Posts by YavorD

Some recently announced final rosters:

Russia

S: Kobzar, Butko

OPP: Mikhaylov, Poletaev

OH: VOlkov, Klyuka, Semishev, Karpukhov

MB: Kurkaev, Muserskiy, Volvich, Yakovlev

L: Golubev, Andreev

Serbia

S: Jovovic, Todorovic

OPP: Atanasijevic, Luburic

OH: U. Kovacevic, Petric, Ivovic, Cirovic

MB: Okolic, Podrascanin, Lisinac, Krsmanovic

L: Majstorovic, Pekovic

Finland

S: Tervaportti, Lankinen, Ivanov

OPP: Sivula, Kaislasalo

OH: Siltala, Krastins, Ronkainen, Suihkonen

MB: Siirila, Sinkkonen, Kaurto, Porkka

L: Kerminen

Montenegro

S: Strugar, Radonic

OPP: Minic, Culafic

OH: Cacic, Bojic, Vukasinovic, B. Cuk, Perunicic

MB: G. Cuk, Jecmenica, Babic, Milic

L: Lakcevic

Bulgaria

S: Seganov, Dimitrov

OPP: Sokolov, Kadankov

OH: Skrimov, Atanasov, N. Penchev, G. Petrov

MB: Yosifoc, Gotsev, A. Grozdanov, Todorov

L: Salparov, Karakashev

The final in Rome will be a repetition of the 2019 WCH final in Hamburg, namely Thole-Wickler from Germany against Stoyanovskiy-Krasilnikov from Russia. Although Mol-Sorum are the Tour leaders and have a comfortable margin at the top, thanks, of course, to their massive number of wins this season, they might be a bit disappointed with themselves for losing the two semifinals in Hamburg and Rome. The two tournaments that highlight the 2019 season, after all. Based on what I saw tonight, the Russians should have a few more weapons against the Germans and should be able to add another gold to their names.

The Russians managed to take Anders Mol out of the game in sets 2 and 3. Having lost the opener to a very concentrated Norwegian team, with Sorum playing cheekily with Stoyanovskiy's block till almost the very end of set 3, the Russians started the second set aggressively from the service line and this tactic brought them success. Mol's reception was not great and what is worse, his trademark cross-court attack from 'zone 2' worked only like 50% of the time, if not less. In the tie-break, Stoyanovskiy's block did the rest for team Russia. A very solid performance and change of rhythm for the newly crowned world champions who, if stats are correct, are now responsible for Mol-Sorum's only 5th defeat in 2019 Still, I can't help but make parallels to the WCH podium in Hamburg where we had the exact 3 semifinalists, plus another American duo, back then Bourne - Tr. Crabb.

It has been a great tournament and there was great beach volleyball also earlier on. Gibb - T. Crabb took a spectacular second set against Herrera-Gavira (34-32) in a battle of the 'old dogs'. A great first set was demonstrated by Rossi-Carambula and Perusic-Schweiner in Round 2. The Czechs almost made the Italians a present giving away their entire lead, yet Ondrej Perusic did a good job reading Adrian Carambula. Perusic-Schweiner are, to me, one of the most improved teams of 2019.

The group matches of the World Tour Finals start today, yesterday marked the end of the qualifiers. As this event is the biggest international one this year, after the WCH, granting ranking points for the Olympics, the hype is understandably high and all teams arrived in Rome. Live streams from all courts are fortunately available on YouTube here.

I want to start the discussion about streams, available channels, and TV rights in advance in order to avoid confusion once the tournament starts. And I am deliberately putting this here so people can read it if they visit the thread looking for info at any time.

How's the experience so far been for the female ECH? Do we know who and what will be shown where for the men's event? Do we need the EuroVolleyTV subscription or are there tons of geo-blocked countries again and we'll have to rely on some poor-quality online streams? Will we get access to full-length matches on demand?

For instance, just out of curiosity, I checked that today's match between Serbia and Bulgaria in the female event won't be shown on EuroVolleyTV either in Bulgaria or in Germany (where I will have to try and find some Sport1+ exclusive stream). Do we already know the list of blocked countries for the men's ECH and is it going to be valid for all matches?

Any info and personal experience are welcome! Also, the same concerning the coverage by RAI, Polsat, and the likes.

Italy beat Russia 3-1 in the final to win their 2nd title in this age group. The Italians went through the schedule unbeaten and, as correctly pointed out by Diesse14 , possess a talented swarm of youngsters. The final was actually a repetition of the bronze medal encounter at the 2018 ECH, the final back then was won by Germany (against the Czech Republic).

Given the draw and the seedings, I would have said that Pool B was the strongest, although two of the semifinalists came from Pool C, where they were accompanied by Germany, the 2018 European champion. No doubt, however, that the biggest surprise came from Egypt. I can't remember when the last time was when an African team reached the semifinals of an international event, be it even a junior/youth one.

Tommaso Rinaldi from Italy was elected the tournament's MVP.

I didn't realize there was no thread for the tournament. I will create one even if the event finished last week.

Group A

Tunisia

Brazil

Cuba

Chinese Taipei

Belarus

Group B

Iran

Czech Republic

Italy

Colombia

Bulgaria

Group C

Japan

Egypt

Argentina

Germany

Mexico

Group D

Russia

South Korea

United States

Nigeria

Dominican Republic

Quote from Matthias

European qualification tournament will take place in Berlin.

And unless anything unusual or rather surprising happens at the European Championship, the January qualifier should feature at least Germany, France, Serbia, Bulgaria, Belgium, Slovenia, and the Netherlands. Finland currently occupy the last remaining spot (11th in CEV ranking) but the Czech team is very close behind.

Just to conclude the thread properly, as was pointed out in the World Tour thread, Mol-Sorum won back-to-back European championships. The tournament's pleasant surprise, Ermacora-Pristauz from Austria, won the bronze medal by forfeit due to Piotr Kantor's injury.

Quote from inc0gnito

Hi YavorD, just curious, after the defeat against Brazil in Olympic qualies, what's the main consensus of the fans and players in Bulgaria? I was really rooting for them, but Brazil really had the experience in those critical moments. Too bad for Sokolov, I think this was his last shot at the Olympics as I don't see him in NT for 2024.

It was a painful defeat and everyone knows beating Brazil was the only chance for Bulgaria to reach the Olympics. It is clear Bulgaria has close to 0 chances of winning the January qualifier for a variety of reasons. Fans reacted differently to the defeat. Some were understandably disappointed, to say the least. Some were quite happy with the progress shown. Some welcomed the performance of the younger generation under the guidance of a well-prepared coach. People demonstrated a mixture of feelings and it is normal in such situation. Very little came from the players in the media, they will surely regret missing the golden chance, throwing away months of work almost in vain, and will play this match again set by set many times in their heads. This might affect their confidence at the ECH, preparation should start soon. The only thing everyone hopes for is Skrimov's fast recovery. Latest news reports that he has nothing broken, although his ECH participation is threatened.

As for me, I was sure Prandi would've done his homework and the team would use the momentum in Varna. Honestly, I questioned Brazil's motivation for the match, given that their eventual South American qualifier would be a joke. Brazil didn't even show 10% in the first 2 sets, hence I didn't know whether they would fight at all. Well, 3 sets later we knew the answer. They just hadn't really been there, whereas Bulgaria had a lot of elements functioning well enough. Skrimov's injury disrupted Bulgaria's rhythm. Yes, Bulgaria still won the second set and even if Rozalin Penchev had a few decent moments, Skrimov's absence unbalanced the squad and his contribution in reception, attack, and serve was dearly missed. True, Brazil smelled blood and insecurity from the third set on. However, I would still question Bulgaria's place at the Olympics had they won the match anyways. What the Federation and the governement have been trying to do isn't going to help Bulgarian volleyball in the long run. Paying to organize tournaments and qualifiers is a way to mask the problems for them. Let's face it, right now Bulgaria wouldn't stand many chances against many teams in a different or neutral country, hence paying to organize an event and therefore expecting the crowd to add what the team lacks is some sick way to still claim Bulgaria might be up there with the rest. This is what also most people, fans, and pundits define as the main problem, thus not giving it more importance that it deserves - we'll just miss another Olympics.

See, to me, Serbia missing the Olympics would be a bigger problem for the world of volleyball, although Serbia really didn't impress in Bari. Whereas Bulgaria showed signs of life under Prandi who needs some more time.

Sokolov would be 34 at the end of the next Olympic cycle, so I won't say he won't have another shot yet.

The Austrians Ermacora-Pristauz with the upset of the tournament beating the newly crowned World champions Stoyanovskiy-Krasilnikov in the coldest European Championship in years.

Quote from Kaziyski

Exactly, I doubt Chile will miss this opportunity

I thought Venezuela might be able to handle Chile but haven't watched them in a while.

Quote from Kaziyski

Lately this forum is used to discuss which player makes you horny, who is more handsome and similar pointless topics. Earlier this was "oasis" with different opinions, useful infos, even analysis. Earlier, f.e., Men threads, not only league ones, have had 100+ pages, 20 pages were "written" in just few hours...

Saying anything against Yavor is ridiculous, he is volley professor for 95% active users and one of normal guy above all. If you don't agree with someone it's totally normal as this is forum and forum is used to exchange opinions, isn't it? And schedule in Gdansk is total joke from French perspective. For every normal person that's obvious.

Thanks for the nice words but I don't need advocates. I need better discussion and more knowledgeable users, to start with.

Quote from mariuszj1939

There will be always dissapointed team(s).

It doesn't matter because of referee, schedule, injury, long fly, tactics (2nd squad playing) or tournament strange system (see WCH 2010 "better to lose" Brazil-Bulgaria 0:3 or ECH 2011 Poland-Slovakia 1:3) etc.

Unfortunately, we'll not change it !!! Please send petition to FIVB/CEV etc instead of blaming one or another federation. There is a right place where rules are agreed and FINALLY accepted.

If you want to comment it once again go ahead but I prefer to comment pure volleyball and qualification.

I agree with you, yet it is not my job to send petitions or in my powers to change the system. This is FIVB's task! We know what they only care about.

Quote from Rains

The french team did the same thing to USA in VNL 2018 with the schedule before the semi.

Typically, the americans rarely complain so this didn't become a great deal for everyone.

I think it's great that we're talking about this but still... France complaining doesn't erase what they did before.

Here, now I have to write a post again because this is WRONG! Don't wonder why I had to jump in again. First, this is the stupid, meaningless VNL no one cares about. Surely not applicable here. Second, it is unfair indeed to schedule the first semifinal at 14 local time, yet they couldn't have known which team would finish second in that pool. Last, with USA already qualified, they played with the bench on Friday against Russia and seemed quite rested on Saturday.

Yes, sometimes you have to step up when the arguments or the reasoning are wrong. For if you don't do it often, people will start forming their own opinion on wrong facts or logic.

Now, I am finally back to the qualifiers which, I had totally forgotten, started earlier in China. Let's see how vital for the Canadians the outcome of that second set will be.

Quote from fan_of_volleybal

I have been observing on this forum for a while but only post occasionally. I found two "rules".

A. Whatever hot debate must end with YOUR long post. YOU must be the one with last "concluding" verdict.

B. Whenever others use Bulgaria as a (negative) example, you would say that has nothing to do with the discussion.

A. Believe me, I only take part in discussions in which I want/have something to say, or when one of the sides is ridiculous/illogical. Then, you sometimes have to act. It's not at all necessary for me to have the last verdict as long as others post something meaningful instead. When that is not the case (quite often lately), it is good when the last post brings more logic. In that specific case, Leonardo.D put a full stop on the top of the page, telling you guys you are biased and justifying something wrong and that there is nothing to discuss, yet the Poles went on. As to who posts what, where, in what sequence and how often, this is purely his own decision. If you don't like it, keep the debate going, if you think you are being rational, that is. The problem with the forum lately, as you might have witnessed, is that it became full of noobs and pointless discussions, so it makes sense for someone to try and bring more sense every once in a while. And I will lose the desire to do so soon, trust me.

B. Bulgaria was given as a wrong example and I decided to intervene. It is again my decision whether it was necessary. Here, the example given was wrong and inappropriate, that's why I replied. It had nothing to do with the side involved in that matter. Also, we were discussing Poland and their schedule, yet the user brought examples from 50 years ago about teams A, B, and C (as I said, irrelevant if Bulgaria, China, Cambodia, etc.), which has NOTHING to do with the problem in Poland. Because his were just vague examples but about situations that weren't really the same. Last, when you start attacking people with counter examples about their nationality and/or origin, it means lack of arguments 99% of the cases. Capiche?

Quote from mariuszj1939

Have I cried on the forum last year ?

WCH 2018 - Bulgaria set group stage schedule in such way to take the whole day rest before Bulgaria - Poland match and pushed Poland to play in the evening before against strong Iran.

Was it fair or not ? I have so many examples but ... it's enough.

The Polish users here are getting ridiculous trying to justify the unjustifiable. Next, I expect them to take examples from the Middle Ages from the previous century in order to prove something that has little to do with what we discuss here. I don't know why Bulgaria was mentioned in the discussion, like Bulgaria had to do anything with the weekend in Poland, especially when we discuss global qualifiers, but I will have to intervene one last time.

It has NOTHING to do with the discussion here whatsoever. First, Poland played Bulgaria almost 24 hours after the Iran match, giving them enough time to rest, taking into consideration the larger group. Second, Poland had a day off before the Iran match, so playing 2 teams on the same hour in 2 consecutive day should not be a problem, let alone at a WCH. Third, it was a group of 6 (!) teams playing over a span of more than a week, whereas here we have 4 teams playing over less than 3 days, for France even less than 48.

You can take as many examples as you wish, nothing will beat what Poland are trying to do now. Bulgaria also had a nightmare schedule in the Berlin qualifiers 3 years ago, having to eventually play for 5 days in a row in case they had made it, yet they didn't and no one cared. I can also give you many examples with other teams, it doesn't mean it is right!

Quote from mariuszj1939

Believe me or not France or other country as organizer would set schedule as per their best option. Is it true or not ?

Every host sets the schedule or the draw as per their best interest. But a demonstration of fair play and sportsmanship requires them to beat their opponents fairly and to provide them with enough time to prepare for the matches in the best possible way. This is a principle not only in sports but in life as well. Poland, as well as the ones mentioned by you (for which I don't know and can't say anything), failed to do so, thus breaking major, granted postulates. Neither Poland, nor the ones back then should be left unnoticed. The fact that it happened to Poland already in the past doesn't make it alright. It happened to many teams in many countries and qualifiers, yet the schedules are mostly fair. And last, as I said earlier, the outcome is still unclear because these are top athletes but also people who might react accordingly in such scenarios. Even this schedule guarantees Poland nothing, yet it is wrong for a number of reasons.

Quote from fan_of_volleybal

France does have grounds to complain, but I disagree with any claim of "lack of sportsmanship" against Poland on this. This claim is based on one presumption that "France is the strongest opponent of Poland", but what if Poland does believe Slovenia, not France, is their strongest opponent? Don't forget that Poland was eliminated by Slovenia in both ECh 2015 and 2017. Surely Poland also lost to France quite many times, but one can't say it's impossible for Poland to value the match vs Slovenia harder than vs France. After all, it's Poland's call regarding who they think is their strongest rival, and Poland definitely can have enough reasons to think either France or Slovenia is.

Also, regarding the schedule, for a 3-day tournament over the weekend, it is understandable to have the Friday matches as late as possible and Sunday matches as early as possible. That's for the sake of the fans -- Friday as late as possible so that they can come to watch after work, Sunday as early as possible so that more non-local fans may return home by train after match, no need to spend one more night in hotel. So there comes a compact schedule.

Then given this compact schedule, it's within the limit of host advantage for Poland to choose to play the 1st match of Friday and Saturday, and the 2nd match of Sunday. It's also very natural to choose the weakest one for the first match. Then, it's inevitable either France or Slovenia will get the poor schedule as France has now. If Poland switched France with Slovenia, maybe Slovenia will complain... or maybe some fans of Slovenia here can also "accuse" Poland for "lack of sportsmanship"...

I understand your reasoning but these are simple/generic arguments without validation. They depict generic situations, clearly not about the one we will have over the weekend in Poland. Here is why:

1. The program (as well as the ranking, history, the momentum) clearly suggests France are and were considered Poland's top rival for the Olympic spot. Had that been Slovenia instead, the program would've looked differently. If the reigning World champions can't handle Slovenia at home (let's leave alone the previous tournaments, back then Poland were a totally different team in terms of performance and quality), with Slovenia not taking part in almost any official games since the end of the 2018 WCH, then they will surely deserve a direct spot to the European qualifiers in January, to say the least.

2. Yes, as hosts, they can arrange the order of matches and opponents, that's fine. It is, however, the start hours that arouse questions. Again, what you wrote is true, yet almost no one in indoor volleyball sets a game on Sunday midday (in a group of 4), let alone on the country's most important weekend in the year, because of travelling fans. And especially not in Poland where even people of Gdansk probably won't find tickets.

3. The unsportsmanship we refer to also takes the other groups into consideration. The earliest (local times considered) match on Sunday, apart from France's one vs. Tunisia, would be at 15 in China. And all other groups have identical start hours for each day. Even if they had set a later start for Friday, they should, for the sake of sportsmanship, provide a routine or enough time to rest for the rest of the weekend. Poland failed to do that by re-arranging the schedule for Sunday. Had Poland played the late match on Friday instead, things would've looked equally difficult for everyone, but this was clearly not their plan.

So, as you see, Poland will break France's right to recover accordingly in order to gain some advantage. It may instead make the French angry, who knows, but we can't say it is a result of an accident.

Quote from andrea

Very “smart” arrangement of the schedule from the Polish federation. France and Slovenia faces each other in the first match and the loser would have a slim chance of winning the pool. No matter whether France wins the match or not, it’s not going to be an easy challenge for them, and the match will likely end around 23:00. With a very short time of rest, France will then face Poland early in the afternoon the next day. I think that’s why Poland arranges their own match as the first one in the first two days, and why they don’t arrange to play France, presumably their strongest opponent of the pool, in the last match.

I would call it a lack of sportsmanship. This was mentioned by the French in the press conference, more specifically their representatives Laurent Tillie and Toniutti complained. France will have to play 3 Olympic qualifiers in a span of about 40 hours (their last match vs. Tunisia starts at 12 on Sunday!). The reason for that is clear, of course, but it brings questions as to where the limits of any organizer's freedom to do whatever they want should lie. I am curious what the reaction of the French on the court will be. Poland vs. France will probably be the highlight of the Intercontinental Qualification round.

On a side note, taking the distribution in Pools C and D into account, at least one among Poland, France, Italy, and Serbia won't make it to Tokyo. We had a very similar outcome in Rio already, but it still feels strange and somewhat undeserved nevertheless.

Portugal's 17-man roster which prepares for the Euro.

OH: Alexandre Ferreira (Aluron Virtu, POL), João Simões (Sporting CP), Lourenço Martins (SC Espinho), Caíque da Silva (AJF Bastardo), Miguel Cunha (VC Viana/Casa Peixoto), André Rosa (Esmoriz GC)
S: Miguel Rodrigues (Rennes Volley/FRA), Tiago da Silva Violas (SL Benfica)
MB: Filip Cveticanin (SL Benfica), Phelipe Martins (SC Espinho), Guilherme Menezes (SC Espinho), Nuno Teixeira (VC Viana)
OPP: Marco Evan Ferreira (SC Espinho), Bruno Cunha (VC Viana)
L: Gil Pereira (Esmoriz GC), João Fidalgo (Sporting CP), Januário Alvar (SC Espinho)

Too bad there is no real alternative for Marco Ferreira (although I have never watched Bruno Cunha).

The European Championship started yesterday in Moscow. Not in the best weather conditions, though. Slow/normal start for most of the favourites. 2 upsets already on day 1. The 4th-seeded Poles Fijalek-Bryl lost to Giginoglu-Gögtepe from Turkey, whereas the 9th-seeded Belgians Koekelkoren-van Walle lost in straight sets to Ukraine's Popov-Gordieiev.

Quote from WZP

Brazil played very good. They are in a good shape. This team looks much different than in VNL finals.

Poland could win with them, but Heynen decided to do not substitute main players to let them prepare for main games next week.

Leon and Kubiak were starting OHs. Kubiak during whole game had 17% attack efficiency. In normal condition he would be subbed. Leon made a lot of service errors. In the after match interviews (I guess) Fabian Drzyzga said that he has green light from Heynen to try/train the hardest way of serving by him. In the end of 4th set Leon was replaced by Śliwka who served a few times and let our team to built a nice game but it was too late to catch Brazil.

About Brazil, Mauricio played very good. Despite he is barely jumping he makes a lot of positive work in defensive. Actually all of their OHs played very good tournament.

Highlights of POL-BRA:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoHaL9Gk3bc

IMO Bulgaria will have to play 150% of their normal level to beat Brazil as I wrote they are much better than in VNL finals.

Display More

Thanks for the short video! It's really sad that very little content has been published from Poland lately. I guess it has to do (mostly) with TV rights, I struggle to find matches and videos from the PlusLiga, for instance. There is a similar problem in many leagues, but there you often have scouts uploading somewhere and/or dedicated channels where replays or highlights are available.

I posted and asked about the Hubert Wagner Memorial because it is the biggest, maybe even the oldest existing, traditional friendly tournament we have in the summer. And because we would generally need an update concerning the form of those involved.

It is no surprise that Brazil look differently now. The Olympic qualifiers is probably the most important event they will take part in this year, after all (I say probably because they will qualify anyway and the World Cup, once important and prestigious, has now lost its value). Yet, I would like to wait and watch them again in official matches because they showed too many weaknesses earlier in the summer and they can't miraculously have solved all their problems. And whereas Brazil are surely not unbeatable, they are still clear favourites in Varna and their chances are high because the Bulgarian team is a mystery right now. We don't really know where they stand, their 2 planned friendlies with Iran got cancelled because the latter couldn't travel for administrative reasons, it was reported. Bulgaria played against Serbia about 2 weeks ago and have been training and weight lifting in Varna ever since. What is truly disappointing for me is Parapunov's absence who got replaced by the joke Kadankov, whose location on the volleyball map had been rightfully forgotten. We hope Sokolov doesn't get injured but even then he will have to play because Kadankov is a bad joke. I trust Prandi but perhaps his work might be first demonstrated at the ECH. Right now, Bulgaria hopes for a great volleyball day on August 11 and a packed gym. And I don't even know what ticket prices they announced, for I fear we might not even have a full arena.

Talking about Serbia, another Hubert Wagner Memorial participant, their star players enjoyed a volleyball-less summer and I am eager to find out how much time they will need to glue. Podrascanin is said to miss the event in Bari. From what I read, they didn't impress against Bulgaria and at the Memorial, so they will have a lot of work to do, even if we should never underestimate what Serbia can do in a team game.