Posts by vabo

    We talk a lot about the behavior of a certain French player but this stuff is really the lowest of behaviors, it's rule number 1 for men and sport teammates.

    There are two things I almost resigned myself to never see happening in my lifetime: a gold medal for the men, and a medal of any color for the women. I will probably stop watching the sport if none of this happens within 2020, Rio left an irreplaceable damage.

    I haven't been kind with Mazzanti in the past but in this interview he shows better judgement than the entirety of the Italian volleyball federation and every single NT coach we had in the last 20 years. Also delighted to see Pietrini hasn't been given a damnatio memoriae for what happened months ago (remember what happened to Cacciatori).


    I hope this team finally wins a medal at the Olympic games to reward this mentality.

    There's not a single Italian player in the current team who deserves losing a hard earned spot in order to give a 40yo player a second (fourth? fifth?) chance for an Olympic medal. Sorry not sorry, Italy's bench is already short as it is without adding more trouble.

    I'm not sure about that. My point is that compared with where Iran was a decade ago (a nobody at world stage), they have established to be a well-known, competitive team. I don't quite get the impression that Iran has far more talents than Germany, but never mind.


    Iran's achievements "are to be completely honest the weakest after Africa" sounds like a joke to me. There are many decent teams from Europe and America that achieved on par with or less than what mentioned about Iran NT.

    I said the Asian championships are the weakest in the world after the African ones, which is correct. Iran won nothing outside its continental championships.

    Forgive me if I sound exceedingly negative but I disagree that Iran established itself as a major power. On the contrary, I think it's the biggest case of wasted potential of this generation.


    Iran has been one of the top teams for the last 6-8 years but they won extraordinarily little compared to their quality of play. If I recall correctly, a 5th place at the world championships, a 4th at the world league, Olympic quarterfinals, some success at the Asian championships which are to be completely honest the weakest after Africa.


    Germany with far less talent, national support and media coverage won a world championships bronze, a silver medal at the European championships and an Olympic quarterfinals after beating teams way stronger than them (Cuba and Serbia).

    That's a long story but he was treated like a very very bad coach here by media and some so called "experts"


    I know he probably didn't do anything super great with Iran but he wasn't that bad. I totally understand his reaction. some of those bad results weren't really his fault, when he came 3 years ago he was told to change the generation and use younger players without being worried about the results, he did that and used so many under 20 players but then the head of volleyball federation changed and told him to go another path. beside that he was told to completely change his plans for 2018 World Championship and send the A team to the Asian Games only few days before the WCH.


    just to give you a better idea, according to those experts whenever Iran wins, that's because our players are good and whenever we lose, that's because our coach is bad ! the first thing TV commentator said before the final was "we beat Korea yesterday only because of that smart move from Marouf, our coach did nothing"

    Good grace. And you wonder why team Iran is so full of diva attitudes.


    I hope he sends Iran federation a middle finger the day after the Olympic tournament is over. At this point his only reason to stay is to go to the games, after that he can let the entire place rot.

    Like in Rio, France didn't qualify in the quarter since Italy and US decided not to play their best against Canada.

    Correct me if I'm wrong but USA played their first match in the pool against Canada, risking elimination themselves, while Italy their last when already qualified, and put an exhausted Juantorena on court (though I have no doubt they lost on purpose, but not to eliminate France, rather Brazil)

    Well Lisicki was still better than Bartoli, at least she beat Serena Williams in that Wimbledon, but she completely choked in the final. I agree that the her nerves are very similar to this German team :gone:


    Nah, it was a one time trick. Bartoli has several better slam results throughout the years. Remove that one great Lisicki year and she accomplished nothing her entire career.