Posts by QPL

Foluke's missed connection is Kiraly's fault. You have such a physically dominant MB, you don't need to set crazy fast to her. Fast sets are enough to spike over the opponent block.

Kelsey and Nicole changed the match for now.

Nicole is so classy and powerfull at the same time!

I spent last 2 years telling how much unfair it's using Fawcett always and forever as back up to weaker players. Nothing new from Kiraly.

Another humiliation is coming. Thanks Karch, keep leaving Destinee at home. We have our system. Who needs her?

Quote from Emil

Yeah, not simple at all, but same goes to the other euro teams. That makes everything much more exciting.

Italy in 2007 and 2011 was simply unstoppable, Lo bianco with full of motivations, great Gioli-Barazza duo, Aguero and Costagrande who were the real key of the team.

Speaking of Costagrande, there's no one this year as shining as her in WC 2011, she was just unbeatable, and London 2012 was a total disaster for euro teams, Serbia with a lot of injuried players, Italy without real OPPs for example...

You're a bit confused. Aguero left the NT before London. That was the point NT collapsed.

Actually the real problems came from locker room. Some bosses wanted to leave Piccinini at home, in order to be the main character, then FIPAV president openly said he was the one who brought Piccinini to London, since she's the only famous female volleyball player in Italy and no one, outside the volleyball world, would care about the Women's NT without her. It would be a too big damage for the image of the team and federation. Piccinini was bench player and saved italian asses against Japan coming from bench, but she couldn't do anything against South Corea. And while bosses were crying for their epic fail, she left the court smiling and greeting the hall with all camera focused on her, who did nothing in that match and no one cared a bit about standard bearer wannabe and company, who were crying. It was her biggest victory ever. She won against a sick system which ruled the NT. Right after she was called for many tv spots. Bosses didn't take it very well.

The same thing happened to Ortolani, but she wasn't the best italian female volleyball player ever, so FIPAV did nothing to call her to London.

Take a look to every fail from Italy: you'll notice each time one player got kicked off the NT. Centoni, Ortolani, Piccinini and. Ferretti left home without any reason.

Anyway I hope Italy won't qualify.

I hope China wins the tournament now. I will always support Jenny when we are not around. Go China!

Yes, you're right. The only problem there was Russia, with just Goncharova...

And about 2014 WCH I'm pretty sure we won just because brasilians collapsed under pressure to win the only gold medal they miss. China is similar to us, but Zhu is ways better than Hill. Italy was in the best four just because they were host.

Once again we can see 2014 WCH victory was accidental.

Hill is not USA NT material. The best she can do for this team is being service specialist. Lowe and Murphy at the best can be back ups. When the team doesn't work, the coach does nothing to help it.

Every time we meet teams with phisically dominant players we are in troubles. Serbia and Russia showed it. Height and power can overcome the system easily.

I want Hooker back. I'm tired of Kiraly. I hope federation changes coach. He has the best group USA ever had and can win something just when a player has the tournament of her life (Hill 2014 WCH, Lowe 2015 WGP), which they clearly cannot repeat.

His system is an epic fail when it matters.

Bring Hooker back. Now!

Since USA will probably qualify from World Cup, yes, I want Porto Rico to go to Rio de Janeiro.

Italy has nothing special anymore. And never went over QFs into the OG. So, we would miss nothing.

Netherlands has Guidetti. Everything is possible for them by now. They have far away better players than Germany, which was in every big competition thanks to the coach's work. And don't forget physically talking dutch have nothing less than everyone else in the world.

We are making ourselves too many problems for nothing. Less european teams, more european teams, Russia, Serbia, China...

What are these big european teams which won't go to Rio de Janeiro?

Serbia, Russia, Netherlands and Turkey are the best european teams right now. All these teams have their chances.

About the others, I won't miss Italy, Germany, Belgium and so on if they don't qualify.

And I want Porto Rico to take the NORCECA spot. It would be intresting.

Mai Yamaguchi (174 cm) vs Stefana Veljković (191 cm)

Yamaguchi/Uchiseto (170 cm) vs Tijana Bošković (191 cm)

Here Serbia is winning.

Mihajlovic has troubles scoring with Haruka Miyashita (176 cm) in front of her.

I repeat: I will never understand Manabe.

Tisi can be so sweet and wild at the same time.

I will never understand Manabe. He keeps changing players with shorter ones. I don't see what Uchiseto can bring to the game more than Ishii. The only good call was changing Miyashita for Koto, since the first one was a bit terrible today.

Dixon keeps growning so quikcly!

Quote from samsara

Just to earn one spot from two? What you said has pretty small probability, statistically it's ignorable.

Even without the presence of Zhu Ting and Hui Ruoqi they have enough fire power to deal with other Asian teams.

And to be exact the last hurdle for CHN will be RUS, not the host team!

Just one team qualify from AVC tournament. Think about it, surprises happened many times lately among asian teams.

I China doesn't qualify from World Cup, I won't be so sure it will in the continental round. Of course it's the streongest team right now, but it's AVC competition and you know: everything may happen. There are always great fights and battles among the big 4 (China, Japan, Thailand and South Korea) in continental or zonal competitions and lately South Korea and Thailand made huge surprises. China is the best team, but among asian ones everything may happen. Lang Ping is also struggling with injuries!

Quote from ossubtus

is kelly murphy in beijing, anyone knows?

No, she stays in Japan with Ageo Medics.

Beijing signed serbian Krsmanovic (MB) and Cebic (L).

Quote from crovolley

And we don't need to meantion How much Destinee Hooker is better than Lowe, Fawcett, Murphy.

Murphy was setter before

Yes. In NCAA she played both setter and opposite. Lichtman at Stanford was both setter and wing spiker; if my memory works, she was setter in Bielsko-Biala as well.

Actually De Gennaro is amazing passer but so so digger.

Quote from Emil

Yeah, Larson played really well in 2011, that was also a big surprise because she was quite bad in WGP 2010 along with Hodge, she got replaced by Cindy Barboza frequently but after a while she got so much better both in attack and reception, now definitely one of the best all-around OHs. I don't know the exact development, but 4 year old of experience in Russia may have helped her.

Hill is not a strong hitter indeed and we'd not better expect her to be, I think she's just well-rounded, serving well, blocking not bad and when she gets pretty sets, she attacks well. But in the long run, Kelsey Robinson should be starter along with Larson, of course my opinion.

This is the only point I agree with you. Robinson will be starter soon. Her season in Italy will made her ways stronger. Italy makes players better, don't forget these words.