Italy - Superlega 2022/23

    I thought Balaso was a rising star three years ago, and he'll get close to Colaci's level as NT's new libero. Can not imagine he flopped so fast, considering his age.


    It will be disappointing for Piacenza if they got eliminated in 1/4, considering how much money they spent this season. They copied half team of old Lube, with Lucarelli, Leal and Simon.


    Milano 3:2 Perugia

    Milano were lucky to take set #1 with two lucky key points. Overall, Milano had a great game. If Perugia can not deliver their power serves, they can be defeated. Giannelli passing to the middle and then MB getting blocked was a turning point at set #5. Giannelli did not make a good choice of passing at clutch time, not the first time. But it's too bad Anastasi had not guts to put Ropret on court for a change.

    Actually, it is. I really don’t understand Facebook at all. I just created an account to watch volleyball and it seems it is a private page. I see people can watch through this link on twitter however whenever I try to share it, I have been told that it doesn’t work. Any idea why? It usually streams almost all Italian and European Cup matches even though it doesn’t have the best quality.

    This site uses blocking of some specific countries such as Europe and the United States, Japan, S. Korea, ... . I am a user in Vietnam, I still regularly visit this page. Perhaps a VPN would be helpful here!

    Quote from Umu11

    Actually, it is. I really don’t understand Facebook at all. I just created an account to watch volleyball and it seems it is a private page. I see people can watch through this link on twitter however whenever I try to share it, I have been told that it doesn’t work. Any idea why? It usually streams almost all Italian and European Cup matches even though it doesn’t have the best quality.

    This playoff is intense. Now all four groups are 2:1.

    Perugia actually played well with smooth transition when Leon's not on court.

    Perugia needs to find a balance of with or without Leon.


    CL semi will be tough for Perugia.

    Zaksa has great serves and defenses, and they're mentally tough than Perugia.

    If Zakas can win CL this year, they will repeat the achievement like Trentino (3 in a row) and Kazan (4 in a row) did years ago.

    I got bored a little bit yesterday, and when you get bored, you go and create the Twitter account, so even though I'll probably again get bored with tweeting like in a week knowing my patience, I feel that I lack some English-spoken discussions about male volleyball, so that's a purpose, although I don't think that my way of articulating stuff is necessarily suitable for Twitter itself. Yet if someone follows the playoffs:



    This is especially interesting since president of Civitanova, Fabio Giulianelli gave an emotional interview prior to the game basically saying Civitanova sucks in close games and that they have to reconsider whether some players they thought have a future there truly belong to the level Civitanova has always aimed to reach, whether their underperformance this year is truly related to the players' factor or it is also Blengini's fault, and that he'll talk to the team in locker room before the elimination game.


    And then Civitanova won 3-0 with 67% kill percentage, so maybe there's hope for Cucine Lube.

    What a difficult victory for Lube today. Facing an opponent that IMHO is stronger than them, somehow they managed to turn an impossible-to-win situation around with tremendous tenacity, and a bit of luck (nothing to discredit Lube's effort at all, but in sports, you always need some luck to emerge victorious in such a close contest).


    Lube's offensive trio is composed of two strong OHs, Nikolov and Yant, plus an okay (attack-wise) OPP in Zaytsev. Facing Verona's trio, Keita, Mozic and Sapozhkov, I can feel that Verona's attack line is one level higher. Keita and Sapozhkov's attack can be rated as a barbaric level, and even the best scorer of Superlega last season, Mozic, has become the "weakest" among this trio. The evolution of volleyball rules, the ball and the introduction of these giant players really make the skill factor fade out a lot in today's volleyball.


    Obviously, De Cecco's setting has been less precise than his past. From my observation, his level has dropped slightly since last season likely due to his age. However, it's hard to compare his level this year against last year's, when decent receivers like Lucarelli, Juantorena and Kovar being replaced by Nikolov and Bottolo. While each rally in a volleyball match is independent in terms of scoring, it's not like that mentality-wise. When a setter is constantly under huge pressure to make rescue sets throughout a match, even the most skillful setter can make subpar sets in occasional perfect reception.


    In the beginning of the season, I recall Zaytsev had reception duties (not just when he's at pos 1) in a couple of games (has he ever played as OH this season?). The outcome was not satisfactory. Since then Blengini never used Zaytsev to help in reception again even with Nikolov being such an easy serve target, until the last two matches. One key difference accounting for this sudden success (he received in 5 out of 6 rotations!) is that Zaytsev was off-loaded from back-row attacks whilst fully focused at reception. It's too demanding to ask Zaytsev to take a lead role in attack and reception at the same time, after all.


    Both teams are not expected to have good reception with this lineup and crazy serves. Keita's reception skills are really poor. For jump serves significantly slowed down after touching the net, he still made reception errors. Gaggini is the only stable reception link both sides considered. He's a backup at Monza last year, but has grown so much in just one year.


    Speaking of the luck factor, among so many momentum shifts, of course Yant's serve rotation at the end of set 3 can be hardly neglected. Off the court, I think Lube is lucky to have D'amico as the 2nd libero this season. If Lube has got someone at the same level as who they had last two seasons, they essentially have no chance to go neck and neck with opponents as strong as Verona.


    Perhaps Nikolov inherited this ability from his father to be so effective to attack at the right wing? I think he may try the OPP role at NT, when there's no Zaytsev who can liberate him from reception. I still remember Nikolov was aced by Semeniuk's four consecutive, identical serves at VNL last year. Reception is a skill that relies on both ball control and talent so much. Ball control can be improved over time, but the ceiling is defined by the player's talent. Nikolov has little improvement in reception after one full NT and club season. He will become better, but unlikely improve to an okay level in 1-2 years. Moving him to OPP with occassional participation in reception may alleviate the pain that there're no good receivers among Bulgaria's new generation.