Nation League Man 2023

Congrats Japan for winning all 4 matches in the first week!
Their another lefty Opp Miyaura showed quite significant improvement, hope he can play in Europe as well to further improve her skills.

Quote from KVB

Congrats Japan for winning all 4 matches in the first week!
Their another lefty Opp Miyaura showed quite significant improvement, hope he can play in Europe as well to further improve her skills.

Last season he is just in Europe: Stal Nysa (Poland) as the subsitute of Wassim Ben Tara

Japan being perfect is a really good start with 8 matches left, plus 12 points as well. If USA takes Brazil down (hoping but will be tough), double happiness

USA sent their best squad against the Italy boys B team but with Ma’a & Hanes against the Brazil A- team

Quote from KVB

USA sent their best squad against the Italy boys B team but with Ma’a & Hanes against the Brazil A- team

It is weird isnt it

Ma’a decided to completely ignore Ensing (poor him got ZERO set in the 2nd set which he was on the court for most of the time lol) and USA won the set

Great week for ARG, for unknown reason I mistook their record with SLO's record for this week. Even noting that they played the younger OH players for this week too.

Ma'a seems to not have the best connection for the backrows. There are already multiple instance of those freeball/errors. His defense is great though.

Reffs are unforgiving with some double touches and carry faults, however, they are too inconsistent. You either call them or not. Making a call here and there makes it a bit suspicious.

USA plays with both Opps with negative efficiency, and a setter who failed to set any pipe attack, against the best team they face this week. And now they continue to start in the 4th set with the two back up OHs

Holt learnt what the Chinese MB does best after spending a season there, touching the net💀

If China wasn’t that bad, Canada would be heading to Challenger since game 4.

Btw wondering why teams like China and Germany keep getting a free pass to VNL. International federation has already messed up the sport by not giving same opportunities to each countries for World Cup or Olympic qualification, so messing up another tournament should be expected. I don’t think China has won more than 10 matches since 2018, same thing with Germany but they keep invite them to play.

Quote from Nikos

Btw wondering why teams like China and Germany keep getting a free pass to VNL. International federation has already messed up the sport by not giving same opportunities to each countries for World Cup or Olympic qualification, so messing up another tournament should be expected. I don’t think China has won more than 10 matches since 2018, same thing with Germany but they keep invite them to play.

Germany is one of the VNL core teams, they will always be there unless the core team rule or composition changes.

China was one of the core team as well (for absolutely no reason except $$$ though). They only lost their core team status due to their withdrawal of the 2021 version because of their own Covid limitations. Then they were back again in 2022 thanks to the Russian ban giving an extra vacancy. FIVB didn’t explain why they invited China to fill the spot but not other country (everyone knew it’s because of $$$ though). China has become a Challenger team since then, let’s see if they will finally be relegated after this year.

Quote from Tockin

It is weird isnt it

Not at all. You test new squad with higher ranking team. You won't lose many points even if lost.

The top five most viewed Volleyball World highlights on YouTube (updates: June 12)

Grabic said that he's satisfied with only three players in VNL Week 1: Kamil Szymura, Dawid Dulski and Artur Szalpuk.

Quote from KVB

Germany is one of the VNL core teams, they will always be there unless the core team rule or composition changes.

China was one of the core team as well (for absolutely no reason except $$$ though). They only lost their core team status due to their withdrawal of the 2021 version because of their own Covid limitations. Then they were back again in 2022 thanks to the Russian ban giving an extra vacancy. FIVB didn’t explain why they invited China to fill the spot but not other country (everyone knew it’s because of $$$ though). China has become a Challenger team since then, let’s see if they will finally be relegated after this year.

Best team in Asia after Japan and Iran in world ranking (while Qatar does have a better world ranking, they have never played in VNL, did WL back in the day, but lowest level). Also with the women’s team being part of the core on the other side, pretty easy for them to make the call.

Quote from Nikos

Btw wondering why teams like China and Germany keep getting a free pass to VNL. International federation has already messed up the sport by not giving same opportunities to each countries for World Cup or Olympic qualification, so messing up another tournament should be expected. I don’t think China has won more than 10 matches since 2018, same thing with Germany but they keep invite them to play.

The only way to get into VNL now is through FIVB Challenger Cup. I don't see FIVB will change core teams recentely.

3rd best team in Asia means little to nothing, since I can probably name at least 5 teams from other regions that could provide the same resistance as them.

My point is why keep giving a free pass to mediocre teams and minimize the chances of other national teams to play in the big stage, as both olympic and world qualification take into account the fivb ranking. You won't climb in the ranking if your only competitive games are 5 or 6 qualification games for the Euros or some other region once every 2 years as it happens with the most teams out there, while teams like China pay to compete in the big stage.

just watched Serbia vs. Poland, it is good to see new faces in Serbia's starting 6. Marin Kujundjic really played well and is a good addition to Ivovic and Kovacevic. i also agree that the new setter is better than Jovovic. While Luburic played well, I am excited to see that other Opposite from last year's VNL.