Posts by Sisko95

Awesome. Nice work, buddy.

ossubtus wrote:

is this the second WCh in a row that POL doesn't qualify for?

Yes indeed it is. Long gone are the glory days of Glinka and co.

ossubtus wrote:

what players will be appearing at the WCh that were not at VNL? it seems to me that mostly all the countries played with their A teams... with a few exceptions.

BRA will add (it seems) lins, thaisa and natalia.

RUS will add goncharova and kosheleva (?).

PUR will add enright and ocasio (?).

CHN will add zhang changning (?).

i can't think of who would rejoin NTs for US, ITA, TUR -- they pretty much played with A teams, no?

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Serbia will add Ognjenovic.

jetmasters wrote:

Group A is weak because of the luck of the draw. Don't think Argentina's ranking has anything to do with it. Japan just happened to draw Argentina, being the weakest team in pot 1 in my opinion. Pot 2 Japan drew Germany, not the best team for me. Pot 3 Cameroon is the weakest, and Pot 4 no comment.

I think it all comes down to FIVB if they want better competition or not. Don't really care about the politics and history behind their decisions.

My point about the ranking is that Argentina shouldn't be ranked highly enough to get into Pot 1.

sitenoise wrote:

I assume that's because it's a long term cumulative thing. Rewarding teams for consistency in performing well over the long haul. It would be wildly subjective to say "wow, Italy is looking pretty good this year, lets boost them in the rankings".

On the other hand, the fact that a team has accumulated a lot of points for medals they won 5 -10 years ago could be mitigated by depreciating the points over time. Say by 10% per year, so that a team that had 100 points for winning Olympic gold 10 years ago would by today have lost most of those points.

The rankings are only based on the last cycle, so when the draw was made 2014 WCH, 2015 WC, 2016 OG and 2017 WGP were the only things counting towards a ranking. In theory this seems perfectly reasonable to me, but since European teams have a much tougher time qualifying for the World Cup and the Olympics it skews the rankings so that teams like Argentina have an inflated points total.

The only reason that group A is so weak is because Argentina are horribly over ranked but it happens in every sport that sometimes the draw is lucky for some teams and unlucky for others. But remember in Rio everyone knew Brazil had the easy group but then everyone from that group lost in the quarterfinals. Sometimes it is better to come through a more difficult group because you are more ready for top level opponents in the next round.

Clearly the draw favours the hosts, but it’s not some conspiracy. Hosts are always the highest seeds and the serpentine system is always used in FIVB competitions, just the same as here.

It is what it is, now every team just needs to focus on playing their best game and not worrying about being in a tougher part of the draw.

After Zivkovic and Antonijevic's performances at the VNL, something had to change for Serbia to have any chance at the WCH.

It's a shame that there is no other solution, but on a personal level I'm obviously delighted to have her back .

I’m torn. I’d like Eda to win but I want Guidetti to lose. May the best team win, I guess

The plan should now be to use 2 good receiving OHs and to use the MBs as the main attackers other than Boskovic. Serbia have the world’s best OPP and an incredible level of MBs, so they should still be able to compete with anyone even without Mihajlovic. On the evidence of what we have seen this week though... . Yeah, looks like a medal is too much to ask for right now.

sitenoise wrote:

Can we say NED's B Team just beat Serbia?

I know Brankica wasn't playing but there were a lot of "A Team" NED talents not on the floor at the end of that match.

Not really. I mean Sloetjes and Dijkema did play the match, they just underperformed so were replaced. It was probably Holland’s strongest starting 6 other than De Kruijf’s absence.

Congrats to Netherlands for a great fight, but Serbia’s form is worrying ahead of the WCH. Obviously the absence of Mihajlovic changes their game quite a lot but it just goes to show how important it is to have both her and Boskovic playing and a major injury to either one would be a disaster for the team. I remember when Mihajlovic got injured in the 2013 ECH. It was a disaster then and it would be again now.

Last year I was surprised that it seemed they didn’t really miss Ognjenovic much at all, but now the setters look really bad and you can really see the difference she made to the team. One of them really needs to step up.

beri wrote:

Oh whoops, sorry Sisko completely forgot You and USAVF it was then!

Don’t worry, still friends

beri wrote:

I can't believe so many people had said Gibbemeyer and Adams are same level in blocking

I think only USAvolleyfan said Gibbemeyer is a better blocker
She's an outstanding blocker

I believe I said so too lol.

Matthias wrote:

Honestly this place annoys the hell outta me lately

There really is a lot of aggression on here recently, it can be quite off-putting.

Fair enough. I’m not for a second saying that being aggressive is the only way to win or that some of these coaches don’t go too far sometimes, just that there are different approaches that different coaches take that are all designed for the same result: winning. I totally understand if you don’t like some of these approaches I’m just saying try not to read too much into them.

And yes, in my experience of watching I’ve found Asian players are probably the least likely to get into fights with their opponents which I assume is due to cultural differences.

JoanaBG wrote:

It's actually not, and certainly wasn't at the time Đoković and the gang were starting out. There's been a tennis boom a sort since, but that sport is still way too expensive for most people to pick it up. I don't think there's any rational explanation as to how we got to have so many great players, at the same time no less. And Ivanović and Janković were hideously underappreciated while they were on top, but that's another story.

Ah, interesting. Yes it’s still very much seen as an upper class sort of sport here as well due to the expenses despite Andy Murray’s success.

Yes, Ivanovic and Jankovic were supposedly failure no. 1s, whatever that means

Sorry about the off-topic guys, I know this isn’t inside.tenniscountry.com.

Janko wrote:

Well, as far as athleticism, it has to do with the fact that Balkan nations are some of the tallest, on average, in the world. Whenever I speak with a foreign friend of mine, and we touch on the subject of height, I have trouble making them believe just how tall the female population under the the age of 30 is on average here. It's truly mind-boggling, but I, who am 188 cm tall (6.2 feet), which I am given to believe is significantly above average in many countries, rarely meet a girl my age (or younger) who is significantly shorter than me.

As for talent pool, other than the luck of having an amazingly strong 90-92 generation, and coming upon a prodigy like Tijana Boskovic (which is more luck than anything else, really), it has to do with the fact that female volleyball is, by far, the #1 most popular female sport here, and that an abnormally high percent of the young female population is playing it. I once came upon some figures, and in relation to total country's population, it would be akin to 1.5 million Turkish girls training volleyball (or 3.5 million Brazilian, or 5.5 American etc.).

I would have thought tennis is hugely popular as well, no? For such a small country to have 3 different female world number 1s as well as one of the greatest of all-time men (Djokovic) and women (Seles) is truly remarkable.

sitenoise wrote:

The Serbia coach and the Turkish dude are just professional whiners. Brazil too, as far as I can tell. Just watch them some time. It's built into their personalities. It's what they do. They take it out on their players and the referees, and anybody else that shows up. I'm not impressed.

While you are well within your rights not to like them, I too can’t stand Guidetti, I think it’s a bit unfair to take their in game personalities and try to extend it to their entire personality. They are all competitive, they are all desperate to win, they all take winning volleyball matches very seriously and they will be angry with players who are not playing to the level they expect from them that’s true but it doesn’t make them unpleasant people, remember we only really see one side of them.

Here is a short video of Terzic talking (in English) about his role as a coach and teacher https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mlfLM9yiO9U

Guidetti as well https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hYbPpV5cg7E

I’m not saying you have to like them or agree with their methods but it’s not very helpful to portray them as miserable boogeymen always looking for someone to blame or to make people’s lives difficult.

LLOYD wrote:

We were 2nd place in u20 WCh and 3rd place in u18 WCh and do you consider them in past. And already Larazenko joins main team. It is your point. We need time some good coaches find strong players and adap to main team
I don't say you are disrespectful I mean generally Turkish fans are disrespectful towards other countries. They use volleyball as political things towards others. They forget it is volleyball sport peace not war. Even players from different countries are friends after the game.

I think the Turkish users on this forum are perfectly respectful. They want their team to win and sometimes they can get a bit passionate about it, but that's what sport is all about. I really don't see the need for any drama about this.

sitenoise wrote:

I don’t really consider Egonu that athletic. at least not like that youngster on Belgium. I don’t see it on defense or backcourt attacking.

She's not athletic in defence, but few can match her explosive jumping and power.

sitenoise wrote:

I remember liking Italy libero last year. Is this the same one. That was some hustle play

Yes, it’s the same one. Monica De Gennaro is probably Europe’s best libero.

sitenoise wrote:

The pretty one with dark hair, speaking of hitting over the block:

That picture kills me

That’s Stefana Veljkovic FYI.

Matthias wrote:

CEV has made some major changes in CL: http://www.cev.lu/News.aspx?Ne…0&Sd=1/1/1900&Ed=1/1/1900

Key points are that the ranking system determining the participants has changed from an overall European Cups system to one only for CL which also counts also only the CL results of the countries and there will be no more F4 but quarter- and semifinals with home and away matches and a "big final" where men and women final will be played on neutral ground on two consecutive days.

Not sure if this is going to improve the competition...

I like it that there is no more F4. To me it is just silly when teams get to the F4 just because they are hosts if they didn’t earn their spot.

The main problem I see is that if the final is on neutral ground there might not be much of a crowd