Posts by odin

2 sets for japan. hurrah!

a mature ortolani played in today's match. she scored many points from hitting off the block of the outside hitter. she wasn't error prone in both attack and service.
gioli could be the best middle blocker in terms of attack right now. you can even hear the usa girls shouting during the time outs that the key to victory is to be able to block gioli. unfortunately, she was too fast for the usa. it also helps that an awesome setter sets to her.
as much as leo lo bianco is my favorite player. i'm a little disappointed with her setting today. even when her team receives great, she still opts for a high outside set. making del core and piccinini face a well placed block everytime.

alisha glass saves many balls. but what i don't like about her game in this match is when she sets her middles, the sets are many times too low for akinradewo or too far for bown to do her running back slide. bown's offensive percentage was also high compared to the other girls. but she only get around two spike attempts every set.
destinee hooker is the future of US volleyball. her back row attacks are heavy; her success rate in hitting back row attacks was very high in this match.
24% and 20% attack percentage for tom and larson respectively. while watching, tom's attack didn't look too bad. and it's not that her offense was not good; it's just that cardullo was digging many of her strong hits. i agree that larson's offense wasn't good in this match. but i'd still choose her over megan hodge because she's a very steady receiver.

but even though italy wins all its remaining games and the usa loses to brazil. usa will still make it to the semis most likely because they'll both end with two losses. but usa's point ratio is better than italy. the teams from this side of the pool are victims of the pooling system.

i was wrong. yey. italy!!!

usa will probably win the 4th set.

this is a match. italy wins a tightly contested third set; 27-25

destinee hooker's talent makes up for her bad name.
logan tom is just super in all aspects: serve, spike, block, digs, receive, even set.

the gioli-lo bianco connection is so fun to watch.

16-11 for usa in the second. italy's receivers can't take the heat of tom's serve.

try fromsport.com

nice blocking by italy. first set ends in favor of them as they were able to limit usa to 16 points.

good start from del core, hoping that italy will maintain this.

i want italy to win. but a good performance from piccinini or gioli is not enough to do so. the team needs a more consistent opposite than ortolani.

Quote from mateo

that's excatly why i support them all the time. i really appreciate their effort that they try their best to overcome their lack of hight and power and i hope it will be awarded on this WCH

PS just so the results of Holland... what on earth has happened to them this year

let's not take anything away from thailand; the team's improving. they given gave the us an upset.
but i guess the main problem with the netherlands, as what has been stated by others, is their lack of offensive options other than flier.
sure grothues or their middle blockers play good sometimes, but sometimes is not enough to support flier.

though i dislike the way the japanese volleyball federation dealt with the draws, etc., i'm going to root for them on this one,

the japan team is really entertaining to watch; they're always smiling and they always seem to have fun. plus i like the way that the team needs to "struggle" to get the point. they need to run plays, dig well, etc. not the typical, dig-set high-spike formula that we're so used to seeing.

i miss the cuban 6-2

where can i watch these matches online?

hey, any updates on how to download the game?

i've been looking for a decent volleyball game. Internation Volley 2006 is good, but i found it too easy now, since the enemy can hardly retrieve any balls if you do a quick set.

gioli as opposite. can't wait to see it.

it's like the asian type of play where they basically have three middles. it's too bad that china lost this formula post 2008 olympics.

i've seen some matches where guiggi was playing opposite, she was even doing the slide kill when she was in the back row, but it wasn't too effective though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3igihTfISBQ

look at how kirilova "varies" her sets.

why didn't lo bianco play in the match against jesi?

regarding ortolani, i think she's too inconsistent lately. in fact, bossetti plays far better than her. and i think the other option centoni is not as good as she once was. she's no longer the player that can dominate matches. and italy is known to have stellar opposites like togut, aguero, etc.

i think the team looked better without aguero because aguero is no longer the player she once was. she no longer had the form she had; the form she had before olympics 08. she's still good defensively but she was getting too many sets and she can't convert.

my problem for italy is what if their players retire. the team couldn't find a replacement for gioli and piccinini any time soon. and i do not see any one possibly replacing them.

just a question though: what happened to the players like fiorin? stufi? vitez?

dani lins is ok sometimes. but she's on/off; which is something a setter shouldn't be. what the team needs is a decent replacement everytime dani lins plays awfully. unfortunately, the replacement is far worse. ana tiemi almost never sets to her middles, and during broken plays she'd always give a high set to her outside hitter.

what happened to carolina albuquerque? i personally think that she's a far better choice than dani lins. but since the coach prefers dani lins, what she needs is a back up that can deliver everytime she's shaken by the circumstances.