Posts by powsoff

Quote from TimHH

Now this was a wonderful and thrilling match. maybe not so much for a fan of the russian team but anyway...

All is good what ends good. Not only in volleyball.

Quote

Also the youngest on court, Tobi Krick, really impressed. Never thought, this ECH would end like this and there are a lot of things the guys can be proud on today

Crick was in play when opp Grozer was in three, two or at the service. When he was in three and two, Grozer had two blocks on him by default. From four or from back court, it was different.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

It's truly nice for Russia to have two amazing setters available to them. Grankin was just below his standards today and that could've been a big factor for a possible loss but Butko stepped the f up and despite getting an injury during the last stretch of the match... He still made good choices and had a good serving run at the end of the tiebreak that got them to where they are.

Butko is a strong server and blocker but what is important is that he is Mikhaylov's teammate in Kazan and overall better setter for an opposite. He also spent plenty of time setting to the MBs (Volvich and Kurkaev).

Regarding his injury, there is a peculiar thing. Butko is de facto the only setter for Kazan (the second one being Alekno's son Laurent, 190 cm tall and slightly immature.) If he fails to recover (I bet the league starts in 10 days), a usual setter hunt may start.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

Vlasov has been blocking horribly. Too many chances but no cigar.

Butko is a great server and a great blocker. Kliuka is better blocker and attacker than Berezhko so that makes sense to strengthen your strengths.

On the paper, yes. But in reality Kluka has been off with an injury and was overly out of rhythm. In the game, he struggled a lot finishing the ball from four whereas, on the paper, he's got the highest reach of the two teams, i.e. could have finished it all in the ninth meter/off the block. He did block Grozer in the tie-break, true, - but immediately failed to side-out afterwards and received very questionably. Add to this three or four easy serves that boosted the self-esteem of the Ger block. Yegor was clearly not ready for this level, it was very clear in the Belgium game.

Quote from Kaziyski

I cant believe how poor Russians r in counterattacks. This is below pathetic, they won ECH with 39% eff.

Tragic ECH

It is not only this game. If you watch carefully the Belgium match, Rus had up to 20 transition balls per set but never more than 7-8 breakpoints from that.

Quote from Matthias

That's the quality of world class players. Mikhaylov may play crap all match but when it REALLY counts he scores.

At last, George is out of steam.

Quote from Kaziyski

If I havent seen their previous matches I would say Russia presence in final is a fluke

The key is the Grozer/Mikhaylov ratio. Rus doesn't have a solid option for side-out/transition balls while Ger reliably sides out from back court on a static block.

Quote from USAvolleyfan

Russian players use all kind of dirty moves to win.. They should be ashamed

Let's be fair, the Ref gave their opponents two points when the ball clearly touch their floor.

Quote from SHAME

I agree. Berezhko was doing a good job IMHO. On the other hand the coach took Volvich out (I consider this guy one of the worst MB I saw in my life) for a way better Kurkaev.

The "hidden" advantage of Volvich is his basic background, i.e. defensively he's better than Vlasov and possibly than Kurkaev. Volvich is also best coordinated of the three (although I agree he's not a good jumper).

So far, bizarrely, the game is very much a Volkov-Grozer duel. Germany risks on the service, Russia opts for easy serves

Quote from SHAME

Overall the whole tournament had a very bad level. WL was way better and of course both the liberos were terrible.

MM is spiking out every single ball. This is the momentum for Germany.

Yes, Mikhaylov's troubles bring a chance indeed. I also think that bringing Kluka in for Berezhko was a mistake. Reception is much poorer now and Klyuka is wasting the service too.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

Zhigalov is so useless with the attack but that serve is undeniably the only reason he is in the National Team.

Here the keyword is stability. Zhilgalov has games in which he scored 35+ points in Rus superleague on his CV, which is a level above the QF and SF of this ECH. He also has games in which he failed miserably, true.

Quote from vabo

Tradition also plays a role. Germany has a very successful history against Serbia in important matches, while they lost 3-0 to Russia both at the 2014 WCH and 2016 Berlin OQT.

Umm... In fact, it was 3-1 at the Olympic qualification SF, and two out of three sets that Rus won were very close. I would say, this was by far more difficult game for Rus than the final vs France.

If I were you guys I would suggest doing a thorough doping test after the Belgium game :). Volkov's attacks were coming a half-meter over the block. I bet Rus were still "on weights" at the beginning of the tournament so they would peak during the KO stage.

Quote from B. Moreira

Belgium lost this game before the game begins. Of course Russia is playing the best volleyball here, but you need to try at least.

They were afraid of getting blocked. I dont know this russian libero, but i did not understant why they served so many times on him. Kliuka is not the best receiver in the world.

Kluka wasn't in the starting line-up, was introduced when things became pretty clear. Good to advance to the finals, annoying that this bunch of schoolkids took somebody's place in the SF. Sam Deroo is my man of the match.

Quote from SHAME

This match looks like Russia-Germany final at the 2013 women's ECH. The only difference is that Germany played its heart out and made Russia sweat for 3 sets, while everyone expected Russia to win easy.

The only similarity of these two games are the flags of rhe teams. So far, Belgium looks like a Rus B league team. Russia doesn't seem to have much of a plan for the game, apart from giving some practice for the recovering players.

Great first set by Belgium. I wonder if they manage to maintain the same top level in the remaining sets.

Quote from Rains_of_Castamere

Germany is wasting too many great chances.

I would say, they don't put much of a pressure from the service.

Quote from bella

Sorry for this not quite meritorical comment but Kampa's hair amazes me, truly

Do you belong to the Markus Boehme's hairstyle fan club?

...
(I guess, in German it will be like MarkusBoehmeHaarStyleFanKlub - would the experts korrigieren mich bitte?)

Quote from Kk15

Bravo Kovacevic, he suddenly admit the slight touch in reception, I'm not sure many would have done it even if – line now– the referee had already called it.

Everybody saw the touch and there is a CCTV. The honest Kovacevic has saved a challenge for his team.

Quote from Kaziyski

ECH 2019 will be hosted by four countries - Belgium, France, Slovenia and The Netherlands. Final will be in Paris, probably Bercy, QF, SF in Ljubljana

I nominate Portugal and Kazakhstan as co-hosts of ECH'21.

Quote from Mamdani

Regarding Juantorena. Italy did the same thing Germany did with Grozer (Hungarian) or Russia with Musersky (Ukranian)

Smells of smth here - sniff-sniff.
Muserskiy is as Ukrainian as Freddie Mercury was Tanzanian. Grozer had his father playing for German NT. Juantorena clearly had nothing to do with Italy by birth/upbringing.

More smell re Zaytsev and Antonov. These two were firstly and mostly brought up by their parents; they may be less talented than their fathers but the skill sets were there. Lastly, the fact that they both ended up in volleyball is not just a coincidence, do agree.

Quote from Kaziyski

Switzerland sent NT on Taiwan missing 2-3 players only

I bet that was the one and only chance to see the Swiss NT on TV