Posts by Joana

What's wrong with Citakovic, why didn't she play?

Any info on Anna Makarova from Samorodok? I've noticed that she usually has pretty good stats.

Edit: I just realized it's actually Ganna Tsokur. She got married I guess. No wonder she might play for Russia soon, looks like she is playing really well in Khabarovsk.

Quote from Russkii

Andrushko is already in the Russian team, so there is no barrier for her. The other two, I don't see why they can not. You can play for another NT if you haven't played for your own for 2 years.

That's true, but I think that on a NT there can be only one player who played for another country before. I remember that it was a big problem for Croatia some years ago. I don't know if the rules have changed since then.

Congrats to both teams. Poland fought very well and they made it much closer than I thought they would. Also, a surprisingly weak performance by Sokolova, but she managed to raise her game when she needed to.

Poland will certainly qualify in May. I'm not so sure about Serbia. The last two tournaments showed that we need ALL our best players and I sure hope Terzic will settle the differences with Spasojevic and others. Otherwise, unpleasant surprised may happen in Japan.

Quote from Russkii

By the way, I loved how the third set ended. Ognjeovic points were annoying the hell out of me. Well deserved to her - oh, her "spikes" work against us because our defense is slow and not careful enough, but if she tries that many balls against other teams she is going to get screwed.

Oh yeah, she sure loves those. She can overdo it at times and I usually I end up screaming at TV "Don't do that!" but she does win many points.
Djerisilo's days might be over if Brakocevic keeps it up like this, and I think she's bound to get even better.

I hope for the final between Serbia and Russia, but if we lose tomorrow, I'd like Russia to take it all. I like those giants.

Pity for the 3rd set and 4 SPs but it was a good effort by Serbia. Finally their play is starting to look like something.
Tomorrow we'll see who holds a bigger grudge, Poland because of the EC or Serbia because of the World Cup.

Oh great, here we go again.

Polina Gagarina - Ya tebya ne proshu nikogda

Oh, Russian pop... Such an addiction.

Well done Turkey! They deserved it after the magnificent comeback in the 3rd set. Esra was really good today, and so were the others. I don't know most of these girls too well but they made a big impression and showed that it's possible to win without Neslihan.

Netherlands keeps going down after Grand Prix...

I don't know how I managed to sit through this match without changing the channel. Even in the fifth set when they had that big lead I still wasn't convinced they were going to win. And they almost, almost blew it, but Maja Ognjenovic is crazy. She pissed me off a lot in this match with her little "tricks" but those two points she won in the middle of 5th set were crucial.
I guess matches like this are becoming the trademark for Serbia. And I'm sorry to say it, but I think they are never going to be a truly elite team as long as Nikolic is playing such an important role on the team. She is such a huge liability in reception and not really reliable in attack.
Ivana Djerisilo improved dramatically as the match went on but it's a long way to go before she's back to her old form. I miss her jump serves.

Serbia is still alive but it doesn't look good yet.
Djerisilo is showing signs of life now, we can only hope she'll continue that way...

Absolutely horrible performances from the entire Serbian team. They don't deserve to go to Beijing.
Nikolic

What a bad start for Serbia... Djerisilo needs to be substituted.

German libero is horrible! Germany doesn't look too impressive overall. And the Turkish team is far more likeable without Neslihan.

To be honest, I didn't even know we had a team until recently. I think this is their first season in World Cup. It's a miracle on its own because biathlon is almost non-existent here, I think people who don't have Eurosport aren't even aware that the sport exists.
I don't follow biathlon because of them anyway, I got hooked way back, during the Lillehammer OG in 1994 I think, but I have been following it more regularly since like 2001/2002. I like Bjørndalen and Norwegians in general.Shame that a lot of female athletes I liked have retired recently...
And always against the German women's team. Their domination in relay races this season has been so boring.

Tennis definitely. It's been my obsession since the days of Monica Seles. Unfortunately I don't play it too well but I watch it whenever I can - and that's quite a lot. Just last night I went nuts watching Jelena Jankovic.

Handball used to be my big love too, I played it when I was younger, but I'm not so much into it anymore after a series of horrible disappointments related to our NT. I still follow it but now it's more like going through the motions.

I love winter sports too, especially biathlon. I like skiing as well but the races are usually held in the mornings and I loooove to sleep so I usually miss it.

I watch football and basketball only when the NT is playing, and even then not always.

Katarina Barun won't play in Halle. She thinks it's pointless to play as Osmokrovic and Poljak are not coming. She doesn't want to get injured and blahblahblah...

Biljana Gligorovic is injured and will most likely be substituted by Ana Grbac. Dugandzic's condition is pretty bad and she will probably have to skip this tournament as well.

Serbian roster:

Setters:
Maja Ognjenovic
Maja Simanic

Middle blockers:
Vesna Citakovic
Stefana Veljkovic
Aleksandra Avramovic

Outside hitters:
Jelena Nikolic
Brizitka Molnar
Jovana Vesovic
Sanja Malagurski

Opposite hitters:
Ivana Djerisilo
Jovana Brakocevic

Libero:
Suzana Cebic

Pretty much expected. Sanja Malagurski did get the nod in the end, and I'm actually glad she made it instead of Jasna Majstorovic. At least Malagurski is a threat in attack.

Quote from elisa

Joana, is there any website about the results and news of this match?

Just two short news in Serbian here and here . It says that Terzic used all players available during this match and that at times Serbia played very well but also had periods of pretty bad play, and that Russia deservedly won.

Quote from AFROMAN

I am sorry girl, YOU grow up, it was on purpose, and the ball was IN, how can you be proud from victory like this, the players saw that is IN, but nobody admited, because it's more important for them to pretend to be a real classy players and sportsmen, but they're not. In history they were also like that - mean nation.

Yeah, we're bad, we're mean, and most importantly, we're in Beijing! Well done guys, I must say I didn't think they could do it.
Tough luck for Spain, I'm not happy about that call at 13-13 but those things just happen to everyone and will happen again, it wasn't some kind of conspiracy.