2025 Men's Volleyball World Championship

    Yesss what a comeback from Bulgaria! :box: I could only watch side-eyeing my tablet but it was great to see them pick up their level and fight themselves back in the game. I'm happy to see at least one of Bulgaria/Czechia will medal, although Bulgaria will obviously be the favourite. Only chance for Czechia will be to force them into a mess and keep their own errors low, but the (raw) talent is clearly higher for Bulgaria.


    I'm ready for an S. Nikolov best setter award, maybe he's not the most accurate yet but it's never a dull moment watching him :cheesy:

    Quote from Sassy

    Yesss what a comeback from Bulgaria! :box: I could only watch side-eyeing my tablet but it was great to see them pick up their level and fight themselves back in the game. I'm happy to see at least one of Bulgaria/Czechia will medal, although Bulgaria will obviously be the favourite. Only chance for Czechia will be to force them into a mess and keep their own errors low, but the (raw) talent is clearly higher for Bulgaria.


    I'm ready for an S. Nikolov best setter award, maybe he's not the most accurate yet but it's never a dull moment watching him :cheesy:

    There is Gianelli on the line and therefore forget it :lol::lol::lol:

    Quote from Sassy

    Spoiler alert: Bulgaria will beat Italy in the final! And the Women's tournament has shown us that FIVB will go for the winner anyway so it will work out :dance6:

    Well on a second thought I do believe that it is possible . As we have understood the awards based also on the popularity aspect and therefore Moni will probably have a chance<3<3<3 ( I do consider certain the fact that if Bulagria take a medal Alex will take the OH award)

    Quote from QuickOutside

    With all of these delicious upsets, I think I have gained quite a few kg :)


    I predict a Poland-Bulgaria final and if Bulgaria wins, I predict (and hope) FIVB will award the Nikolov brothers the MVP! This would be iconic!!!!!!

    I stick to my prediction from 18 September!!!!!

    Bułgaria made something big! After poor years they are in the best 4 teams in the world. Semifinal against Czech rep. will be as interesting as 2nd semifinal :obey:

    USA may have lost but Christenson and Shoji deserve praise. Christenson's sets made his attackers look good (which says a lot about how good he is considering 4 of his attackers are newbies (!) to this team). Of course, Shoji's great backrow skills made that possible.


    If I were to pick my current dream team:

    S: Christenson

    Opp: Reggers

    OH: Semeniuk, Nikolov

    MB: Kochanowski, Russo

    L: Shoji

    Quote from Batabid

    Christenson's sets made his attackers look good (which says a lot about how good he is considering 4 of his attackers are newbies (!) to this team).

    Christenson was pretty mid in the tiebreak with some silly mistakes and the US didn't play an efficient offense against Slovenia and Bulgaria in this tournament. He was very good overall, and that would be it, no chance for him for any individual recognition nor he should get one. USA played on 42/29% kill rate/attack efficiency against Slovenia and Bulgaria, they were close to make it to the semifinals because their defense was outstanding (and opponents were really mid), not because they were good on offense (because they weren't).


    Shoji - on the other hand - was indeed the best libero on this tournament.

    Quote from WZP

    I think Karch lost it keeping Garcia on the court.


    Gabi García ended with 9 points in 5 sets, 20% efficiency 😶‍🌫️


    For an OPP, in a QF, this performance is subpar.
    I didnt watch the whole match, but was García even benched?

    Quote from Leonardo.D

    Gabi García ended with 9 points in 5 sets, 20% efficiency 😶‍🌫️


    For an OPP, in a QF, this performance is subpar.
    I didnt watch the whole match, but was García even benched?

    He wasn't, but I find understandable that Kiraly sticked with Garcia tbh.


    1. He was by far the best American player in the 1/8 match against Slovenia.

    2. His service rotation was by far the best for the USA throughout the tournament and his defense is awesome.

    3. The score was close enough to keep Garcia, it was 20-19 for USA (?) in the 4th set, and it would be hard to introduce Ensing in the 5th set considering he barely played.

    4. Ensing is just ... Ensing.


    Perhaps he could've given a chance to Ensing, we know that they lost this game - but their biggest problem in the 4th/5th set was that their defense-block relation for the first time in this tournament was pretty bad even though Bulgaria played as one dimensional volleyball as you could imagine. Nikolov in the 4th and 5th had 17/30 kill rate, the rest of Bulgaria was 10/17, it's insane that Nikolov attacked +60% (!) of all balls of his team and the USA couldn't stop him. We're talking 30 spikes in 1,5 sets, lol.