Posts by Janko

Sisko95 wrote:

OMG crovolley, are you still on about this?! Do you really think Maja Ognjenovic, who many on here consider the best setter in the world, is incapable of setting some faster balls to players who prefer that style? Meliha played with Ognjenovic 2 seasons ago and she attacked quite well because of course Maja wasn’t giving her the same balls she gives Boskovic. The same can be seen even with “2nd libero” type players like Blagojevic and Marcon who Maja has played with. Obviously Gabi is a far better attacker than those players so I’m actually excited to see these 2 play with each other.

You prefer Wolosz, OK that’s fine but it doesn’t mean you have to insist Maja can’t play fast at every chance you get.

Normally, your efforts to educate someone who clearly doesn't know the game of volleyball very well would be laudable, but surely you are aware that crovolley is a lost cause?

I know it's a rhetorical question, but it's because if we were to stop comparing players, that would literally halve the amount of conversation and possible topics, and this site has a problem with low traffic anyway, so...

I think that giving Haak 1 million per year for 3 years (a sum she has not deserved yet) is a sign of those in charge at Vakifbank drinking their own Kool-aid, and that they bought their own spin as a team where all players make a big step forward and where all players perform above their potential. It's a sign that they are certain (not just think, or hope, but certain) that Haak will transform into a world-beater (Zhu, Boskovic, Egonu, prime Kim), at least partly BECAUSE she plays for them.

Even with cheering for Vitra, I have to say that seeing a set with 25:5 score (especially since none of the Big 3 played!) was ugly...hope that won't happen too often.

akitoakie wrote:

so very excited to see Gabi & Natalia playing on the same league after a perfect season in Minas. hopefully their clubs won’t screw them like what happened to Sheilla before the Olympics.

anyhow, is Larson no longer with Vitra? where is she playing now?

Shanghai, together with Louisa Lippmann.

Since we are already debating petty topics, can someone tell me why KYK, for whom this is only a 2nd year at Vitra, is made a captain, and not Boskovic for whom this is her 5th year at the club, and who is now the longest-tenured player in this squad? Does that mean she can expect to never be made a captain (at least while Motta is coach), regardless of anything?

OMG, you are so right that she set a precedent in that! I never thought of it that way. I mean, I obviously knew that that was what basically happened, but it never registered for me that she was the first to quit on the team because of not wanting to be a reserve to anybody. Such a sad legacy for a player who was a long-standing captain of the team, and a captain when our NT first broke through on the world stage (and for a woman who honestly seems to live and breathe for volleyball, and whose dedication to it is only matched by Maja among all the 2006-2008 players).

In fact, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that Vesna served as a direct inspiration for at least Antonijevic, since it was after that 2011 when the latter decided to simply not show up whenever Maja was playing. Some of those years can be accounted for by her injuries, but not all. Not even half, despite the benefit of the doubt she was given by most people in this country (it was only after 2017 that it became perfectly obvious why she only ever played in that year post-2011).

Maja is pretty much universally regarded as our best female volleyball player ever here in Serbia. Tijana is thought to have the potential to surpass her one day, but not this early in her career.

As for the list, it's pretty weird (and kinda funny) to think that Malesević is among 3 most decorated players ever. To make matters ever weirder, she achieved that by the time she was 27 (however, right now it doesn't seem she will increase her total any more). At the right place at the right time, perhaps (after all, her year of birth is right in the middle of our best generation ever)?

Another weird stat is that the likes of Živković and Buša have more medals (in some cases, more than twice as much) than the likes of Brakočević, Čitaković and Spasojević, who are considered much better players, and who are generally much better known, but that's the story of that 2006-2013 generation in a nutshell.

You are right, for all of it. I just recently rewatched the quarterfinal, semifinal and final of 2011 ECh, and was just struck how good Krsmanović played, much better than I remembered. Even the quintessential "less bright star" of that generation, Molnar was holding really, really well (I can only imagine you are familiar with all the "Molnar plays, but Spasojević/Čitaković/Đerisilo are not good enough for Terzić" incessant complaints from that era.

Bogdan123 wrote:

She definetly missed both of Wgp and Ech in the 2011. I checked every single match report from the Wgp 2011 and she did not on the list.

http://www.fivb.org/EN/volleyb…chInfoF.asp?Tourn=WGP2011

Yes, but if you study it further, you'll see that only 13 names are ever mentioned in those reports. That means one medal winner is left out. That was the (main) source of confusion in compiling this list.

JoanaBG wrote:

I'm 100% sure, because I remember the discussion on this forum if she was boycotting the NT like Spasojević and Đerisilo were at the time. I believe she was on the wide roster, but didn't actually get to play.

Anyway, these are the players the Serbian Volleyball Federation credits with the GP '11 bronze:

ANA LAZAREVIĆ, JOVANA BRAKOČEVIĆ, SANJA MALAGURSKI, NATAŠA KRSMANOVIĆ, TIJANA MALEŠEVIĆ, BRIŽITKA MOLNAR, ANA ANTONIJEVIĆ, JOVANA VESOVIĆ, MAJA OGNJENOVIĆ, JELENA NIKOLIĆ, NAĐA NINKOVIĆ, MILENA RAŠIĆ, SUZANA ĆEBIĆ, SILVIJA POPOVIĆ

https://www.ossrb.org/selekcij…nja/svetski-gran-pri.html

So, the 14th player was Ana Lazarevic. She never once appeared on any of the official match reports in the final round, nor is she credited for it on her wiki entry. Thanks again. I'll edit the list (hopefully for the last time).

How sure are you that she missed WGP (she definitely missed ECh)?

Emil wrote:

If my memory serves right, she played in the World Cup 2011, I remember that Citakovic was registered on the wild roster as #11, so Stefana had to wear #17. I may be wrong though but I'm quite sure about it.

You are right, Emil. I just checked, and she definitely played in WC 2011. Hmm, that means we are back to square one.

Then that answers who it was. I'll edit the list. Thanks, Jo.

USAvolleyfan wrote:

Yes in the WGP 2013 not in 2011

I know, but you said that her first senior tournament was WC 2015, which is definitely not true, and in addition, this still does not answer whether she played in Final Round of WGP 2011 (14th player was either her or Stefana).

USAvolleyfan wrote:

The first tournament that Bjelica played for senior NT was the World Cup. So she wasn't at the WGP

You are wrong about that, because she certainly was among the 14 who played in the Final Round of WGP 2013 (even won some points here and there).

I was recently doing a research into how many medals each of the players have won in the NT, and who is the most decorated one. I don't know if anyone will be interested, but the following can serve as a reference point for medal winners for Serbian NT. I included only OG, WCh, WC, ECh and WGP, and not European League or the ill-fated European Games. If we count only the aforementioned 5 biggest competitions, Serbia has won 12 medals (all but 2 in the last 8 years).

Maja Ognjenović 10

Milena Rašić 9

Tijana Malešević 9

Jelena Nikolić 8

Silvija Popović 8

Stefana Veljković 8

Brankica Mihajlović 8

Suzana Ćebić 7

Bojana Živković 7

Ana Bjelica 7

Bianka Buša 7

Tijana Bošković 7

Jovana Brakočević 6

Jovana Stevanović 6

Nataša Krsmanović 5

Brižitka Molnar 5

Teodora Pušić 4

Mina Popović 4

Bojana Milenković 4

Ana Antonijević 3

Jelena Blagojević 3

Sanja Malagurski 3

Nađa Ninković 3

Vesna Čitaković 2

Maja Simanić 2

Anja Spasojević 2

Jasna Majstorović 2

Ana Lazarević 2

Slađana Mirković 2

Maja Aleksić 2

Aleksandra Ranković 1

Ivana Đerisilo 1

Ivana Isailović 1

Jovana Vesović 1

Katarina Lazović 1

Edited the list after some debate, and thanks to Joana's tip.

The individual awards in these League-style competitions can be sometimes slavishly devoted to statistics, to the exclusion of common sense. After all, DR had two members in the Dream Team in 2015, even though they were 7th, while Serbia, the silver medalist, only had 1. In those competitions where there are elimination rounds, they can sometimes go overboard in the opposite direction where every member of the ideal team except 1 or 2 come from the finalists, but to their credit, they will never award a position to someone who has been eliminated in the quarterfinal (and that is only logical).

Well said, beri.

I see Turkish people (presumably Vitra fans) complaining on twitter and youtube how Tijana is so much better when she plays for NT than for her club, and I'm like um...what?! I get that it's at least a little bit coloured by bitterness due to defeats to Serbia in the last 2 EChs (not talking about you here, serdar), but come on, a little perspective, people! She has carried Eczacibasi at least since 2017, even though she shouldn't have had to last year; that's why they laid out the money trunk to Kim, but she seriously dropped the ball in this past season (remember when we discussed prior to 2018-2019 season how it was tantamount to cheat code to have those 2 in the same time?).

In addition to resting KYK against Holland, it's also annoying how Kim didn't show half the form during the club season that she has been showing throughout this summer with NT. She has probably the second highest contract in the sport, and yet she played like she wasn't even in the Top 20 players in the world (only to return to almost the old Kim in NT).