Posts by JoanaBG

    I mean, it's really not a secret and Tijana has talked about it a billion times. She and her sister were invited by Galatasaray, they spent a few days training there, they liked it and were ready to stay, but then it turned out the condition was that they were to receive Turkish citizenship, their father promptly said no and that was the end of it.


    The less known fact and something Tijana revealed only recently was that Vesna Čitaković who played in Galatasaray at the time, and who was used by the club as a connection to bring Tijana there, was accused by the club management of sabotaging her "transfer" to Turkey NT and was even temporarily suspended. :lol:

    By the time this saga ends, we'll have found out we've lived in some alternate universe all along and that Tijana has actually played for Bosnia all this time and that in fact it's Bosnia that's won all those medals and not Serbia.


    She's NOT Vargas. Deal with it. :flower:

    I honestly think most of this year's problems (and there have been plenty) came from the simple fact that no one expected Santarelli to leave so soon. Like Bjelica said, they're not used to changing coaches as often. When Terzić was leaving, everyone knew his time was up and the change was necessary. Moreover, the team bonded with Santarelli almost instantly, so the transition was very smooth. It was very different this time around because basically everyone was caught by surprise and it was difficult to adjust mentally. No wonder almost everyone underperformed compared to last year.

    And Maja's comeback added a whole different layer to an already established team dynamic.


    So this was basically an adjustment period and we'll see the real results next year. I'm not entirely convinced, but I'm willing to keep an open mind.

    I intensely dislike the route this sport has taken and I feel my interest is starting to wane.

    I just can't get behind the idea of world rankings being as important, this is not tennis. Having WCh every two years devalues them enormously and increasing the number of teams is an overkill. The new Olympic format is also dumb AF.


    I feel like it's all being done to further promote the VNL and I absolutely LOATHE it.

    I really don't like these developments. I applaud Milenković being cut, but that's about it.

    What the HELL are Mijatović and Cvetković doing on that list?! It's a throwback to the Terzić days when he's select some randos who'd obviously never see the court.

    Branka Tica ought to have been there. She needs to start training with the A team ASAP and join the big league. Who cares about junior competitions.

    I also feel Jovana Mirosavljević has been given up on too soon.


    All in all, I miss Santarelli. Fuck Turkey.

    I agree with all of that. But you are forgetting about money going exclusively into the pockets of people at the top of OSSRB. Doubt even 5% of that is going to go toward improving our volleyball (facilities, stipends etc.)

    I completely agree that's exactly how it's going to go down, because sadly that's how things are done here. Still, I don't think raising Santarelli's salary is a logn term solution because at the end of the day, there will always be someone willing to pay him more than what we can afford. So, if he's so easily lured by a few % increase (I seriously doubt we were paying him pocket money), it's best to cut your losses and let him move on. Better now than right ahead of the Olympics or something.

    And then make Turkey pay in all the ways possible.

    I bet OSSRB weren't willing to raise his salary a single cent to try to keep him, but you can bet they will try to squeeze TVF for all they think they can get away with, all of which will line the pockets of individuals in the organization. So fucking typical. Welcome to Serbia, a banana republic.:heart:


    I'm not trying to be contrarian here or anything, but I actually don't see anything wrong with that picture. He has a VALID CONTRACT. It he wants to break it in order to chase money, let him. It means he'd never be reliable and there'd always be a danger of him running off as soon as someone offers a dollar more. Disappointing, but that's life.

    Meanwhile, if they really want him, use the opportunity to milk those suckers dry. As much you can. And then break off every future cooperation again with them forever.

    But you can't say Ivana Španović didn't deserve to be awarded as the sportswoman of the year, especially after all the incredible and inexplicable bad luck she's had over the last few years, and overcoming all that to beat Mihambo at her home turf and become the European champion. It was really inspiring stuff, and I'd say it's at least on par with the volleyball girls becoming the world champions.

    I think it's fair all things considered. The volleyball team gets the female team of year award (duh) and Tijana gets this award which is also completely deserved in a year like our team sports had. And hell, it could have easily gone to Nikola Jokić or whoever.

    No, it had nothing to with that. She played ECh '07 carrying an injury and after Serbia won the silver and qualified for the World Cup just over a month later, she wanted to skip the tournament and rest up. Terzić disagreed with it but she decided to pull out anyway. It didn't sit well with him at all and she was never called up again. Shortly before the Beijing Olympics she held a press conference basically saying she wouldn't be playing on the NT again as long as he was the coach - not in those words, but that was the point.

    It was quite a scandal. She was crazy popular and people got wild and didn't get off Terzić's back for years. I think many even cheered against the NT out of sheer spite.

    He never commented publicly on that. Rumour had it that he was willing to invite her back at some point (2011, I think), but she declined. There was also a rumour that she and Jelena Nikolić couldn't stand each other and Terzić had to pick one of them.

    God, that was so annoying. She was long retired from volleyball and had been a non-factor for years, and people were still crying about her absence.

    But it's undeniable that she has insane charisma and was basically the face of the team that put women's volleyball on the map in Serbia. Such a shame her career turned out the way it did. And also a shame that we haven't had a similar magnetic personality type of player since. Veljković certainly has the looks, but she was never interested in media exposure.


    Another crazy fact: WCH '06 was the last time Spasojević and Đerisilo played together.

    Stefana almost ended her career in 2011 due to cardiac issues, so it's good she managed to boost her medal tally as much. I still miss her so much ;(


    Two crazy things:

    - Bjelica having twice as many medals as Brakočević :cheesy:

    - Đerisilo only having ONE medal. She was the best player of the team that broke through on the international stage in 2005/6! That shoulder injury really ruined everything for her.


    The funny thing is, I feel Spasojević and Đerisilo are still more popular than most players currently on the team.

    Germany - Dominicana

    Poland - Canada

    Carol - Buijs


    All matches at the same time, i want to know who gave them this idea, and why TV companies allowed that.


    The scheduling at this tournament has been absolutely horrendous, bordering on self-sabotage. You have days with only two matches scheduled, then you have everything being played at the same time. And they always seem to make the most interesting matches overlap. Beyong annoying.

    Slavic languages are all quite similar in many aspects, so if you're a native speaker of one and you're exposed to another over a longer period, you can pick up a lot. I've learned to understand Russian exclusively through music, for example.

    It's obvious she never learned the language formally as it sounds like a strange mixture of Serbian and Croatian, but she's quite fluent indeed.


    As for Anja Spasojević, she's a true gem! She absolutely needs to work in the media! I'm sure she'd help put women's volleyball on the map in Serbia even more.

    She gave this interview before the start of the second phase, so she summarized Serbian performance in the preliminary pool and she's very impressed with how composed they are and how well they're playing. However, she also warned that the USA played extremely badly in that match and that it's not a realistic account of their abilities, so if we get to play again, we can expect a totally different American team. Still, she's confident we can beat them no matter what if we play our game.


    Then she talked about the opponents in the second stage:


    Poland - if you let them play their game, you're screwed, so you have to impose yourself right from the start. They are a good team and they have the crowd behind them, but objectively speaking Serbia is better and should win the match in straight sets. But it's important to get into the game right from the start.


    Dominican Republic - they're like Serbia a long time ago. A quality team that lacks consistency. They have great attackers and Brenda Castillo is an amazing libero ("I actually remember her! She played in my time! I don't know how the hell she manages to keep going, but she does it and she does it so well!") and they can play on an extremely high level for a while, but they can't keep it up. Sooner or later they're going to drop down so it's important to be patient and wait for your chance if you get into trouble against them. Serbia might lose a set to them, but should win.


    Thailand - "a traditionally difficult opponent", playing the Asian style that never suited us. They're fast and play amazing defence, so it's important to keep focus and don't give away points. If we play like we can, we should win comfortably.


    Turkey - turns out she's a big fan and always roots for them unless they're playing against Serbia. That's mostly because she's very close friends with Eda. According to her, the MBs are very good, the setter is good, the OPP (Ebrar) is unreliable because you never know how she's going to play, she can be either amazing or awful. The OHs are the weakest link. But they also have Guidetti's system behind them and they keep fighting until the very end and in her opinion they're the most difficult opponent in this phase.


    Generally, she's very happy with the way the team is performing and she thinks Santarelli established a very good connection with the girls. She believes Serbia can go all the way if they keep playing like they can, but also says you can never discount the possibility of having a bad day when nothing goes right for your team, like she believed it happened to USA against Serbia, and she hopes we can avoid them.