2022 FIVB Challenger Cup - Men

    Another missed opportunity for turkey😔 absence of Bedirhan bülbül, Efe Mandıraci, efe bayram and Yiğit gülmezoglu hurted a lot but with this clown coach they will always fail anyways 🤦 unless they get rid of him WCh will be another disappointment😒

    Quote from LDvolley

    What difference does it make? They can play each other 500 times and still won't ever reach top 11 of rankings which is in practice the requirement to qualify for olympics now.


    It's basically impossible to make the games if you aren't in VNL and aren't african. They had their chance to play VNL here but proven too weak.

    Well, they just have to start to play on regular basis, e.g. Korea has 10 ranking games in past 2 years, to talk about anything. And top25 spot gives a spot in OQ tournaments, even if unrealistic for both ROK and Australia to make it through them.


    But yeah, there's na cause-effect relationship between OQ rules and a strength of 2nd/3rd tier teams - it's all about strength of volleyball program, in Europe, Slovenia had no chance to even think about qualification to OT, they were a no show team besides some minor European League successes - and yet they were able to produce a decent generation of players, then make a progress rapidly to make it to the top despite small population. If there are rich countries or/with countries with rich traditions in volleyball in general (ROK, China, Qatar, Australia, Spain etc) - and they can't create a decent team - it's on their volleyball program, not FIVB.


    Turkey was really unlucky that while in VNL there are China, Bulgaria or Germany - they had to play for VNL spot with a team that has Lopez, Melgarejo, Yant, Simon, Herrera or Sanchez, because they're like 5-6 best team in the world on paper. Even if absences of Yant and Simon occurred, Turkey as well didn't play full strength, so even on paper it was very hard to make it. Let's hope for Bayram's progress in Italy, Efe's return from injury and Mirza still developing - with Gungor and Subasi, it's not like you have a shot to compete with teams such as Cuba.

    I genuinely hope that Cuba will participate in VNL. I liked what I saw a lot, it has been a while I haven’t seen Cuba in action. With the addition of Simon and Yant, I do wonder what they can do against top teams.



    As for today’s match, it has been said a million times that our coach is useless. What he says during time outs are just embarrassing. I don’t know why Burak was kept on court. Mirza&Burutay should have been tried. Our MBs are just bad at blocking. As much as I like Adis, he is not a leader and doesn’t seem to be developing in that regard.

    if cuba does turn down their 2023 VNL invite, i wonder if they're worried about defectors.


    they had a baseball team that lost a ton of players last fall.


    they lost two athletes plus a staff member at the athletics world championship just one-two weeks ago.

    Cuba has already accepted years ago that they can't prevent their players from playing in professional leagues so they have elaborated a "pathway" for them to leave the island legally and still be allowed to represent the NT.


    Still, some athletes decide to leave (so called "defection") and simply cut all ties to Cuba. Fortunately, that happens in other sports and not so much in Vball anymore.