Posts by Martee

Unfortunately Russia still seek for their first win.
On Polish side, I'm pleased to see that Gacek, as one of the most experienced in the team, stood out when Zati lost himself today. Lomacz handle most part of the match not too bad, though I still hesitate to say he's a good fit for the sub of Fabian.
This was not a perfect match to watch, but glad to see Poland smiled till the last minute.

OK. This conversation is becoming pointless. I don't believe I will accept that Iran is among the best teams, nor am I willing to convince the fellow fans with my theory. After all it is important to see how the teams play. Iran now have some good moments and they should keep consistent. And for those teams who are aiming bigger, we should expect to see them showing us some breathtaking rallies in the near future.

That concludes my comments about this topic. I most likely will not continue writing posts about it. However I'd be happy to extend the discussion with individuals via direct message.

Quote from YavorD

I guess we have a different definition of BEST teams. You consider best only those which are great, am I right? This means, to you, maybe Poland, USA, and Russia are the best teams in the world. Apart from the World Cup, Brazil are holding nothing else anymore. Applying the same logic, the Brazilians are not among the BEST teams then, for they have no trophies lately. Well, even Russia doesn't seem like a great team at the moment. So, in my opinion, BEST should include also those good teams which can match the great ones. If not always, at least sometimes.

I have never considered Bulgaria, just an example, a great team, but as good, and especially in the period 2006 - 2010 as one of the best teams in the world. A level they only came close to in 2012 and 2013. Serbia is even more successful and, to me, they are a great team.

Great teams and great players are two totally different topics. You are right - in the end results count, not the number of outstanding performers.

Ha. Alright. Normally I consider top 3 in WCH WCup OG and ECH, as well as winner of WL in the most recent period as solid accomplishment. So actually Brazil and Italy do count as the best teams. You know, it's sort of like FIVB ranking. And the reason is normally the medalists of those major events don't win their positions in those tournaments easily. They normally will face well-prepared opponents and a formula that (seems) fair to everyone.

Quote from Mamdani

The value of a team is not indicated by the victories. For example, Serbia didn't win for 10 years (between 2001 and 2011), but at the time I considered it one of the best team in the world (with Miljkovic, Grbic, Geric etc.) and Bulgaria during Kaziyski/Nikolov era was a great team as well, even if they did not win. It's the same in all team sports (the most famous example in football is the Netherlands of Cruyff during the 70s, in basketball the great Croatia of Petrovic/Kukoc/Radja during the 90s).
Therefore, even if Iran won't win, I consider it one of the best teams in the world right now.

To clarify, I agree with you that Serbia, Bulgaria etc. are good teams. But are they among the best teams? Unfortunately I don't think so. Serbia's most recent outstanding result was 2011 ECh winner, and Bulgaria 4th place in OG and 13 ECh. And do note that this does not bury the fact that Atanasijevic etc are outstanding players. It's just those teams have their short comings, while the really great teams managed to fix theirs.

And the cruel side of history is, not every great players could be memorized, but all the victories will be archived and kept in mind. I am very sad that few people know who Marcos Milinkovic is, even he had one of the most spectacular plays two decades ago.

Interesting. I couldn't help but find myself in an awkward position here since I just posted that Iran in my mind in always somehow overrated (post #247 in this thread). And apparently now I'm a ignorant troll. Thank you very much for helping me recognize who I am.

I don't think it is too much a deal that Iran win a few World League matches. As everyone knows WL has less and less significance these days. And so far Iran has no solid performance in major events. They lost 12OGQ to Aussies. They lost 5/6 away matches in 14WL (when all three teams played with their first squad). In 14 WLFinals Iran beated only Brazil because that would've help Brazil eliminate Russia. And in WCH Iran practically lost all matches in the final round and ended 6th place. Now with such performance, hardly can I acknowledge Iran is one of the best teams in the world. All the top teams proved that they deserve that place by winning the major events. And if Iran are, as what the fans said, among the best teams, I look forward to their games in the World Cup this year.

Quote from NicolettaL

Michał Łasko (OPP) and Zbigniew Bartman (OH) from Jastrzębski Węgiel to Sichuan in China

To my best knowledge Sichuan have been seeking for good foreign player for quite a while. Who could imagine the biggest winner after JW's "bankruptcy" is Sichuan...
Well, hopefully Zibi and Lasko love pandas!

Who am I kidding, who doesn't love pandas

Quote from majka.antosik

it was realy refreshing to watch this match without Woicki on court and really wonderful watching their young faces all smilling in tie break. It seems to me that boys prefer to play with Kedzierski

Our young receivers - Sliwka and Szalpuk are really our future joy. It's been a long time we got players this young and talented on this position. We finally found someone who can replace Winiarski in the future. And they both seem to have great character for volleyball, so they can replace him in NT (who am I kidding, no one will EVER replace Winiarski). It's almost unbelieveble to have them both at the same time It's a price for not having any opposite, I guess...

we were finishing with Sliwka (20), Szalpuk (20), Kędzierski (21) and Nowakowski (21) and I demand to see them in starting six in the next match

I wish to include Szymon Romac as well, though Kowal never agreed with me. He and his Resovia gang must be on the court.

So fed up with Konarski. Can't believe this guy has the world champion title.
He can't even handle the Euopean games.

Quote from raylight

I hope most FIVB officials get arrested and molested in jail. The situation is much worse than in FIFA. At least they have stable rules and no retroactive regulations.

Speaking of this, I feel really sorry for Wei, the former president. Basically all his renovations on volleyball have been undone by Graca. The net violation rules go back to the old times. The two-libero idea is basically non-exist due to the 12-player limitation. And now the 3-2-1-0 system is meaningless by counting the number of wins first (basically the idea of 2-1-0 system).
I'm not saying that rectifying those rules is bad, though it does seem to me that FIVB wasted a bunch of years of time and now goes back to where it started.

Scheduling 6 matches in one day again proves to be a terrible idea... It's 2am in Baku now and Poles are still playing against French.
Konarski is as disappointing as always. Romac showed some great plays. He is kind of unique among Polish opposites (probably because he's a lefty?). Anyways, I'd like to see him have a shot in A team. He could be a good complement to Kurek.

Heynen... never stops surprising me...
I had zero expectation of seeing Denys as a libero.
And who is Strohbach???

It was absolutely great that Poland nailed four victories at home. World League is the best opportunity to try out new squad before major events, ECH and WCup. And clearly it worked fairly well so far. Although Russia didn't sent the best players (or just didn't send Muserskiy), and Iran in my mind is always somehow overrated, this team so far can be listed as top notch, and it definitely gives us a reason to look forward to the later events.

I actually have been waiting for this day for so long. As I changed my signature, I finally see Kurek coming back. The opposite idea is not too bad, and it seems this trial has been very popular worldwide (let's see, Bartman, Zaytsev, Anderson, Conte, and a few other instances). However just as all the other players who made the same transition, there might be problems in the future. To me now Kurek's problem is about the speed - a good model to follow with decent rhythm is just his predecessor Wlazly. There were a couple of rallies that Kurek merely caught the best hitting point of the ball, but luckily enough he managed to make the shot and sometimes even scored. But this will be a problem, and hopefully as he feels more and more comfortable at the new position, he'll learn more techniques.

Receiving is another bomb that can explode any minute. Today's match against Iran could be a great illustration - in the first set Iranian middle #6's serve made a huge trouble to the Poles. And it seemed to be very little resolutions other than putting Buszek in (whose reception is just mediocre) or let Kurek join the reception (like what Anderson does in USA NT). To be fair this team haven't met the biggest serve challenges yet, and hopefully they won't crush... Well, I guess next week's matches against USA would be a good test.

Speaking of today's match, I believe the utmost pain was the loss of 4th set. Poland was once quite close and falling behind by just two points, before Iran scored two or three times to make it impossible for Poles to catch up again. In my opinion Fabian was the person to blame. Don't take me wrong - I love Fabian and he did pretty great in the last two matches, but in today's match, he had some shitty sets. Nowa, Kurek, Wrona, Mika all had a few shots from bad angle or low position, some of which, of course, ended up losing the point. Had those rallies been taken good care of, the match would have ended earlier. Fabian is the only reliable setter in the NT now, and I don't know if Lomacz deserves more chances.

I noticed in the posts above many people mentioned that Kurek played quite smart in the tie-break. I believe it referred to the first few points where Kurek made tricky shots on the left. Actually this drew my attention. In the tie-break when Kurek was in the front, he always stood on the left side when Poland were serving, this is in fact a strange arrangement since we know opposites normally stand on the right side. On the other hand this also makes sense because Kurek did had better shots on the left side in general. Was it a casual strategy? or was it planned and was Antiga's secret weapon? Anyways, this might be another alternation and provide more flexibility to the team.

Moreover, I have to say I was completely amazed by Bieniek. This young guy showed every aspect that I love for a middle blocker, and I had sought for such a player in NT for a long time. His blocks are quick and tall, which were more efficient than his peers. His attacks were like missiles and always maximized the power. His serves reminded me of Daniel Plinski's, which are not easily found on Polish middles nowadays. Anyways I'm just so glad Poland finally got another talented middle. And if Antiga discovered this boy for no reasons (like, he played in Kielce which I presume should draw very limited attention), he need s to exploit his serendipity a lot.

I wish I could go to Chicago for next week's match but seemingly I won't be able to make it. I was wondering whether Antiga would send the full squad over the Atlantic Ocean, because based on his history, he tends to save some major players at home, if I'm right.

Well so among the top4 teams in Plusliga only two starting outside hitters are Poles, Mika and that guy from JW who won't be in the NT anyways.
This is not good.

btw, super upset about Bee's recent games. :*(

I'd like to give Lemanski a chance as well. He did seem amateur in the league but this guy could be an ace if coached in good hands.

Quote from arman

eliminating wild card invitation for world cup makes it easier for the stronger teams (Russia, US and poland) to qualify for the olympics.

Interesting.
Poland are Russia were the wild card invitees four years ago.

Quote from Noncommittal

Qualification process confirm
http://www.fivb.org/viewPressR…&Language=en#.VP7hyXysWSo

So no Brazil after all.

this thread is deserted after Kondzio stopped updating match results...

I'm deadly curious what is going on with ZAKSA, what kind of peculiarity makes Gladyr play the libero.

Quote from Bartek

Why have You Włodarczyk as main photo? Is He in Your type?

Ah... good question. Two years ago I was very worried about the OHs in Poland NT and I was looking upon Wlodarczyk to come out as a resolution.
Unfortunately so far he doesn't seem like one, and Mika turned out to be the guy.

As I am just too lazy to change another avatar.

Quote from Username100

He is ugly and his acne.

Well IMHO he's cute.

Alright I guess he became my type after two years watching.

I watched the ZAKSA match and it was fairly entertaining. ZAKSA used a squad that are not commonly seen. Loh definitely had one of the best games in this season. I was delighted to see Rejno and Banach had the chance of playing the entire game. Rejno shows some flaws due to lack of experiences, Banach's name looks like banana so that amused me (no offense).
On the other hand, Izmir's performance was way too underwhelming. The setter, whom I'm not familiar with, had too many ridiculous faults. And Gavin clearly didn't present the best of himself, as quite a few attacking faults certainly contributed to the 0-3 loss.

Quote from Bartek

How is called Schmitt's hairstyle?

Woicki in 2012.