Display MoreI think Pool B for 2020 is the most death group ever any single team can beat another one on a good day.. Here's a comparison during OG 2016
Pool B Tokyo
Brazil
USA
Russia
Argentina
France/Serbia/Slovenia/Germany
This assuming both Canada and Iran will qualify. If one of them fails then France or Serbia would go to the other pool.
Well, before the tournament I said that 3 wins was what I expected for ARG team and it was 3 more than that.
A really good team is shaping up together with the more experienced players that weren't here. They won't fear a death group at the olympics if it comes to that.
Argentina finished with the best attacker, setter and receiver according to stats 
Argentina has the best attacker and best setter in statistics but probably neither will be in all star team. I hope for one of them at least.
Just imagine how good you have to be in order to even become a pro volleyballer with that height these days. And it's not like Argentina has only tiny setters to pick from, his substitute setter in this WC is almost 200cm tall, but he still starts and plays almost all points.
Is Lima injured as well? He’s been sitting on the bench all the time. I only started watching near the end of set 1, so don’t know what happened beforehand.
Nah, just resting out the match. There seems to be some rest rotation in the team. For example, Danani didn't play vs Brazil despite we don't have any real substitute libero.
Argentina-Iran games always go to 5 sets and Iran always wins. So annoying 
Vnl? Nobody cares about that Mickey Mouse tournament.
Well, not much different than this match between substitutes...
I'm baffled that a very good Argentina still wasn't capable of beating the weakest Italy in decades. So this is how it feels like to be someone's Brazil.
Hmm this is not the first time you insist with that idea that Argentina is always bad vs Italy and I still don't agree.
I mean, obviously the record is negative, because Italy is an elite team, but they have WAY worse match-up vs Poland, Russia or Brazil. For instance, ARG defeated Italy in the last 2 VNL editions and I can't remember the last time ARG lost 0-3 to them.
Argentina simply imploded after the second set. They were playing crazy good and then suddenly tons of errors (especially from serve) and couldn't kill any attacks even from good reception (Italy drastically improved block defense too). Frustrating to watch but understandable since most players are inexperienced.
Canada is playing better today with their substitutes than yesterday with the starters.
Source?
Voleysur twitter.
Colombia has been awarded the hosting of the south american qualifier.
I think that with this decision they become the clear favorite to qualify.
Ok, Argentina pulls some crazy win every once in a while but this one is definitely the craziest.
The shorty (mostly) substitutes winning against the giant americans even while gifting 32 errors (!) to them.
Thanks. I recall there're already 4 setters in the senior NT that Argentina used the past two years; they're all of at least decent quality. Is the coach seriously considering the 173cm-tall Sanchez as a backup in the future? No doubt about his setting skills, but he would be a big hole at the net.
Yeah, we have several high quality setters. I think no other nation has such depth in the position (maybe Brazil?). I wish we had at least one opposite as good as any of them.
The thing is De Cecco, Uriarte, Cavanna and Demian Gonzalez (who played in Rio) are all already 30 or above.
Sánchez will probably not make it to Tokyo but he's just SO talented as a setter that it is impossible for the coaches to leave him outside. Unless some new talent with height appears, he probably will be the starter in 2024.
Oh, there're Lima, Palacios, Ramos, Loser and Danani, so it's likely an strengthened squad.
It's the same squad as SA championship.
And those were the only 5 players of this wc squad that played in OQT (though I can't remember if Danani was there, I know González was the starter libero but I can't recall if Danani was also taken to China or not).
the worse thing is the reason CUB boycotted seoul... due to solidarity with NK, and yet, what did they get out of it? dumb, dumb, dumb.
It's worse because they also boycotted 1984 in USA. So, those were a full 12 years without olympic action for cuban volleyball. They came back ferocious in Barcelona, and not only in Vball, they won a lot of gold medals in many sports.
The biggest cuban tragedy for me is however their men's team. They wasted not one but TWO great generations of players... The one they had at the end of the 90s with Marshall, Dennis, Hernández, etc who escaped in early 2002. They should have had their peak at the 2002 WCh and 2004 OG.
And then, most recently, their 2010 WCh team with León, Leal, Simón, Juantorena, etc.
I'm convinced Brazil wouldn't have dominated so much this century if the cubans didn't screw themselves twice.
I have another question,Cuba boycotted the Olympics in 1988, could they win that tournament? I wasn't born yet so I don't know but there are too many "if" about Cuban volleyball and I don't like it
We'll never know but they completely smashed USA, Brazil and Peru at the 1987 pan american games (which was a serious competition back then) and then won world cup 89 very easily as well.
I think at the very least they would have played the final in Seoul.
Does it really matter? Only one team will qualify at the end. Be it semis or pool, you will have to beat the toughest teams at some point to make it to Tokyo. Finishing 5th is the same as finishing 2nd in my view.
