaccari to make some impact, he's no spectacular player and these short, tricky OHs are probably more ''catchy'', but he should be easily one of the leaders of Sada next season, and he's well-rounded technically with good size enough for being useful.

I know Maicon is listed as OH/OPP, but I've seen him once as an opposite, and he looked like super lanky boy lacking mechanics typical for a volleyball, so I don't think he'll be able to play as an OH in any way. He's still a kiddo tho, but I wonder if he gets talked about that much because of his talent, or because of his height. Arthur, on the other hand, looks like a real deal in terms of being a really promising prospect, from what I've seen he looks like a typical volleyball talent (skinny, tall, but with good jump as well).

Brazil in general has been great since early Bernardinho days in evolving its male teams rather than revolutionizing their rosters, that's why results wise they're by far the most consistent team even if they struggle to actually win many finals (that definitely has changed since Leal's debut). They almost always have the oldest rosters at the most important competitions, and the same will be in Tokyo as well, so maybe it will be a case this time, with Adriano replacing Leal, Arthur replacing Lucarelli, and so on, so I guess much more important than a whole group of okay-ish or solid players is to develop 2-3 difference maker-level of talents.

I think we'll be able to draw more conclusions after summer when both 2003/2004 and 2001/2002 classes will play WCHs at Junior/Youth level, especially considering that they'll find themselves in really tough spot because of difficult groups they were put into. I don't know these 03/04 boys other than Arthur and Maicon who have played in Superliga already this year, but I saw on CBV page that there are 4-5 OHs listed as 200cm or more, that's quite interesting considering their age and a fact they may even grow a little bit further. I wonder if those measures are correct tho, because Leo from Sesi is listed as 201 cm-tall, and he's definitely more of 205-206 cm. If they are, this may be a really interesting group of outside hitters, I remember when I saw 95/96 boys at the WCH U18 in 2013, they were beaten badly by China in QF, yet it was obvious Douglas and Rodriguinho have size and technical tools to be really good, and Douglas has already made an impact on senior level.

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Not sure if I've said this before (my memory is garbage), but I gotta tell you I really like all the insight you bring to both the Brazilian and male threads in general! I basically don't have anything to talk about male volleyball because barely anyone really cares about it here, so I thank you for that.

I think Maicon only gets talked about due to his height if I'm being honest. Sada snagged him early on and there was some press involving his case, basically saying that people would offer him plenty of opportunities in volleyball in order to take him away from basketball, which he was also considering -- and truth be told, if I were a tall and young athlete in Brazil, I'd pick volleyball anyday lol. Sure he's barely turned 16 yo and I won't trash on him at all as he's barely started his volleyball career, but I agree he seems very lanky and uncoordinated, so I do agree Arthur has the biggest potential out of both at least as OH. Who knows, Maicon could still change positions later on and play as OPP or MB; a skilled 215cm guy in any of these would still be a threat.

As for now, I want to like Rodriguinho more, but he's always been so inconsistent it's frustrating. If he'd turn into the player everyone thought he'd be, he could have a really solid career within the NT pairing with Douglas. I think that's why I'm more hopeful of youngsters like Adriano and perhaps Arthur, they haven't had the chance to disappoint me yet lol.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the U19 and U21 tournaments next summer! I'll keep an eye on all of the big teams this time and hopefully Brazil manages to achieve some good results. I'll be rooting for my boys Adriano, Darlan and Leo.

Quote from sambokojin

I think the more important question is who will replace Bruno post Tokyo?

Bruno not being in Paris would be quite a shocker, so we're good until then I believe. I hope someone else other than Cachopa comes from the youth categories soon in order to give him some competition though -- I don't think Carísio (who was called to the NT this year) is it, unfortunately.

Quote from Brtkk

I love him

AN ICON

the way he looks at Bruno in the beginning lmao ugh I love him

Quote from Bush

Next cycle we will glow a lot with Maique + Douglas. They're priceless.

hopefully Adriano joins in on the fun

Douglas Souza has reached webceleb status this week. He's gotten over 500k followers on Instagram in the last 24h for his stories documenting his stay in Tokyo with the NT and it's hilarious. He's in the same room as Maurício Borges too and both are great together lol

Here's a compilation of his best moments so far: