I really wonder why do almost all teams show their best matches agaist Russia? Belgium, Spain, now Poland...
I don't have an exact answer on this question.
Considering yesterday's match I should say that Russia continued to show low level volleyball.
Disaster in reception.I really smiled after Makowski words: "The Russians didn't play bad at all. They had a good reception, but we were extremely good today." Russia had 11 errors in reception and 57% positive and 14% excellent reception. C'mon Piotr, you call that good reception?
One attacker. As all of guys said nowadays Gamova can't win matches alone as it was in previous years. (however she won OG qualification against Poland, Sokolova was in bad shape in that game). I don't know what happened to Kosheleva in this match. She was completely helpless. Yeah, Poles played very good againts her, but according to statistics, she's among (if not the best) best spikers of this tournament. She was the best spiker of WGP. And she played against strong teams like Brazil, China,Netherlands and Germany... I have no explanation for such play of her.
Luck and silly mistakes. Russia made tons of silly mistakes. Sometimes they played like amateurs and it was really disgusting to watch. On the contrary, Poles were lucky in many moments.. with ball touching the net and always falling to Russia side, and some other moments, but as we know luck follows the best one.
Defence. As usual Russia is zero. It was really nice to see Mariola's defence. Poland played 100 times better in defence.
Block. Russia lost even in this component. I give my credit to Poles, they were blocking quite good.
So, overall Poland played better in all components and they deserved to win, they were better team in this match.
What worries me more is Russia's preparation for this season. I'am not 100% sure but I think that Kuzutkin might made the same mistake like Selinger did in 2007. Holland won WGP and then played not so well in ECH and failed to reach semi-finals.
Nobody expected but Russia almost won WGP 2009 (leading 14-12 in the fifth set against Brazil) and got silver medal. They played ok against good teams. And what do we see now? Low level volleyball with one attacker no reception at all, no defence... etc... Don't know what to think, really.
About match Russia - Holland.
I'm 100% sure that Holland will play with their main players and will play as they did in all previous matches. First of all, there are no teams that feel good after loss even if they did it for purpose. I can't remember big tournaments when there were such examples, except for WCH 2002 when China lost matches to Greece and smb else not to face Russia or USA in semi-finals. In the long run, they lost to Italy in semi and to Russia in bronze medal match. So, you see, these "games" almost always turn out of you. Then, Holland lost to Russia in WGP qualification 0:3 (9,19,17) and in the final of WGP 0:3 (20,23,21). Of course they want revenge, of course they will fight till the end to prove that they can beat Russia. Moreover, none coach wants his team to lose sport tone. They are on fire, crashing all teams by 3:0, why all of sudden lose Russia? No way guys.
I reckon that Russia will lose this match and will be out of competition and it will be the repeat of 2003 (Russia 5th place). From one hand girls already did unbelievable work, they won WGP silver medal!!! From the other hand, of course I'd like to see them higher than 5th place.
But even if they were able to reach last four, they'd be on the 4th place. So, the difference is not that big.
One more thing I've noticed. There are some many aces on this tourmanent. Almost all teams serve only floats. I can't remember any tournament that float serves made reception sooo weak. I've seen many matches thanks to IPLA and was really surprised... What do you guys think on this situation? Why do all teams have not good reception?