Mixture of B and C squad today for Serbia, with a few D team players. Having that in mind, not too bad. I particularly liked our middles today, Mina Popovic and Maja Aleksic. They have proved themselves as options #4 and #5 in that position, behind the Big 3. Lots of points, with good percentages for both.
Posts by Janko
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My god, as much as I wish she didn't have to play this competition, to watch Boskovic simply effortlessly DOMINATE a match like this...it's like watching Messi dismantle opponents circa 2011-2012.
On the other hand, if Busa, who somehow manages to be 5 times worse than at last year's WCh (which is saying something), doesn't get much, much better, I don't see a future for her in NT (or if she does still play, than I see no more finals for Serbia from now on, even for this golden generation; that's how bad she is). How we miss last year's Milenkovic...
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Let's face it, nothing will be the same after Zhu leaves, especially since Lonneke is also certainly going. Doesn't matter who Vakif brings, the team is guaranteed to be weaker in 2019/2020 than in the last 2 years. There will be NO sweeping competitions. The only question is by how much.
If both Boskovic and KYK remain in ECZ for the next year, there are 2 options:
1)Quite a lot, but it can still potentially "steal" one of 2 domestic competitions (I don't count Supercup)
2)Extremely so, no chance for any trophy
If, for the sake of going for the option #1, he gambles with the future of Turkish NT (as seems possible, and indeed, likely, given Haak's signing), he will have sent a clear and unambiguous signal that, of the 2 jobs he has, he prefers his club gig, and for that, he would deserve to get fired from the NT (presumably the money the Federation pays him is no less "green", as the saying goes).
Not that he will be, even if Turkey does nothing in the next few years, but that's a topic for another day.
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What happened to Bricio? She played much better earlier in the season.
Conversely, Vargas has not played quite this dominant in the first month or two. She seems to play better as the season progresses.
Anyway, another close match lost by Gala against the Big 3. There's a hard cap when your best player is Hande, and it shows.
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From the OG2020 perspective, this makes sense. Gui knows he’s going to lose Zhu for next season. Thus, the chance for Vakif to win any cup next season will be extremely slim (assuming KIM and Bosco stay with Vitra next season). Since Gui is also the Turkish NT coach, he probably prefers to concentrate more on his NT players for the OG2020. My guess would be Vakifbank will basically become a Turkish NT training camp next season. Gui cannot fail for the OG2020 qualification. He needs to prove he’s at least better than the previous Turkey NT coaches.
My thinking also.
However, there is the signing of Haak, which doesn't jibe with this theory, since she will take playing time from one of the most important Turkish prospects (Ebrar), so...
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I see that in my absence, domestic league has went about as expected...Eczaci lost only a single point, Vakif only lost a game against Eczaci, while you can set your clock to the idea that Fener and Gala are going to inevitably lose close sets to the aforementioned 2 teams.
As for that last Eczaci-Fener match in particular, I loved how it turned into something of a duel between Boskovic and Vargas, who finished with unreal 29 and 26 points, respectively, after only 3 sets of play.
But I have to say how utterly moronic Turkish Cup is being organised this year. Not just the stupidly squeezed schedule (everything happens in 4 days, and in March, while last year's edition was in December
), but I was literally unable to find a single piece of information on when the finishing stages are going to be played, until I visited this thread. So belated thanks to those who provided that info back in December. -
Fenerbahce should try to give the TR citenzhip to Vargas.
She is just a star in the making.
How can a club offer citizenship to a player? Is that really possible? Isn't it up to Turkish government?
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A much better match for Eczacibasi than yesterday. In addition to 3rd set, where it's obvious that Chonburi played good, they started the first set well, getting to 8-8, but then the Turkish team had a 13-2 run. And even in 2nd set, Thailand girls played some terrific defence.
Again, a good spread of points: Tijana 16, Kim 13, Jordan 8...
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Just watched Eczacibasi's match. The first two sets were unwatchable due to catastrophic reception of team from Kazakhstan, but they improved in that regard in the 3rd, as well as attacked with more variety (especially from zone 6).
An excellent match for girls from Istanbul. I don't have official stats with me, but according to stats I kept, Tijana had a staggering 83% in attack today (19/23). That's just...wow!
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amongst the big 3 (must be Tijana,KYK,Larson ) i think Tijana has been the best in total (Offensively)..KYK has had ups and downs
we can have a better opininon about them when they face some good teams at WCWC (Praia,Vakıf etc) and Vakıf and Fener in the league
@Janko..it wont be that easy for Eczacı to repeat the record Vakıf broke ..lol
No, that's not what I was referring to when I said "broken record". It's an expression in English language meant to convey repeating something over and over again. So, when I said that, I was referring to the fact I have said already several times how dominant Eczaci is even with a relatively average (for their potential) form, lol...sorry for causing a misunderstanding!
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At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it looks frightening that Eczaci is able to dominate to this level (1 set lost in 9 games!) without even playing spectacularly well (or even with all the players). Ouf of those 9 games, only in 1 can we say that all of the Big 3 played well (against Ekaterinburg).
Now, that doesn't mean that they will continue to do so, but it still looks surreal....
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Well, it's the Olympics, so she might suck it up like Brakočević did, especially since it would be her first (and very likely the last) participation.
I certainly hope you are right, but unfortunately I have a feeling that Ana's resentment is much stronger (and certainly much longer-standing) than Jovana's.
Anyway, day later, and there is still no full match video on YT (that I can find). This means that if anyone wants to watch some match of this year's CL, we will have to do it live. I'm not used to watching live matches, at least of teams I support, so it's a big inconvenience for me that I'll have to overcome.
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Champions League is truly making me regret the fact that Maja is no longer playing for Eczacibasi...just imagine, KYK-Tijana-Larson trio, and Maja setting them beautiful balls!
Instead we will have to watch her set to Goncha more than 50% of the time match after match.
8 matches in the season, still only 1 set lost for Eczacibasi...also, Haak is giving further proof what an absolute jewel she is!
If only she would get a bit more help...
i believe Fenerbahçe will help setter Ana improve her game and return to the Serbian NT...Serbia will need her in Tokyo 2020
You can forget it. Maja has already said she will play in Tokyo, so we can be reasonably certain that Ana will be "injured" that summer (just as we can be reasonably certain that she WON'T be injured in 2019, for European Championship, when Maja almost certainly won't play
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Cobgrats, Serbia! New world's female vball #1 team! 👐
To think that 15 years ago, we had trouble to qualify for European Championships, and did not participate in any FIVB tournament!
Also that a country of 7 million is #1 in the most popular female sport in the world...
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why is everyone so confident that zhu is leaving after this season?
Because there are rumours Chinese want her back in China, and not to spend herself in long Turkish seasons, for Tokyo 2020. I heard they even tried to buy out her contract this off-season, but Vakif refused.
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So right from the start 2 most interesting games in Group stage...Imoco should win (if they don't rest players), and the other match will depend on how Fener serves.
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Btw, the fact that Terzic is Novak Djokovic's uncle-by-marriage is sometimes used by those who don't like Terzic and criticise him as the reason for him staying as coach of NT for so long despite supposedly "having no clue". I know, makes no sense, but a lot of people in Serbia are still bitter about the whole Anja Spasojevic's debacle (and to a lesser degree, about Vesna Citakovic and Ivana Djerisilo), who is mythologised here, at least among casual volleyball watchers (in no small part due to her beauty).
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I'm not sure about children, but his wife's name is Sanda, and she is the sister of Novak Djokovic's mother.
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It's not like that's a new development...last season was the same two-horse race (with one team winning all the titles, too).
Though depending on who Vakif brings to replace Zhu's departure after this season, and how long Kim stays in Eczaci (does anyone know the length of Kim's contract?), things might be different next year.
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This will be a very long year for the supporters of Gala...
As beri said, Hande is capable of better than this, she has shown it in VNL...I don't know if it's some kind of mental block when it comes to clubs or what...
Fener has managed something I was very sceptical about, and that is successfuly replace one of the most dominant finishers in female volleyball, Rahimova. Vargas-Bricio duo has been more than good enough to make up for that so far, and the fact that they have put together a roster where they have 4-5 excellent servers is a huge bonus.
That said, it is still hard to see them butt-in into a Eczaci-Vakif tango that has become Turkish league in the last 2 years.