Seems like Serbian volleyball police is once again in full force!
While Fabio can indeed be a little too overzelaous, he is not wrong that one can not say with a straight face than Lazarevic has had a bad season so far, nor can anyone objective say she is her club's main problem.
Do you disagree?
I agree with crovolley on this one, ever since she left NT I have never seen anyone in US NT that could 'fill' her spot. In my opinion with Hooker in their roster US could have done better things in 2016 Olympics and I never agreed when people said Hooker wasn't really 'needed' anymore as she is still to this day one of the worlds best spikers if you ask me. She hasn't even hit 30 yet, I would be so happy if she returned.
Actually, she has. As of this September, she is 30.
Tijana Bošković is the European player of the year
She'll be officially awarded at the CEV ceremony tonight, although she won't be able to be present and accept the award herself.
As I wrote on the Turkish league thread:
Any other choice would have been injustice. She was MVP of European Championship, displaying one of the most dominant performances in any single tournament by any player in this century (without Maja and Milena, and with Brankica playing subpar for her standards throughout the competition, Serbia still cruised to the title with only 2 lost sets in 6 matches, and with Tijana scoring 22 points per match on average). She was also MVP of Pool B of 2018 FIVB World Championship qualification (CEV), best OOP of this years Grand Prix, and is thus far the best player of a team sharing 1st place in arguably the best European league.
Tijana Boskovic has been named Best Player of Europe 2017:
Any other choice would have been injustice. She was MVP of European Championship, displaying one of the most dominant performances in any single tournament by any player in this century (without Maja and Milena, and with Brankica playing subpar for her standards throughout the competition, Serbia still cruised to the title with only 2 lost sets in 6 matches, and with Tijana scoring 22 points per match on average). She was also MVP of Pool B of 2018 FIVB World Championship qualification (CEV), best OOP of this years Grand Prix, and is thus far the best player of a team sharing 1st place in arguably the best European league.
5th round in the row Galata is televised...
Fourth round in the row that Galata's match is one of the 2 televised...I understand against the 3 giants, but against Seramiksan? Spread it around a bit. 
A tough choice. Depends on what the rest of the team looks like. There is little doubt that Nataliya would be less efficient in the Brazilian system, and Tandara in the Russian system.
I personally have a preference for Tandara, but that's just me.
Its very interesting that while Kosheleva dropped off the cliff, so to speak, form-wise right around the time meldonium became banned, Goncharova doesnt seem to be much affected by it. Does that mean she wasnt taking it, or does it simply mean that she is just that good, with or without meldonium (bear in mind that difference in age between 2 players is just 6 months)?
If the second, it would confirm something which I have long suspected, and that is that Goncharova is (and will be viewed by majority of the people once their careers are over) the greater volleyball player among the 2. Kosheleva will have more individual awards (more MVP's and dream team inclusions), but that will be down to her being OH, and the fact that it is easier for a world-class OH to get selected for a dream team than for a world-class OPP (twice as easy, to be precise 
).
She admitted to using it but still fair game considering the substance was not banned to that date.
Right, I see now. My mistake, I wasnt aware of it. 
Well...and considering that the beggining of her decline almost perfectly coincidates with medonium becoming banned...wow. 
Maybe Polen could have had a better carreer if she used meldonium like Kosheleva througout her volleyball carreer... Same for any other player really, Tatiana underneath the meldonium is never been found tbh.
Its quite easy to blame Russian player's success as due to doping. Believe me, I KNOW that. As a Serbian, a thought crossed some deep part of my mind many times, of what would have happened at European Championship 2015 if...maybe Serbia would have been a 2-time consecutive champion right now... 
But it is all just a speculation. AFAIK, there has never been any direct proof than either Kosheleva or any of her NT colleagues have taken meldonium and it is unfair to assume that they did just because they are Russian athletes. Innocent until proven otherwise, right... 
Does anyone have the stats for Eczacibasi? For some reason there is a team stat sheet for Ilbank but not for Vitra on the official website... 
ECZ managed to win the 3rd set. They started the match with Ognjenovic as the only foreigner but they brought on Larson and eventually even Boskovic was needed to save the set.
Where were you watching, if you dont mind me asking? 
If we want a blame game....
Last season... It was Jordan Larson and Vitra coach.
I agree with your larger point here, but in fairness to Koshe, in last year's Eczacibasi, the main problem WAS coach. Everything bad ultimately stemmed from him.
But you are undoubtedly right. As we all have been saying for the last couple of pages, Kosheleva is not the player she was, and has not been since last year. Of course, her defence was always atrocious, but at least until 2016, her exquisite attack could cover for it (helped with a bit of smart team-building, to hide her in reception).
Display MoreLOL So true....
Hey I don`t know if you got me message, I did reply back but I kept getting some err, and whenever I click on "private message" I still get some err message and I can`t see my inbox. Just in case you did not get it. According to Wkipedia MVP in Sydney was Croatian OH Barbara Jelic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…ll_at_the_Summer_Olympics
1984 – Lang Ping (CHN)
1988 – Cecilia Tait (PER)
1992 – Paula Weishoff (USA)
1996 – Cintha Boersma (NED)
2000 – Barbara Jelić (CRO)
2004 – Feng Kun (CHN)
2008 – Paula Pequeno (BRA)
2012 – Kim Yeon-koung (KOR)
2016 – Zhu Ting (CHN)
Don't worry, I got the message (all of them).
It seems that while messages can still be sent, the one who sends can not view them, nor can you enter "private message" area, as you said.
Also Galatasaray = EczV (16/17 edition) confirmed
Of course, since Galata brought the 2 players most responsible for the fiasco that was 2016/2017 Eczacibasi (besides coach Barbolini, of course).
It seems Vakifbank, Fenerbahce and Eczacibasi are making an early statement that they are going to be in a tier all of their own, and the other can fight for the honor of finishing "best of the rest".
Another dominant performance by the main scorers of all three teams, Zhu, Rahimova and Boskovic.
I agree! I told many times, it is really really hard to keep Kosheleva in the team, all the team should be build around her if you really want to play with Kosheleva.
Basically, yeah. Which is a shame for such a legendary player to have such a glaring weakness that will tarnish the whole latter half of her career (her decline began last year, before she was even 28 ). We are talking about a two-time (consecutive, even) MVP of ECh! 
How can you never improve even just a little bit at all even when you play as OH for forever!
Koshelevaeven Boskovic can dig and receive better then her and she is Opp. Hell even Diouf is better! XD
I know, right! Hell, Boskovic is among the better at receiving and digging amon opp's. Many other, weaker, opp's are better at those things than Kosheleva.
But the real trouble with Koshe is that her attack has regressed to the point that it can no longer compensate for the non-existance of her defence. That is why, even though she will continue to be a superstar in name for many more years, she will ultimately do more harm than give advantage to any team she plays from now on.
I had to go away after the first set, and only managed to catch the finish of 4th, but it seems the distribution of points was fairly even., with a customary period of dominance when it is most needed by Tijana.
Maja's connection with Jordan is excellent. Like I pointed out earlier, if Eczacibasi's middles could be a little better in block, this team has a real potential.
Wow! What a turnaround. From 20-23 to 25-23! 
