that's luck. nothing you could do about it. but before coming to that point, there's a lot they could do better to win. serbia just played better tonight.
that 14th point was the breaking moment...Sylla couldnt benefit a free ball then some other foozles and defences back to back by two teams and finally Serbia got it..
bosetti is receiving great, key for italy so far. and egonu is playing loose... not a good sign for serbia. if they can't give italy pressure, it's gonna be a quick game.
Display MoreFOR ME.... Egonu`s performance last night was the best performance I have ever seen in the history of volleyball...including men`s, women`s and beach.
Scoring 45 points against the best team in the world in a WCH semi-final is crazy. I`m not sure how can anyone top that... hopefully Egonu won`t score another 45 today...Rasic better be ready.
#TeamSerbia.
Italy deserves to win? Oh please, there`s no deserving in sports, it is not charity or a award show....Deserves the tittle whoever wins....U know I thin Thailand deserved to win as well
IN MY OPINION Serbia is the better team, but stats does not win u anything, the best team is the one that actually wins......there`s nothing that Italy can do that Serbia can`t ...in fact these 2 teams are very similar. They rely on a strong dominant OPP Boskovic/Egonu - a strong OH#1 Mihajlovic-Sylla - Middles that can score and block but neither teams runs them a lot Rasi-Veljekovic-Chirincella-Danesi and amazing libero Genaro-Popovic, and OH#2 that can pass but can`t score Boseti-Busa....of course here you can`t compare Boseti to Busa and this could be crucial. But Serbia has a advantage when it comes to Maja-Malinov.
I can`t believe Serbia has reached Olympics and WCH final
I`m glad that Italy is finally and officially back....I feel bad for Zhu but Egonu showed us there`s a new Queen in town...but tomorrow Boskovic will show us who the true Queen is...
Bosetti can score a lot better than busa, and blocks and digs better too. Neither will get the set much but If it's a close game, busas inability to kill the ball will cost Serbia...Maja may be more experienced but it's not gonna matter when all she does is set to OPP all game, same goes to malinov. Setter play is more important in Chinas offense as they run MB a lot more.
The way I look at it, to be the best you have to beat the best. the road to the championship has to go through the reigning Olympic champion China, especially for Serbia as they lost to China in rio. There'll always be doubt whether Serbia can beat China in this tournament. With Italy you don't have that question mark. And Italy plays at 100% every game except for vs Serbia when they sat sylla only to get China. It almost feels like they wanted China to remind us they are for real. I liked both teams at the start of the tournament but I find myself rooting for Italy a bit more now.
riding egonu worked in the end. but it really could've gone either way. she wasn't particularly efficient against high chinese blocks as expected. sylla was actually more efficient this game, or the whole tournament for that matter. i think they trust egonu more when the reception is not good. but if they lost this game, relying on her too much would've been the reason too. lucky she came through in the end and i think they'll beat serbia in the final.
I don't think tonights games will be friendlies at all. As far as i know, no team has major injury issues they can't play through. Boskovic they said got an injury but we see how she played last game. i think Italy will go out and try to get the W. They have the perfect record at stake. Serbia will play to win too because if I were them, I'd rather play the Netherlands. China, both lang ping and zhu ting are of ultra competitive personality, losing to Italy is already one too many for them and also for their proud fans. Remember their male counterparts just put up a humiliating performance at the world's. As the Olympic champions, they will play like one. Netherlands being the underdog as they have always been, I think always think about one more game first before they think about the championship so they will play hard.
Egonu should fix her serve, just copy from boskovic. malinov's being lazy setting to Egonu all game long, except for a brief period in the 4th. i hope they know it ain't gonna work against china. they beat china in this tournament so i know they know.
italy is playing serbian ball now. make it simple lol
Anyone saw what was the Italian error that gave Japan the 25th point in the second set. I thought it was a net touch but in the slow motion replay ,didn't see any net touch..
crossed over the net i think
Egonu started the 2nd set too timid, that's why they got behind then too many unforced errors...
if i were China, i'd pick Serbia. 1. beat them in Rio, psychological advantage. 2. there's a big weakness in serbia's lineup, busa and their floor defense is worse than Italy's as well.
I'm very new this forums and one thing I've noticed is how a lot of the posters here can be very dismissive and frankly rude. I think every team worked hard to get here and a bit disrectful to say that they don't matter or that they're irrelevant.
haha this is NCAA level ball except for sloejtes. and they have zero percent of championship hope. im sorry if i'm not being pc enough for you.
and it's a block party for NED... US can't score all of sudden.
set too close to the net
lol what an ugly game of two irrelevant teams. serbia is boring but they at least can put the ball down without errors...
F6 is a terrible idea, obviously, but we didn't have QFs in the previous format either. The top two in the 2nd stage pool went directly to the semis.
The last time there were QFs was in 2002, but back then the second stage consisted of three pools of four teams, so the best ranked 3rd team also qualified for the QFs, which IMO wasn't an optimal solution either.
I don't know why the FIVB constantly refuses to go with the most logical and straightforward formula - top 4 in the 2nd stage pools -> QF.
Well it's a terrible idea because Serbia decides to be smart... f6 is a better format to determine the best team if all teams play to win every game...
i think we can say that european volley is improving more than the american and asian volley..agree ?
of course the final is open to a China-Usa final too
agree if they go all the way. not now. just not yet.
I find it a little bit rude, but somehow I agree. Their game is really boring: they rely way too much on Boskovic and Mihajlovic, which is very normal because they kill the ball regularly. And Brankica is ugly to see: she reminds me Petra Kvitova from tennis, they have no grace in their moves, but they can be effective.
Miha isn't gonna be effective against good blocking team like china or italy in a direct showdown. boskovic too to a lesser extend. to be effective, they have to mix it up with the MB play or attack faster to stretch the blocking defense.
Busa was useless.
reception.
japan has no blocking... too easy for serbia, set to boskovic like almost every time
li yingying is better than larson in defense/passing????? really?????
larson received so badly... she may be better than li in defense/passing, but the usa didn't expose li that much in this game
