Argentina NT 2021

    Marcelo Mendez gave the first list to start trainings soon. This list doesn't include any of the guys still in competition in Italy, France, Brazil, etc and also doesn't include Facundo Conte who probably will be given rest for some weeks despite the abrupt ending of season for Sada Cruzeiro. It's mostly players from argentinian league (already finished) and some from Europe that ended competition.

    From these guys I think only Lima and Poglajen have any chance to make the olympic squad.



    Setters: Matias Giraudo, Gaspar Bitar, Pablo Urchevich


    Opposites: Bruno Lima, Manuel Balague, Juan Barrera


    Outside Hitters: Cristian Poglajen, Luciano Vicentin, Manuel Armoa, Mauro Zelayeta, Ignacio Luengas


    Middle blockers: Joaquin Gallego, Flavio Rajczakowski, Nicolas Zerba, Franco Medina


    Liberos: Franco Massimino, Tobias Scarpa

    Alexis Gonzalez has retired from the national team.



    So, this makes it obvious that Santiago Danani will be the starting libero of the team now. It was between them.

    18 players for VNL, no surprises whatsoever all expected:


    Setters: Luciano De Cecco, Matias Sanchez, Nicolás Uriarte


    Opposites: Bruno Lima, Luciano Palonsky, Federico Pereyra


    OHs: Facundo Conte, Nicolás Lazo, Jan Martinez, Nicolás Mendez, Ezequiel Palacios, Cristian Poglajen


    MBs: Pablo Crer, Agustín Loser, Martín Ramos, Sebastián Solé


    Liberos: Santiago Danani, Franco Massimino

    Terrible news from the NT camp, 3 players (Danani, Lima, Lazo) have tested positive for Covid. Another 6 (Poglajen, Palacios, Crer, Loser, Sanchez, Massimino) have been isolated for "close contact" and will be monitored for the next few days.


    The team travelled today to Italy with 9 players + coaches. The positive players will likely miss the first two weekends, while the close contacts will be travel later in the week if they test negative, but they probably won't play the first 3 games.


    Players on the plane right now: De Cecco, Uriarte, Pereyra, Palonsky, Conte, Martinez, Mendez, Sole, Ramos.


    We can still field a decent team with these players though Mendez will have to play as libero most likely.

    Question: why were only 6 players considered to have "close contact" with the three positive cases? Aren't they all trainning together in the same facilities?

    Quote from Sidney

    Question: why were only 6 players considered to have "close contact" with the three positive cases? Aren't they all trainning together in the same facilities?

    No idea what was the criteria, but yes, from videos I can tell they were all training together. The communication only says that they were determined close contacts "after exhaustive analysis from technical staff" .

    I thought you were half-joking about letting the coach play as libero until I found out there's another Mendez in the player roster. :gone:

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

    Quote from Rains

    I thought you were half-joking about letting the coach play as libero until I found out there's another Mendez in the player roster. :gone:

    Yeah, the coach's son... who shouldn't be in this team:aww: he's our Tillie basically. He's only decent at defending, so this is his chance to be useful for something.

    Quote from LDvolley

    Yeah, the coach's son... who shouldn't be in this team:aww: he's our Tillie basically. He's only decent at defending, so this is his chance to be useful for something.

    Kevin Tillie at least is deserved to be part of NT, while I'm surprised why the Argentinian players do not revolt against the coach for letting his son stay at NT and even selecting him for OQT and very likely bringing him to Tokyo.

    Quote from andrea

    Kevin Tillie at least is deserved to be part of NT, while I'm surprised why the Argentinian players do not revolt against the coach for letting his son stay at NT and even selecting him for OQT and very likely bringing him to Tokyo.

    I think they just let it pass because the atmosphere in the team is good for once and they are satisfied with the work of the staff, unlike previous coaches. Plus, it's not like he will take the place of the "main guys" that have been for years, so they don't care much.

    Quote from LDvolley

    Yeah, the coach's son... who shouldn't be in this team:aww: he's our Tillie basically. He's only decent at defending, so this is his chance to be useful for something.

    (lol) about him being your Tillie.

    I hope everyone will recover fast.

    I feel sorry for Martinez. He probably knew it way earlier that his Olympic spot would be robbed by the father & son. From the way how Mendez sent his son on court in the final week, and banned Martinez from going on court at all, it's just a matter of time for the official announcement.

    Argentina squad for south american championship: the coach decided to leave out all the 30+ yo players. Too bad, it was a good opportunity to finally beat Brazil in this competition. :down:



    S - Sanchez, Giraudo

    OP - Lima, Balagué

    OH - Palacios, Palonsky, Mendez, Martinez, Lazo

    MB - Ramos, Loser, Gallego, Zerba

    L - Danani

    De Cecco said in an interview that he seriously thought about retiring from NT after Tokyo, and he was leaning towards that decision, but after unexpected bronze he decided to play at next year's WCH, and then he'll think about his future.


    He's 33yo, but he was a regular starter for Argentina in 2006 already, 15 years of playing for NT.

    Quote from Realista

    De Cecco said in an interview that he seriously thought about retiring from NT after Tokyo, and he was leaning towards that decision, but after unexpected bronze he decided to play at next year's WCH, and then he'll think about his future.


    He's 33yo, but he was a regular starter for Argentina in 2006 already, 15 years of playing for N

    Many would have retired if there was a bad result in Tokyo. But now everything's different and they have become truly popular for the first time back home.



    It's also crucial to keep Mendez who has a clause/option to leave until the end of south american championship. I'm really on the edge waiting for his decision and afraid that some big team may offer him too much money...