Posts by powsoff

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

If there was anyone who should've played during WGP... I think it is Kosheleva. Goncharova needed all the rest in the world after playing through out the years.

It would've been perfect if they tested Voronkova as a receiving opposite while Kosheleva is a non-receiving OH or as a receiving OH while Kosheleva plays as a traditional opposite.

Kosheleva is lacking technique. She's supposed to kill it but a lot of blockers has been taking touches of her hits which slows down the ball. I don't know... This team is stronger than Turkey on paper but the chemistry is off since they have no fixed lineup.

As I said before... They should've gone down with Frolova good or bad but instead they keep changing the lineup with no direction at all as a team.

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Ko lacks the technique bcs she never needed to develop it. She is (still) the highest jumper in female volleyball but now she's hitting the track of Bartosz Kurek, i.e. superb physique, decent wages - what else do you need? - but people know how to deal with her. There was a hope for her to improve in general when she was playing for Kazan some time ago. They pushed her a bit and she improved defensively a lot but then the ways had parted.

I do not know what exactly happened that made them change the coach. What was totally weird was that Kuzyutkin was still with the team, sitting on his chair all alone during the games. I'm just puzzled - it echoes another trick back from 2014 when they decided to play with Ko and Go as OHs and let Gamova play opp. This strategy works for Zenit Kazan though :).

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

The serve has evolve which is something Russia has not fully grasp yet and I believe Russia needs to play Voronkova more. It is time for redesign of the NT cause she's a better receiver than Kosheleva and ofcourse younger which makes her more attuned to improve. The lack of playing time costed them the tournament. It would have helped her get her rhythm back after playing as an opposite during WGP. I really feel Kosheleva needs to either play as a non-receiver or opposite but even with that. Goncharova even plays better at 4 so it'll be harder for her to overcome Goncharova as long as she's playing and healthy.

Can't agree more! Should've let two young OHs (Voronkova + Ilchenko-Parubets + poss Sherban) play more together instead of the boring and ageing Frolova/Kosheleva duo. Voronkova needs to get in a better shape. Her palm is just superb but she lacks the speed when approaching the ball. The big momentum helps but there are better ways of scoring. Plus, her approach is very readable. Note also that Kosheleva is a much better blocker.

Kosheleva is certainly better off now, after a year in Turkey, but I don't think he performance is better. Tons of poor touches, as if she hasn't been practicing at all. Bizarre.

Quote from Harrison

Ushakov: “I do not have any words and there is nothing I can say about this match.”

He overall struggles with talking as if he were a pro boxer. But, sadly, he's... essentially the federation is packed with his teammates from CSKA Moscow from early 1990 so administratively he's been supported to say the least colossally.

Quote from Harrison

I think Russia should change whole system.It's not working anymore.

I agree with the latter, the magic is clearly gone as the two main guns cannot finish the ball in as they used to (possibly bcs their rivals are better adjusted for that).

I would question the system statement as I couldn't much of that from Rus at this ECH. I assumed that the younger players would be given more chance to play. The second touch is clearly not working as noone in the team can convert a good defense into a correctly placed high set. Hence block-defense works just sporadically and the whole performance is very boring. I seriously think they need some meldonium a *new* ambitious coach with own vision and possibly some new blood. I also cannot explain why their motor skills are so poor.

The big-big-big problem is that there's a good chance that Ushakov will stay. There's a substantial corruption element that will help him stay afloat, just like he did after winning the fifth spot in the domestic champ with Krasnodar. Plus, the fact that the coach was changed just before the tourney gives "Kastet" an kind of excuse. The guy is not a coach at all and I doubt he will ever become one.

This German team, are there so many new players... or they're the "old" ones who got married, like Frommm?

Quote from TimHH

i have been around volleyball courts for quite a while, but this is pretty unique i have to say.

What a match for Mykhailov against Belgorod, and Leon not much worse. Russian league should consider imposing a "handicap" for them. Something like a weight west or mandatory "left-arm-hitting"......

http://www.volleyservice.ru/in…me&game_id=3587&Itemid=77

I may sound a bit unorthodox, but what a match for Panteleymonenko!
Reception, attack, three aces, of which two came in a row at, I think, 21:22 in set 2. He is being a perfect Sivozhelez so far for Zenit.

Innovative volleyball - Vlasov hits Pankov oh his head (via sport.bo

Quote from serdar

I generally enjoy reading your posts since I think you are a knowledgeable volleyball follower. However, nowadays it is really annoying to read your recent aggressive posts despising Ukrainian people. Please keep your political hostility out of a volleyball forum

Thanks for your kind words but have to disappoint you as my posts are free of *any* political bias. (I voted Labour in a hope for a soft Brexit at the last elections, if interested - and this is the first/last time I mention it here.) In fact, I do the opposite: when a clear partisan troll throws random accusations and labels some decent people/players as traitors/defectors - I provide their vision that I happen to be very familiar with. I think it's fair this way. May sound differently to what you read/see elsewhere but I bet that's the point of the forum. If you think I'm twisting the facts, let me know and I'll expand/detail further.

You can check one small thing, for the sake of pure entertainment. Generally, NTs tend to wear kits that bear a color/the colors of their flags. Turkey wearing turquoise tops and red shorts triggered a wow reaction here. Their opponents in that game wore a kit having nothing in common with their flag. Why don't you dig out why? Can be an eye-opener.

Quote from ossubtus

but that's not even the case. AZE is not drawing its players from the 2% russian or slavic minority. they are drawn from ABROAD! and AZE has now recruited athletes from cuba, jamaica, kenya, ethiopia etc. for its athletics team (which TUR is now copying, and BHR and QAT already did before).

KAZ is different in the sense that their players are from the country (that i know of). in the women's team, there's sana jarlagassova and the backup setter batkuidina that are kazakh, i think, and the others are mostly slavic. in the men's teams, there's a few more kazakhs. i read that it's a reflection of the soviet era, when only russians were encouraged or promoted for sports. i think their hockey team for example is mostly slavs.

but then look at athletes in the USA... black athletes are disproportionately represented in many sports.

Whether you like it or not, this is the reality. In the end of the day, there's nothing bad about moving the country for the sake of your career. Btw, every athlete may represent a different case: for some it is about the money, for others it is a chance to get to the Olympics/WCh. For USSR-born Natasha Skazka (and especially for her mom who was the driving force behind Mammadova's vball career), Baku didn't sound like a foreign city, despite the efforts of her local ex-communistic/current neonazi patriotic ideologists. Neither did sound Moscow/Odintsovo - but they didn't want her in Odintsovo. It wasn't only AZE/TUR/RUS who naturalised sportsmen with foreign or "semi-foreign" passports. The seeming victim of the talent drain, Ukraine used to be very active in this field too and had naturalised players in the NT. Not only in volleyball but also other sports - having an ex-Serbian and a ex-Brazilian in the roster of the football NT was a normal business a couple of years ago. Haven't read much bs re their lack of patriotism though.

If we start digging into the ethnicity issues - would Saeid Marouf sound like a true Azeri to you?

From the perspective of a country which is trying to develop its sports, buying athletes from abroad may sound like a good fast-track strategy but this would clearly have no long-term effect. However, an achievement always brings decent cash into sports and helps to generate the interest too. So, in the long run, may help recruiting talented aboriginals.

Quote from Canter

in this tournament when a player from the opponents has a serve series turkey could has hard times like Rabadzieva did or like Ukranian players did (?).i guess this is bcz the OPP's weak perf.they cant kill the bad sets and its up to Neriman's perf.when she kills turkey overcomes .
imh,Turkey should try to play with more offensive players on the court .Baladın could be on the court.we saw today that even though the passing was good yet the offence was not on the desired level therefore like Russia did with Voronkova Turkey could try Neriman-Baladın duo if Gözde Kırdar doenst have a good game

I don't think this is only Turkey's problem. All four teams of the group were having these 10-point eclipses. Very nervy volleyball.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

Petersburg need this transfer. Watching Volkov miss maybe 2 or probably more hittable balls in that match was my guess the last straw for this rumoured transfer.

Luburic is also proming and young(handsome too) so that already counts as two(three) pluses for Zenit Saint Petersburg.

I don't know much about Luburic. Nilsson sounded like an OK choice for the league. He's not the best jumper but tall + left-handed + good server+ very good mentality. He had several good seasons some time ago. The trouble is that SPb signed 1.5 opposites atm. Voronkov (192 cm tall) is a service specialist, who normally struggles with organised blocks (exception: season 2015-16 when he was just unbelievable - attacked over 50% and best server of the regular season together with Leon).

Being handsome is not a typical feature of a good opp in Rus volleyball. Think about Poltavskiy, Mikhaylov, Pavlov :).

Quote from spmagnus

Every euro i think the same thing, they are vulnerable etc. yet somehow they end up winning the thing. By the way someone mentioned Startseva, is she injured? She definitely is their premium setter IMO

From what I know, there's lots of complex stuff going on behind the scene. E.g. they wouldn't call Sheshenina as there's some kind of conflict. Note that both Pankova and Uraleva (=Filishtinskaya) are de facto benchers in their teams. They are younger though... and Pankova won two euro finals.

Germany trying to block Mammadova/Rahimova is like Jaime Lannister fighting the dragon. On the good side, after yesterday's election, I guess more money will be coming into sports in D-land.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

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It is also not helping that the new coach is probably new to the job. I for example would rather use one of my receivers to help play defense when my middle blocker is up for the serve but they are rather using the reserve receivers to replace the struggling receiver.

I mean I don't like Kosianenko at all as I feel Filishtinskaia brings more to the table than her but Russia is still experimenting with their lineups at this stage... and it is causing them problems that hopefully can be work out in the future.

The problem is that Ushakov is not very much new to this job. He's been a head coach of Krasnodar for four years and he's been with the NT since 2013 too. I appreciate that he doesn't burst into tears during the TOs but his colloquial skills are not particularly impressive. It feels as if he's throwing up with his words, sorry for this metaphor. Not a bad or a stupid guy but definitely not a naturally born coach.

The strange thing as for me is that this experimenting still goes on. They've been to a full-scale tourney together as a team. The degree of shakiness is just colossal. Reception and defense are not at the top level but so is the second touch.

Quote from Meatballs

I will repeat this again, the best Russian setter is still Startseva. I told it in the beginning of this summer too and now it is proved again. Both Filistinskaia and Kosianenko are retarding their team.

She's definitely better that the two in terms of sets into two or four, got a better serve and block. There is an opinion in Rus that Sheshenina aka Babeshina is overall more gifted technically. I have to agree overall it's been long time since I've seen a more boring coach than Ushakov.

Quote from Kk15

Kosheleva scoring the set point in bagher

Goncharova was playing that badly? When I started watching during the second set she wasn't on court...

I wouldn't blame it solely on her as the sets were extraordinary bad. Filishtinskaya must be thinking she has Wilfredo Leon on court.

Quote from flyingdutchman

I only now notice we will play Croatia....how did they manage to lose against Belarus ????

BLR is not a bad team + they have a "base club" for the NT.

Reading a goss that Zenit SPb is about to sign a new opposite, Luburić. Apparently, Nilsson is quite a bit unwell. In the last game they ended up with Volkov (yes, the middle blocker) playing opp.

Quote from Canter

btw..isnt it ridiculous that you play your first match at 19:30 local time (even 20:00 or 20:30 with the delay) then the next day you have to play at 15:30??

how can the players get some rest in that short time ?

They've got two groups playing at the same venue, half of the games went into tie-breaks. Ukraine had the same problem yesterday vs Bulgaria when their opp was literally static after the five-setter vs Russia the day before and the whole team just ran out of power in set 4. Bulgaria doesn't look bad by the way - although the game is far not over.

Quote from dnipro

Thanks, that was very useful indeed. To address the substantive part of the query, my logic behind the decision that was a football and not an in ball is the following.

As long he gives Rus a point, the Ref is right. Firstly, we're talking about a single touch, i.e. the ball either hit the libero's foot or hit the floor and the foot at the same time. The trajectory on the video has only one point of contact, and the sound would have been very different otherwise - a pro ref would've distinguished unmistakably. The video obviously presents a side projection with fps - as has been pointed out above - being a bit to low to examine the contact in detail. (Also, the camera would need to be positioned quite low to pick this up). However what the video shows is that the lowest point of the trajectory is well overlapping with the libero's left foot, i.e. it is clearly not in front of the foot, as viewed from the camera's point. One may say this doesn't prove the ball hit the foot as the video is just a side projection and the ball could have hit the floor to the side of the foot. True. However, in this case it would then bounce off the floor and fly in a different direction, whereas it flew immediately back to the Tur side. Lastly, and sorry if I sound boring, the mathematical chance of the ball hitting the foot and bouncing back in one touch is much higher than the chance of hitting the foot and the floor at the same time and bouncing back. Check it out.