Posts by triglav_kran

Wow. France rose from the dead in the third set here. Their weakness is attack and when their attackers are not having a good day, they don't have a deep bench to cover for them.

USA are very solid but not extra-ordinary. In fact, if France plays as inspired as in the end of the third set, they can beat them.

A lot has been spoken about Ngapeth here. I believe in him. He is very smart and he reads the game so well. His biggest strength for me is not his athleticism or technique, but his incredibly quick decision-making and vision. Still, he is not wise enough yet to know when it's a good time to risk and when to play safe, and he sometimes lets emotions have the edge over his decision-making. If, with experience, he gets rid of that part of his personality and game (and I think he will) he will become a great leader and an even greater player than he is now.

Quote from raylight

When we beat them 4 times out of 5 in the previous 3 years and Ngapeth cried in Sofia, were they with far better players? They do not have better players /except Ngapeth in the abscence of Sokolov/. They have balance on all elements, but are not stronger than us, Poland, Russia and so on. We played at very low level and that made the difference in this match. Very poor reception /WHICH IS TRAINABLE AND WE HAD MUCH BETTER RECEPTION WITH STOYCHEV WITH THE SAME PLAYERS/ and a lot of errors in attack and serve, that made it. Blaming the players is just not knowing how a system works, who builds it and how it achieves stability. All managers who know nothing about managing blame the workers the same way and 94% of the errors come from the management or the system designed by them.

OK, I won't join an argument with you, you have your own opinion.

In my opinion you are exaggerating Bulgaria's qualities. For me Grebennikov is way better than Salparov is now, the Ngapeth & Tillie pair is better than the Aleksiev & Penchev one, Rouzier is better than 35-or-so year-old Nikolov. And let's assume for the sake of argument that setters and middles of both teams are on par. Bulgaria doesn't have a single world class player and a single player better than France.

You can't compare this game with games years ago, because since 2012 Bulgaria is on the decline and France is on the rise. Bulgaria might have had a better reception statistically under Stoychev, but they have never had a better overall reception (not judging from 1 match) than France. And their defence has never been impressive, just passable.

And in my own opinion, Bulgaria's successes between 2008 and 2013 are overachievements. Now the team is not amongst the top 10 even with the likes of Skrimov and Sokolov. But that's my own opinion.

Quote from andrea

Indeed Sidibe is a good sub for Rouzier. Perhaps their coach is very confident about his players such that he keeps Rouzier on court in the 3rd set. Nothing wrong from their coach coz they have every right to be so confident.

Perhaps. To be honest, I haven't followed volleyball a lot recently so I haven't seen him play. But from my knowledge Sidibe isn't the player I was thinking of. For me, Rouzier isn't amongst the top elite opposites although he is smart, and in times versatile. What I was thinking of is having someone else to form a pair in the same way Grozer and Schoepps were (and maybe still are) for Germany.

But after all, that's a national team, you can't just sign someone so they'll work with what they have.

Quote from raylight

Plamen Konstantinov should go, and some sadist should become the new coach and make them train 8 hours a day with a ball /they will have fitness too/. It is not acceptable for a team with top players to display consistently amateur level of play in important matches. It is 2 years now, of the same thing.

I'm not saying he is a super coach. I don't even know if he is really a good coach but you can't blame him. France have a better player on every position, in some they have way better players. BUL is just not good enough and that's it.

Plus, I can't see how NT coaches can impact much on the technical side of grown-up players, some 30+. The only thing they can do is work on the game tactics and possibly a conditioning programme which is short-term, because they are with him only for a couple of months. From my observations, Bulgarian players in general lack some fundamental skills in defence and team organisation on the court, and with a few exceptions always rely on killing their first spike (therefore, a poor set almost always leads to an error in attack). A great example is Aleksiev - all due respect, but if not near the net, this guy is dead weight. He's worse than being with 1 player less because he takes up space. He'll never have court time in any elite team practicing some defence.

France are a very very decent team and a very enjoyable one to watch. Grebennikov is world class. Ngapeth on a good day is a beast. So are the MBs. Tillie and Toniutti are solid, don't get me wrong. But France will be amongst the top 5 elite if they find a better partner for Ngapeth, a better and maybe taller setter, and a good, reliable sub for when Rouzier gets shaky.

Bulgaria were unsurprisingly poor. All this team relies on is attack and block. If you look at the court movement you might think that a professional team is playing a bunch of amateurs or veterans. With that team, they are just mediocre. But I wouldn't bet on them beating France even with their starters playing.

The main ref is a disgrace. France should've won the set by now if not him.

I don't understand this, if they're gonna be so out of date, why do they even bother printing their Yearbooks? The 2012 edition says on one of its front pages that the Yearbook is the pillar of the FIVB's governance and yet it took them 3 years to print the next one. They told me that the 2014 edition is currently being printed in late February, I wonder how long it takes to print 50+ pages...

I've just tuned on Bulgaria - Serbia during Kuzyutkin's timeout. He was speaking to the girls in Russian while he was looking at Kitipova. And in that same moment Kitipova was looking to the others and said quite loudly and laughingly "Why is this guy talking to me all the time"

I guess he hasn't earned their respect.

I also don't understand why people accuse Lucarelli for this. I mean, come on, how can you blaim a 22-year-old who was absolutely perfect in the first game and played well throughout.

I watched Brazil both in the final and in the semi-final against France. In both games, they started incredibly well. If perfection can be achieved in volleyball, Brazil's performance in the first set of both games was as close anyone can get to that. Textbook defence, unreadable Bruno, block like a wall, stable reception, deadly attack and stable serves.

Then in both games they dropped their level after the first set by about 30%. Why? Could they not sustain it? Is it something psychological/motivational? I don't know, but they were not quite the same team.

Now, to elaborate on my earlier remarks:

1) Brazil underperformed on serve: At one point in the 3rd or even 4th set I saw a stat saying that they had just 1 ace for the game. Poland received exceptionally well, but still 1 ace is nothing. I remember Murilo as a huge server about 5 years ago (he had not yet settled himself as a starter then, let alone a star) and along with his reception that was his most deadly weapon. Yesterday he was harmless (injury or not - that was the fact). We all know Lucas' bombs. Nothing like that yesterday. Lucarelli was enormous in the previous matches. Today he had a sub-par performance on that element (maybe that's the only thing you can criticise him for). All of Sidao's serves went out. Etc., etc.

2) Rezende didn't figure out Mika: The same as during the OG finals and Muserskiy. I saw the Brazilian block getting anxious and left wondering what's going on after not one or two Mika spikes. I don't know, maybe the Brazilian system of play is prone to such 'holes' and they can't focuse on one player. Maybe they focused (quite rightly so) on Wlaszly and having two equally deadly threats decided the match.

3) Rezende did mess up with putting Vissotto and Rapha in Wallace & Bruno's place. However, I will defend Rezende by saying that this sub really did work pretty well in previous matches. So, for me, it's all Vissotto to blame who decided not to play yesterday.

4) I haven't watched a lot of Mario Jr. Whether he underperformed or Brazil needs a better libero - the result is the same. Actually, the other receivers did well, but Poland targeted Mario and he cracked. He was not 'bad' like baad bad, but he was 1 level below Zatorski and the others in the field and made some crucial mistakes.

All of you hail Mika and yes, he was the surprise, the X factor in the game. But for me the MVP of the game remains Wlaszly . Unbelievable performance throughout the competition! So stable and reliable, a true force on attack and serve.

Mika maybe has a bright future, but I won't judge from a single tournament, let alone from a single game. Let's see how he'll do in Plusliga next season and maybe in a better team in the following one. To be honest, I don't really like him (not as a player, but as a personality). He looks like a lost child with a beard, seems very shy and is very awkward (both technique and body language). Really strange guy

All in all, Poland played their best. They rose to the occasion and didn't lose heart after the first set. I often criticise them for their mentality but yesterday they showed that they are champions not only in name but in game and in character. Brazil didn't play their best. And if they did, the result would've most likely been different, maybe even 3-0. But that's irrenevant because potential doesn't matter, what you show when it all counts does. So only one team deserved to win it and that's Poland.

And finally, huge congrats to all Polish people! I was cheering for Brazil but when I saw the joy everywhere in the hall even I got a bit emotional (which is very rare with me).

Quote from scarpetta

Another loss for Brazil. I think it is because Lucarelli-Murilo due underperformed .
Winiarski is the MVP

I think the main reasons are:

1) the team underperformed on serve.
2) Rezende didn't have a clue what to do with Mika (he is often caught off-guard by one player, not only Muserskiy and Mika).
3) Vissotto was on the court only physically.
4) Mario Jr underperformed.

Well, I guess there are quite a few happy people in Poland now

Is your sportdeutschland.tv stream working now?

Edit: It's working again now

Congrats to Germany! I will always associate them with professionalism and consistency at major events

Now if Brazil play near their best Poland would have to come up with something really extraordinary to beat them.

sportdeutschland.tv

Sloppy from Germany. The libero and the setter are not in the match.

Sportdeutschland.tv desided to let the stream crash exactly now! Perfect

France What a battle!

Sidibe

Brazil off to a flying start. France with good reception (Ngapeth is doing really well so far) but their attack is letting them down.

Quote from majka.antosik

you wanna punish federation because three people out of 11000 shown someone middle finger? Seriously?

I didn't know it was just a single instance. I watched only parts of the game. But you missed my point here. I was talking more in general, not specifically about this game. You were arguing whether something is acceptable (Polish crowd's behaviour) as compared to something else (Spiridonov) and I just joined in to say that in general both should be punished (in an appropriate way).

For example, throwing water bottles and stuff on the court is punishable regardless if there is no reason behind it or if Spiridonov decides to shit in the middle of the court.

Quote from majka.antosik

for God sake, during WL final six in Sofia Bulgarian pseudofans were throwing bottles, cups and other things at our boys, spilling drinks on them and team had to be excorted by police out of safety just because they won a match, and WE ARE supposed to be punished because some guy shown someone middle finger and some said "f*** you"?

Again, why are you comparing bad practice with another bad practice? Of course the Bulgarian Federation should've been punished.

Actually, I strongly believe that crowd CANNOT abuse a player in any way (e.g., "X, you dirty wh0re") and although some progress has been done with racism I think any kind of abuse sumply cannot be tolerated. How many of you would find it acceptable if you are abused in such a way in your workplace?

And I personally wouldn't care about Russian propaganda or the history when I go to watch volleyball. I am not undermining what had happened between the two countries and I know it's very emotional. But people (again, not just Polish people; people in general) need to distinguish between things. Russian volleyball players are not the Russian state and are not Russian people from the past. Therefore, they are not accountable for the actions and deeds of the other two. And it doesn't make it right just because it happens all the time and everywhere.

Kaziyski, you can't excuse something bad by comparing it to something worse.

The photo with the middle fingers is shocking and if we truly live in a society where we 'practice what we preach' both parties (Polish crowd + Russian team) should be punished for the actions of some of its members. I'm not talking about playing your next home game (which happens to be a WCH semi-final) in an empty staduim. I'm talking more on the line of a financial sanction.

Spididonov's behaviour is appalling, inexcusable and intolerable. He truly deserves a Suarez-ian ban.

The Polish crowd's behaviour is also unacceptable. These Russian players have nothing to do with the things that happened between Russia and Poland in the past and it's not their fault for being born there. And of course they're gonna back Putin if their career depends on it.