Posts by 6persei

I'm getting worried about my NT ITA, they looked to me tired, worried & far less self-confident as they were until 2 days ago.
IMO, they badly need some rest and some mental coaching - for they are burdened by fatigue and by the stress of fulfilling the high expectations surrounding them.
I hope coach Berruto will put fresh forces in the field agains ARG, and prey for ITA's quick recvery against POL: this match would probably become crucial for attaining the target of OG qualification.
This WC -definitively- is very like a marathon, wherein even expert runners may suddenly stop simply because they 'run out of fuel'. Cuba's recent big boost may be partly explained by decreasing effectiveness of both ITA and bra.
After some calculations, I expect a team should reach at least 26 pts. in order to feel confident about the podium - quite a difficult target for ITA, they would achieve it only by 3 pts.-winning all the 4 remaining matches.
In bocca al lupo !! wish the best to my NT !

Congrats to Cuba, this was perhaps their best performance up to now...
Their impressive psysical strenght and resilience may become a plus factor when approaching the final rounds.
But they also showed improved reception and defence as well, thus allowing better attacks. Hernadez had a great day, today.

From now on CUB must be considered a serious contender to the podium; but still they must meet -in a row - BRA and RUS , not to mention USA...
They may be sure to get 6 more points (chi+egy), this would not be enough.

This defeat may not be a drama for ITA, we may still compete until the end for a ticket to London.
Of course we can't afford any more losses; yet I still consider my home country in a better position as respect to POL, who will end with a terrible streak USA-ITA-BRA-RUS.
Should POL survive this ordeal, I would bow to them and sing their praises..

Anyway, Forza Azzurri !!

I guess BRA will take 1st set.
Disappointed by RUS: Butko plaing poorly, easily read by the opponents;
RUS team does not appear 'on fire', too quiet ....
PS: BRA won 1st set..

some considerations:
1) one more time, JPN is my beloved team (together with my NT, of course): I like the way they play, the spirit they put into the fight, even when there's no gain for them (but the praise Ffrom the public and the sportsmen). And Takeshita ? simply unbelievable ... her block against Mari deserves (at least) to be commemorated with a special stamp by JPN Post Service..
2) This WC turned out to be much more thrilling and entertaining than last year's WCH. Hard-fought matches, many competitive teams, sudden reversal of fortunes.... Worth seeing !
3) At the moment, there's NO 'dominant' national team: there's just a bunch of 'prominent' teams who can win against whoever, yet may also be defeated by any of their peers.. IMO, this open competition is good for volleyball movement all over the world
4) I read everything was written on this forum, and I found quite often helpful and well-thought analysis and opinions ... and some nice humour too. Thanks to all you, Folks!!
5) ITA NT has played -once more in her history- the underdog who takes the win - thanks to Jap, but in the overall earning it by its own merit... Yet we cannot foresee how ITA will perform next year. Some people noticed that since Barbolini's advent ITA has won a lot, but only in odd-numbered years ... and this victory should confirm it..
6) Italian Volley forums have already started a new debate: Is Barbolini a genius (having brought the team "from rags to riches" in 30 days only) or is he simply endowed with a big amount of luck ? (in Italian: ''un gran culo''...) What would have happened if Piccinini had no health problems, if Ortolani had no injury? We could have seen Costagrande again exiled in the OPP role -as it was in the EC???
7) Now and forever, GRAZIE RAGAZZE !!

What a thrilling tournament ! the round robin formula is really like a marathon, you cannot be sure about the winner until very end !

CONGRATULATIONS to ALL the top teams - I'm sorry only for GER and JPN, wish them well for the continental qualifications...

Quote from TheUSAFAN

ITA: What I've been most impressed with with Italy is the quality of their service reception and back court defense. Lo Bianco is amazing of course, but she has had the luxury of some great passing that has really allowed her to be even more deceptive and run a great offense. Both Italian MB's have been very effective on attack because the passing allows them to be involved on a consistent basis. Germany and the USA are better serving teams than Serbia and Brazil, so it will be interesting to see if the Italians' passing can hold up. They rely on precision and movement for their offense to be effective, if Germany or the USA gets their passing out of rhythm and gives their block a chance to be well-formed the Italian offense will lose efficiency. Two great matches ahead and I can't wait.

I fully agree to this statement - Now ITA is a more balanced team, with better defense and receiving as compared to the 6tet who failed at ECH 2 months ago. Now Lo Bianco can grant golden passes to Gioli and Arrighetti; Costagrande in her natural role (no more as OPP) is making quite often the difference... Lucia Bosetti until now has made up for Ortolani's injury, beyond adding her defence skills to her team. Paola Croce is the winning bet of Barbolini, he was widely criticized for leaving home young Leonardi...

Yet I wonder if this balance would stand up against the 2 best-serving teams; I wonder whether Lucia Bosetti may perform against MBs called Furst or Akinradewo; I wonder whether Gioli-Arrighetti may be effective in blocking US spikers (I feel more confident as their blocking the German ones).

This last round is for me the real final examination, in order to graduate ITA as an effective competitor to 2012 London podium. Should ITA fail to pass it, I would say thanks anyway to the girls for a beautiful tournament, and for the best performance in an international competition since 2009 Grand Champions Cup.

What a Thrilling World Cup !! The world Hierarchy of female volley being turned upside down !
Bravo JPN, bravo Takeshita - this tournament is fading into a nightmare for BRA..
If I were USA and GER, I'd be worried by having to meet -in a row- alll the 3 "blazing" teams of the moment - as slytherinz said.
IMO, Mc Cutcheon's team is still the front-runner for the title, but they will have to work hard to earn it, especially against CHI and ITA.

ITA would get at least 26 pts. in the worst case (2 losses), it should be enough for a trip to London

Who will get the last ticket among CHI -GER- JPN ? Best wishes to all these teams, although I believe CHI may take profit from having an 'easier' match (against Kenya) .

ITA-SRB 3-0 !!! 29-27 25-19 25-20
Congratulations to my "ragazze" !!
SRB proved to be real tough, in the first set they wasted 3 set-balls.
ITA 13 blocks SRB only 3 - Gioli 8 BLCKS , 21 PTS. IN TOTAL... very convincing performance ! Costagrande 19 pts., a killer in the field. Libero Paola Croce awarded as MIP.
Regrets are growing about the time wasted by Barbolini in quixotic experiments, leading to bad NT performances either in WGP and in the EC.
This OG qualifications would make up for it .....
My congratulations to the young SRB NT, theY ARE really promising!! Bjelica and Velikovic especially.

GRAZIE RAGAZZE !!!

The unexpected sometimes happens...
I did not expect ITA defeating BRA 3-0 (though I had noticed before-as everyone did- BRA was far from their best shape).
Even more unexpected Guidetti's team throwing away at least 50% of their hopes for OG qualification. Lack of concentration or slowly fading after a superb start up ?

All of a sudden, CHI-SRB has become a match of outmost importance for the 3rd ticket to London...
My best wishes to China, for I'm afraid of SRB NT, ... a voice inside me says tomorrow ITA may have to face a much tougher opponent than it proved to be today's Brasil..

Deeply Disappointed at my NT: no fight, no spirit, not even self-confidence. Piccinini a big burden upon ITA, Most UN-valuable Player of the tournament...

Yet I believe this EC-defeat marks -first and foremost- the Failure ( the Bankrupt, actually..) of Barbolini's approach to the tournament.
1) The decision to rely -blindly- upon the trio Leo-Picci-Anto, no matter their aging, with no provisions for substitutes (Ferretti almost unemployed, Barcellini left home)
2) Ortolani put definitively aside; whimsical experiments with Gioli as OPP (in GP) and with Costagrande diverted from p4 to P2 (ECH); Re-calling back Ortolani in the 2nd set against GER, as a desperate move, and so de-menting himself...
3) During the whole season, a tourbillon of badly assembled, uneffective teams playing the fool in Montreux, University Games, Gr.Prix.
4) So we entered the ECh with a team who was OLD-AGED and WORN-OUT (in some key players) and -- at the same time!!! -- UNEXPERIENCED and UNCONFIDENT. ( for example. Costagrande played only 4-5 matches within NT before ECh, and in different roles. ** In the German team, Grun joined to a long-trained team with well-oiled mechanisms,,)

The whole story reminds me the fate of Marcello LIPPI , former trainer of ITA football NT. After winning 2006 FIFA World Championship (and a 2-years vacancy) he went back to train Italy, recalling back the 'old guard', stubbornly sticking to the players who gave him the victory ... Thus, at 2010 World Championship (South Africa) the defending champion ITA was sadly eliminated in the FIRST round of the tournament ... by Slovakia..

Quote from joanamss

Sad to see Italian girls so dismotivated.

Wish I would this to be only a problem of motivation....
Against JPN, as against USA, Italians proved unable to step up in the topic moments of the match, so keeping the opponent down. It happened yesterday in set 4th, and today in set 2 (from 22-15 to 23-25 !!! ).
Anzanello performed quite good against Usa, yet against Jap was almost inconsistent (also because of superb setting of Takeshita...); Gioli as an OPP still fails to convince me...
Piccinini and Barcellini rather weak, perhaps they may suffer the coming of Costagrande into NT.

Two months of experiments ended up in a whole serie of underperformances (Montreux- University Games- Grand Prix) , in growing doubts about the reliability (as a whole) of the "old Guard" and in feeling less confident about the "younger" who should integrate and reinforce the main team.

Should Barbolini succeed in solving all those doubts and present to ECH a strong and winning team, I would consider this his greatest achievement ever .... Let's hope..

QUOTE Agguerro
<<< to come out as defending champion and playing this horrible is just wrong!! >>>
END QUOTE
I agree -completely and in full - to this sentence and to whole Agguerro's statement.

What a Shame !! A pitiful ITA team was ridiculized by BRA girls - 0-3, with embarrassing scores (2nd set 9-25, 3rd 15-25 !! )
Better get back home soon and stop assembling improvised (and improbable) teams... Second straight and blatant failure of ITA 'B-team' after the awful MONTREUX tournament: despite some more stages and training work, this 'nazionale' still fails on the same points as it did 2 months ago: poorest reception, lack of reaction in difficult times, poor and lacklustre setting (either by Bechis and Corna .... I start to miss Rondon. ...).
... Whoever it may be who sets the plan for the summer season of the 'nazionale', I would tell him/her/them to avoid improvisations as such, bounding younger players to defeat and somewhat to ridiculous. Don't think a Bechis, a Saccomani, a Partenio would take much profit for growing from experiences like those University Games ...

Interesting match btw. POL and ITA, more balanced than one would think looking at the final score.
Ferretti's injury compels Barbolini to Rondon setting. This may go to Ortolani's benefit, but not to Arrighetti's: the MB had some tempo problems, she would prefer a faster serving (as Leo LoBianco's one). As to the MBs, ITA hasn't found yet an effective partner to Arrighetti - still much to be done ....
Praises to Ortolani and Costagrande, two strong points of the team (but Carol should improve her reception).
In thre POL field I appreciated very much Okuniewska: she seeems to be a very reliable and consistent MB:... something Scavolini Pesaro was needing badly...

Real Glad 4 ITA jr.NT becoming W-Champion !! I was confident about this team after they had won ECH 2010, but I didn't expect they would reach the summit of world volley. !!
Grazie ragazze !!

And I would make a special thanks to coach Marco Mencarelli. He's doing a superb job in training young ITA players since 2006. His palmarès is nowadays stunning:
I would resume it 4 all of you, I think he deserves much praises 4 this important achievement. Grazie Marco !!

<< Marco Mencarelli joined the staff of the senior women's Italy team in 2001 as assistant coach, helping them clinch victory at the 2002 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship in Berlin and silver at the 2001 European Championships in Bulgaria. In 2005 he led Italy to a bronze medal in the Mediterranean Games.
Since 2006, Mencarelli has coached the Italian women’s junior team and won three consecutive European Championships: France 2006, Italy 2008 and Serbia 2010.
He also helped his side to a fifth place finish at the World Championship in Thailand.>> ...+ 2011 victory ... (source: FIVB site)

Mencarelli's photo:
http://www.fivb.org/visasp/Img…?No=201104561&MaxSize=150

I feel sorry for the Bulgarians - POL went close to defeat against team 'B' of Argentina (Uriarte BOO....) : but they have to blame first themselves for losing against POL. Had they played with half of the grit they showed against ITA ....
Italy too must blame first its lack of mental strenght and self-confidence (too many silly mistakes in the topic moments of many sets, especially today), its lack of a real leader-in- the- field (à la Nikolov, I mean..): perhaps Zaytsev may grow to it (he's only 23), no one else sure will...

At the end, the least convincing team goes to the semis: I say least convincing for POL reminded me of a see-saw : always ups and downs, bursts of good playing and long pauses....
It does not mean they did not deserve it: they fought their battles, they took profit from ARG playing with 2nd fiddles, the audience was much of a help to keep them warm and ready to do their best.
Tomorrow I can skip watching POL-RUS, and concentrate upon ARG-BRA. Of course, forza Argentina ...

1st set perfect for ITA. I expect POL will react

QUOTE '' As Zorzi said in his blog, they play volleyball as Barcellona plays football: beautifully. '' QUOTE
Great Zorro, you really got to the point !! BUL was simply wiped out, that's the fact

As many other, I'm waiting 4 tonite's match - who's likely to show the 2nd qualified team. For my newly-assembled NT is a major test, it would tell us how much we can reasonably expext from our 'azzurri', especially at the incoming EC tournament. I have some positive feelings, I think they may play better than against ARG ...
Forza azzurri & " In bocca al lupo" !!!

Quote from mateo

Quoted from "tygrysek"
2 good matches in other group and embarrassing game between Poland and Bulgaria two weakest teams of tournament.

you think USA_Russia was a good match?? oh man...it was the worst match so far...
and lets not judge teams before the end of the finals. everything is still open one day we can play crap and another we can be brilliant , same goes for other teams let's wait for the final results and than lets see who's the weakest

Mateo, I agree 100 % to your opinion.
I feel tomorrow we are going to have some surprise ... No team seems to be far and above the others

As Fefè De Giorgi said, CRAZY Tiebreak !
Please, some Polish should explain to me how to get from 11-4 to 12-12 ...and go very close to losing a match..at home.
Anyway, this match was really worth seeing, plenty of suspence and sudden reversal of lead ... my congrats to both teams for fighting to the outmost.

This match and BRA-CUB were a real thrilling, this year WL finals are really making me to stick to the screen ...

As to Bartman, I wish him a quick recovery from the injury - whatever it may be< -- sad to see a valiant player stopped this way..