Btw US will probably win it by not losing a single set. I didn’t watch a lot , how is there so much gap btw them and the others??
US has legit talent on their roster with great depth - and the level of the tournament is super mid at best, Brazil was destroyed by Venezuela last year at the CSV championship and was expectedly terrible at this tournament, Poland (ECH winner) lost to Thailand, and the champion of AVC last year was Korea.
Not the best age group for 'typical' powerhouses, it seems.
Yeah, she has super fluid footwork for her age-size, that's a big promise. She's smooth on the right side.
Overall level of this tournament is definitely not good for now tho, lol.
Knotts as an opposite is a long-term change? She looks like a tier 1 talent regardless of her position based on few games I've seen.
There's already Giovannini as 3rd libero...
Yeah, there's no solution here - but I don't think that you can use e.g. Bolzonetti in any capacity, while with three liberos you can at least use Moro/Spirito as a 2nd receiving sub, or you can use Adigwe as a serving sub (Antropova would probably be a 4th OH anyways). And they at least played in the VNL with A Team. That's why I'm thinking that if Omoruyi is out, maybe Velasco will call up a 3rd libero/OPP instead.
Gardini is not in the wide roster. The only option left on OH are Nardo, Bolzonetti and Tanase.
My guess is 3rd libero as a fake OH, or maybe 3rd OPP if Antropova is ever used as an OH.
All the best to Omoruyi and I don't mean to make fun out of her injury, but it's quite ironic that she joined the team both in 2024 and 2025 due to injuries of Degradi, and thanks to that she won WCH and OG, and now she's probably out 9 days before the tournament herself. I guess that's life and sports in a nutshell.
In 22-23, Blengini simply copied, at a certain point in the season, the formation Lorenzetti had used all season, with three S on the field: Michieletto, Lavia, and Kazijski as a fake O...
In 2022/2023 season, Kaziyski played as a regular opposite with no receiving duties - Trentino played with Lavia as a fake opposite a year before, but it wasn't too efficient way to use him and actually a mistake from Lorenzetti, so he basically abandoned the idea a year later. And no one copied anyone, because this system was actually quite popular in female volleyball in the 00s (teams with Glinka or Francia, or China playing with Zhou Suhong as an opposite on paper), it's just no one else runs this system at the top male vball level on regular basis. USA with Anderson sometimes - but it's a different story here. Anything else? So yeah, to put Asparuhov as a receiving opposite and win a medal at the top event in male volleyball is quite creative, I'd say. But I guess you just don't rate Blengini, and that's fine.
The 3-OH system in Lube was not built by him. He did put Alex in the OPP position a few times, but not in a regular lineup. Medei translated the Bulgaria 3-OH system to Lube last season.
Nope, Blengini played with Zaytsev as a receiving opposite, and Nikolov as a (partially) non-receiving outside hitter in the playoffs in 2023, and was actually close to winning a championship in Civitanova. Nikolov at that time had big issues in reception and Zaytsev was washed offensively, but was a better receiver than Nikolov. The result was that Zaytsev prior to getting injured in the playoffs received much more than Nikolov even though on paper he played as an opposite, and Aleks played as an outside hitter - while Nikolov got more sets from De Cecco offensively. Then, Civitanova hired Lagumdzija for two years - and returned to the 3 OH system last year because they couldn't find a decent replacement for Adis.
Zaytsev / Asparuhov / Loeppky playing as receiving opposites are just different iterations of the same idea introduced in Civitanova for the first time by Blengini in 2023. Nikolov is also a much better player than in 2023, so he receives / spikes from position 1 more, but the concept of a 'fake opposite' is kinda the same.
Anyway, the point is that Blengini is one of the most creative coaches tactically at this top level, so it will be interesting to see what he can bring to the female volleyball. Not that he'll play with Egonu as a receiving opposite, lol, but he may have some interesting ideas.
This is a very interesting experiment with Blengini in a female volleyball: he's an elite coach, and he's super versatile tactically considering he was multiple times super efficient with these odd, 3-OH systems in Civitanova or Bulgaria NT.
I don't think that Milano has a roster good enough to contend realistically for major trophies, but it's certainly something interesting to see for someone following both male and female vballs.
Verona hires Anders Mol as Darlan's replacement
He'll be a bench player here.
You can try, but it seems that you simply can't win major trophies without a top5 opposite, no one has done it since the US at the 2021 Olympics.
Still a great tournament for Brazil and Rosamaria tho.
While I agree I think you underestimate China playing in China lol. This is true as well for Japan beating Poland in Japan.
Had they played the match in a different location without all the pressure and support of the Chinese community who are extremely harsh to their own, USA probably would've bagged it but again it's just different when played at home.
I mean, China is a decent opponent, that's true, I didn't want to downplay their performance - it's still a catastrophe for the USA though, especially considering that they have OG spot secured and continental championship aren't as important for them as for any other country (maybe with an exception of Brazil), so you can't even go with 'it's only VNL' there or 'they met Turkiye/Italy in the QF' like last year.
Brazil without Gabi, Italy without Egonu as a starter, Turkiye without Ebrar and Eda - this is really a catastrophe for the USA to not advance even to the semifinals.
Nice to see Turkey NT finally playing on the level of their potential, Kovac has made a really great job here. I don't think even the most optimistic people in Turkiye expected them to play this well without Efe.
I guess there are a lot of Polish descent people in Illinois and they all are here to support Poland in Chicago
Yes, the biggest Polish diaspora lives in Chicago.
who made that groups
I don't know if these are official groups or just teams randomly listed, although in female tournament, Bosnia as a host (?) could be seeded as #1, Bulgaria is ranked below Romania for whatever reason, and Russia is outside of the rankings so far, so it's possible.
It’s rumored that U20 women & men teams are going to play 1st round of EC’27 in BVA in August 18-23?
Is there anybody from Bosnia and Herzegovina (women) or Bulgaria (men) who could verify and confirm that?
It is officially listed on CEV site. https://www-old.cev.eu/Competi…ion.aspx?ID=1907&PID=3528 https://www-old.cev.eu/Competi…ion.aspx?ID=1906&PID=3428
Can someone do the math on this?
These players were ranked by perfect receptions per game numbers, not by perfect reception %. Does it make sense? Not really. Would I care? Not really. Fersino has become a freakish receiver, that's for sure.
At the time, their setters were Sheshenina and Akulova.
Yeah, plus the variety in playing styles was so different in the 00s, now I don't think there will be that significant difference between Russia, and Serbia, Turkiye, or even Italy - and in the 00s you could have a huge comparative advantage by playing much more advanced vball technically.
If you want to nitpick and point out potential problems, it's probably much more about coaching.
Regardless of these particular injuries, they really need to stop this 4 games in 5 days thing. Having teams play 3 days in a row is absurd. Most of these players come from very demanding seasons with their clubs and with so little time to recover btw games, the injury risk multiplies.
It's definitely true, but at the same time - didn't Julia start in 11 out of 12 games? Not saying that it is the reason behind her injury, but seeing the top teams rotating their lineup this rarely with such schedule has always been surprising to me. Antropova scored 113 points this weekend alone and Italy played for nothing against China other than ranking points. It's kind of asking for troubles.
Congratulations to Japan, it's hard to not like this team after all.
But it is a truly heart-breaking loss.
