Hello guys!!
I finally here to comment! And it's hard to find the words... [And of course I wrote a very long post 
Sorry! I'm sure you can understand me ;)]
So, I'll start from the easy part: congrats to the Serbian girls for a very deserved gold, they were the 'team to beat' from the beginning to the end (they only lost when they didn't truly care for the victory, they've always won when they wanted to), and the only team Italy couldn't beat (twice!).
(But it's a pity there wasn't a chance for a Serbia-China match, I would have loved to watch these two amazing teams clashing against each other!)
Second easy part: congrats to my girls. They went way above and beyond my expectations: we knew that with Turkey and China in the pool, even not getting to the final6 was a possibility to deal with, and nothing to be truly annoyed by (unless it'd came with a terrible game), since our first real goal – a goal Mazzanti set the first day of his career as NT coach – was considered to be the 2019 ECh. Well, we won a silver at the first WGP and a silver at the WCh, second medal ever at WCh in the history of women volleyball in Italy. So, hats off to Davide, his staff and his girl. Amazing achievement, you made us dream.
We totally deserved this silver and I'm glad many people outside Italy acknowledge that, as I'm glad that they made Italy fall in love with them. Rai transmitted all the last Italian matches on Rai2 (and also several non-Italian matches), and the response was huge. Saturday we had a peak of 8 million (43% of share). Incredible! Again, what a pity that the semifinal was on Friday (and still it was followed a lot). The social went crazy about the girls.
Danesi and Sylla were the players that surprised me the most, especially Sylla who I believed not having great improve margin, unlike Anna.
About the match: it was somehow quite different than I expected. To be honest, I thought it was going to be a fought 3-1, with a very well played volleyball on both side.
And yes, the match was very fought because it ended 12-15 at the tie break, but I can't get rid of the impression that we didn't played that well, and that surprised me, because losing with such a little margin not playing that well showed to me that the distance with Serbia is little than I thought (they weren't perfect either, though). Their experience made the difference: they were more cynical when it mattered the most (that not closed smash at 12-13 it's still hunting me, and I'm afraid it will hunt Sylla for a while as well, but girl, we wouldn't be there without your amazing tournament!).
I sadly have to admit that for the first time in the tournament I ended up thinking "well, if we'd had Caterina Bosetti and Folie, may be..."
Which is something I hated to think, because you win and you lose with the players you have, period.
I love when an important match ends 3-2, but I must admit that being on the losing end of a 3-2 with a close tie break is heartbreaking.
Overall, I think it was a good final, with amazing moment of volleyball, but imho sometimes the level dropped a bit too much. I preferred the semifinal, but of course it's easier when the two more one-sided sets were won by your own team, and not the opposite.
About the awards, I had already expressed my thought before: Maja should have gotten the best setter (but of course I'm very happy for Malinov).
I personally made up my mind that – being Italy second – we would have got only one award between Danesi and Sylla; so, when Miriam was awarded I was prepared that Anna was out. Then Malinov got the awards and for a second I was scared they would have given to Sloetjes the best opposite or Popovic best libero (she was great, but Moki is Moki!)...
Still, I agree with the general consideration: if they were ok with giving Italy 4 awards, then it was better to switch Malinov and Maja and Rasic and Danesi.
I don't know if Sylla deserved it more than others (amazing tournament, not that amazing final), but I'm so happy for her: between the false doping story and the fact her mother is hill (she even thought about not coming in Japan), I felt it was the right choice. Her tears moved me a lot.
not to state the obvious but the team with the best reception will win...
I guess in the end you were right...
that moment when you realize that serbia has no plan b.
Nor did Italy, though... but I think we knew that fro us it was practically the titular or nothing.
Egonu is enjoying herself today..smiling
I'm glad we all noticed it! She seemed so relaxed at the beginning!
So much respect to Egonu for a kill spike right after an error!
She really surprised me about that.
In the last two matches she made a lot of errors (while during the WCh she keep them quite low both in serve and attack), but in the whole tournament I think only once I remember her making 2 errors in a row.
