USA NT 2021

    Quote from Yudipunggol

    It's desperate because of the poor performance in Tokyo, they really need a great opposite, Ben Patch, Ensing is not the answer. Anderson is getting older and I think his passing makes him important for the OH spot.


    They cannot produce a world class player so they are making some move to get Gabi.

    How can we be so sure that it was USAV's intention and not Gabi's personal choice? Because lets be honest, USA men's team flopped in Tokyo but they can always find a new player from NCAA. I think Gabi seriously thinks that he has a shot at playing in the USA national team hence the decision.

    Quote from yudeko

    How can we be so sure that it was USAV's intention and not Gabi's personal choice? Because lets be honest, USA men's team flopped in Tokyo but they can always find a new player from NCAA. I think Gabi seriously thinks that he has a shot at playing in the USA national team hence the decision.

    To change his federation, Gabi needs an official support from American federation, so it is possible that they put up some effort to convince him to play for Team US. And he'll need support from US federation even more if Puerto Rican federation says 'screw you' and won't agree on Gabi's application (in other words, they are gonna pay). Regarding NCAA, it's not a female volleyball, they develop starter-caliber players only from time to time, and at this point they have no successors for Anderson or Holt, Sander as for now has retired from indoor vball and Russell is playing poorly in Piacenza, the only positive for them is that DeFalco is thriving in Poland while Jaeschke is one of the best OHs in Italy this season. And they have decent depth on setter position with Christenson, Tuaniga, Ma'a and Dvorak in college, but I don't think there's any local OH/OPP in college ready to make step forward in this cycle for team USA. So they flopped in Tokyo and still have the same core of players minus Sander plus Tuaniga/Ma'a for Paris, that's not too encouraging to be honest. Maybe Mitchem from college will give them some depth at MB position.


    So yeah, we don't know if American federation fought for him or it was just his initiative (both options are possible), but objectively, they need Gabi badly, even if he won't make it in Paris.

    Quote from akitoakie

    Quick question: what’s up with the Hawaii setter last season? Is he still in college? Does he has any chance playing for NT?

    He's from Norway (if you refer to left-handed Hawaii's setter with a strong serve who plays there for a 3rd year). If you refer to Joe Worsley, who played in Hawaii before Thelle, he was a backup in Friedrichshafen last season, so I don't think he has a legit shot to make a team over Christenson, obviously, and Tuaniga and Ma'a, who play really well in Poland (Ma'a's team is 8th in a league now, Tuaniga will play next season in Olsztyn, which is 6th in regular season). Worsley now plays in 4th or 5th Bundesliga's team, but I'm not that much into German league to know how does he play. I think Bryce Dvorak (a relative of former legendary US setter, Dustin Dvorak) is a decent prospect from NCAA as far as I know, I saw some footage and he was quite impressive last season for his age.


    Oh, and I forgot about Gasman from Brazil, he can be a solid option for Smith next season, because he has regressed badly.

    Quote from Realista

    He's from Norway (if you refer to left-handed Hawaii's setter with a strong serve who plays there for a 3rd year). If you refer to Joe Worsley, who played in Hawaii before Thelle, he was a backup in Friedrichshafen last season, so I don't think he has a legit shot to make a team over Christenson, obviously, and Tuaniga and Ma'a, who play really well in Poland (Ma'a's team is 8th in a league now, Tuaniga will play next season in Olsztyn, which is 6th in regular season). Worsley now plays in 4th or 5th Bundesliga's team, but I'm not that much into German league to know how does he play. I think Bryce Dvorak (a relative of former legendary US setter, Dustin Dvorak) is a decent prospect from NCAA as far as I know, I saw some footage and he was quite impressive last season for his age.


    Oh, and I forgot about Gasman from Brazil, he can be a solid option for Smith next season, because he has regressed badly.

    Yeap! The left handed kid. Thanks!

    Why do you have a problem with naturalization? It is quite fair that a player is not trapped to where he was born and he can choose other NTs that might allow him play in bigger competitions like OG or WCh.

    It is a problem if his National Federation helped him with his development. if not, then PR should not prohibit him.

    Quote from serdar

    Why do you have a problem with naturalization? It is quite fair that a player is not trapped to where he was born and he can choose other NTs that might allow him play in bigger competitions like OG or WCh.

    I'm not against naturalizations in general, I'm against naturalizations of 23yo internationals who have already played a fair share of games for their native NT, and then decided to change team it because it's more beneficial to them. If there are football-like rules, I would be fine with that.


    The only case when FIVB rules were defendable was Cuban case of best players in the world who couldn't play for their native NT because of politics, and yet it was still FIVB fault, but in other context - FIVB basically approved all atrocities that Cuban government committed to their players without any serious punishment, because all happened according to the FIVB rules, what was insane. So players were escaping from Cuba, got banned for 2 years for that, and yet Cuba played like nothing has happened in major tournaments. If there was a proper reaction from FIVB, maybe we wouldn't witness 20y of mess in this regard.


    Under current circumstances, it's just exploiting weaker NTs from time to time by major NTs what wouldn't be possible if the rules are more strict. In football we don't have discussions that Polish NT sucks a bit, so perhaps Robert Lewandowski should change his federation to German, wait 2 years and have a chance to win something with NT.


    And again, that's not a shot against Garcia or American federation, almost all major federations exploit these rules from time to time, so I'm not blaming the players.

    Why do we take football rules as golden standard? I think a player should be allowed to do such changes even after his 30s. Don't forget that not everyone is early bloomer, some people reach to that level in later stage of their career so that they will get attention from other federations.


    One cannot choose where to be born, it is a birth lottery and I think there should be an easy path for players who were unlucky to be born in a volleyball-poor country. For example, it is a pity that one of the best players of this decade, Haak, will never be able to play in OG, and probably not even in WCh. If she would want to, she should be allowed to play another NT anytime.

    Quote from serdar

    Why do we take football rules as golden standard?

    It's just my personal opinion, you indirectly addressed my post, so I elaborated further my stance, it's not like anyone cares what I have to say, so there's no need to generalize my point. :D If someone isn't literal in perceiving NT-competition as some nations representation in respective disciplines such as volleyball, then yeah, I understand your opinion.


    For me, for example, situation in male volleyball, when clearly the best country in the world talent-wise (Cuba) can't play full-strength due to politics for almost 20 years, and their best players play crucial roles in other NTs, is a complete mess downplaying a relevance of male major competitions in general if you look at this from the outside perspective, even though Poland with 2xWCH and Leon is perhaps the biggest beneficiary of this situation. What's the point of NT-competition if you can strengthen your team just because you have a better team/more resources than smaller countries? I feel sorry for Haak, and at the same time I understand Ngapeth complaining that it is unfair that France with all native players has to play against Poland + Leon on regular basis. But - like I said - it's not like France would have hesitated if they had an opportunity to get Leon, they had their naturalized players like Ruette in the past.


    Gabi was the best freshman in college when he was 19, so he was the best player in his age class in the USA for quite some time, and still for couple of years he played for Puerto Rico, that's why I'm not buying it. But, like I said, it's just my impression about general vball rules, I like him as a player, the same with Team USA, so we can leave it as it is.

    Quote from Realista

    It's just my personal opinion, you indirectly addressed my post, so I elaborated further my stance, it's not like anyone cares what I have to say, so there's no need to generalize my point. :D If someone isn't literal in perceiving NT-competition as some nations representation in respective disciplines such as volleyball, then yeah, I understand your opinion.


    For me, for example, situation in male volleyball, when clearly the best country in the world talent-wise (Cuba) can't play full-strength due to politics for almost 20 years, and their best players play crucial roles in other NTs, is a complete mess downplaying a relevance of male major competitions in general if you look at this from the outside perspective, even though Poland with 2xWCH and Leon is perhaps the biggest beneficiary of this situation. What's the point of NT-competition if you can strengthen your team just because you have a better team/more resources than smaller countries? I feel sorry for Haak, and at the same time I understand Ngapeth complaining that it is unfair that France with all native players has to play against Poland + Leon on regular basis. But - like I said - it's not like France would have hesitated if they had an opportunity to get Leon, they had their naturalized players like Ruette in the past.


    Gabi was the best freshman in college when he was 19, so he was the best player in his age class in the USA for quite some time, and still for couple of years he played for Puerto Rico, that's why I'm not buying it. But, like I said, it's just my impression about general vball rules, I like him as a player, the same with Team USA, so we can leave it as it is.

    Even small countries are allowed to neutralize players if they can attract others. Also where to draw the line, there are many players who came to turkey from Bulgaria or Bosnia at a very young age. They were brought by rich clubs like VakıfBank or Eczacıbaşı. Are they supposed to count as naturalized players or not? They weren't born in turkey and they didn't speak the language.

    Cuba is a special case due to politic instability. We don't know whether Russian players will be in the same situation if sanctions in volleyball would continue for a few more years, I wouldn't be surprised Arina and other youngsters would prefer to be naturalized

    By the way naturalization is not necessarily be a bad thing for weak volleyball countries. Pre-2003 turkey was not a volleyball powerhouse, we made that step up thanks to a naturalized Russian player, Natalia Hanikoglu. Turkey would most likely not manage to get silver medal in ECH without her.

    It's interesting that the rules have apparently changed, I remember Poland/Brazil waiting for two years (!) for Cuban agreement on Leon/Leal naturalization in order to finish the process, and now I see in edited FIVB regulamin that the FIVB Executive Committee can unilateraly agree on change of federation if federation of origin doesn't agree.


    It's probably good, although it's a dead-rule right now (that the federation of origin has to agree on the whole process), because ,,the FIVB Executive Committee shall have the unequivocal right to determine, in its sole discretion, whether the Change is reasonable and justifiable and to approve the Change'' means literally that every naturalizion will be accepted, from perspective of the player seeking to change his federation is always reasonable to do so, so it's easily defendable, lol.


    Good for Gabi and the USA as well.