Posts by Genius of the Sky

Anyone watching Japan VS Thailand right now? Who is playing on both sides? Is it an exciting match?

Quote from sitenoise

I'm catching up on some of last week's games. Starting to really like NED. They're quick, they hit hard, and look like they have good team chemistry. But I can't figure their rotation. Seems Plak and that beautiful blond setter rotate in and out like other teams rotate a libero with the middle blocker. I'm not well versed in this stuff but I don't think I've seen a setter get rotated like that. Is that common for them?

I keep seeing the one player I've liked before sitting in street clothes on the sidelines. She's good. I wish she was playing.

i think you are talking about the beautiful Lonneke Sloetjes, the Dutch's biggest star of volleyball, possibly one of the top 3 best female opposite hitters (along side Boskovic and Goncharova) in the world right now. she is side lined because she is recovering from an injury. i like her a lot. she is a great player. her attitude on court is very good. and when she smiles, she really brighten up.

I don't know what to say about Natalia. She was playing really amazing with Fenerbahce during their season. But she has performing really poorly with the NT and Coach Ze seems to not care at all. Maybe because she is still exhausted from the long season of the League or what. Or maybe she is readjusting to the Brazilian style of fast attacking as she has been playing really high ball with Fenerbahce. I really hope she steps up her game because without a killing machine on the left side like her, Brazil is in big trouble.

Quote from sitenoise

I watched the NED match again because it's a fun one and NED coach does say "Don't serve to #4 (Shinnabe). I'm okay serving to the Libero now. Stay away from #4". Good for Risa. She deserves that respect.

Also, at the end of the game when Nabeya scores the match point and all the girls run to huddle in the middle of the court, the first thing Tominaga does is run over to Coach Nakada, and she gives her a High-10 and a big hug with a big smile, like they're old friends. Nakada is almost in tears!

I think Miyashita may already be out.

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too bad though because I like Miyashita. she is very quick on defense and having a tall setter for Japan will be an advantage for them. i hope the head coach will not cut her. making her a back up setter will be good as long as she has time to develop with the NT. I dunno how old Tominaga is right now but I think Miyashita is younger. so she has the energy and time to develop. I still have faith for Miyashita to make it to Tokyo 2020.

I am just wondering which is your favorite golden triangle or holy trinity in volleyball teams? golden triangle or holy trinity which i am referring to is the trio that simply carry the team whether it is on offensive skills or defensive skills. let's share our favorite, be it the women's or the men's.

my all time favorite golden triangle will be Mari-Paula-Sheila of the Brazilian Women NT. these players were the epitome of killing machines back in their glory days, especially during the Beijing Olympic Cycle. Paula Pequeno was dubbed the female version of Giba back then. Sheila brought a whole new level of being an Opposite with her great angles, her firepower, and most of all her clever tip. and Mari Steinbrecher is a meat-grinder. over the top of the block with power was her forte. and it is safe to say the Beijing Olympic gold medal that Brazil won has her name written all over it.

who are your favorite volleyball golden triangle/holy trinity? let's share!

i personally think that these two years will be hard for brazil as most of the young players will be going through their transition phase, and their senior players are getting older. there are some good prospects like drussyla, rosamaria, and lorenne but it all depends on how much time on court Coach Ze will be given them. Coach Ze should realize his mistakes during the Rio Olympic cycle. i wish Thaisa will get well soon and get back into her 2013 shape.

drussyla and rosamaria will have to fight neck to neck to compete for that 2nd OH spot as we know Natalia secured the 1st spot. Gabi has a long way to go. i don't think she can be competitive in international level tho.

leia will be neck to neck with suellen. both of these liberos have their own advantages. they have a very large shoes to fill after the iconic Fabi leave the team. sorry Camilla Brait. you are good, but as good as Fabi.

the 2 outstanding setters right now, naiane and roberta, will be brazil's golden treasure. as for now, they are both "green" on nt level. naiane is young and brave, while roberta is older but wiser, and has good eyes on court. funny enough i think when it comes to age, brazil setters has always have older players. maybe the more time they play the better they get in terms of developing connections and understanding players.the great venturrini, the legendary fofao, and dani lins -- are all closed to their 30's when they peak.

brazil will always be my #1 favorite team. but i am ready for a bumpy years as they go through their transition phase.

Japan has always have special place in my heart. Brazil will always be my #1 favorite, but Japan comes close. Watching Japan plays is another type of excitement you can only get when you see their crazy defensive skills. Japan is no powerhouse when it comes to hitting, but everyone who loves volleyball knows when it comes to floor defense, Japan is on another level. I think the fact that they are shorter than all the other girls forced them to work on their defense floor more. some people say they wish Japan has taller players. i say, no. because their size is actually their advantages when it comes to floor defense. look at russia. they are almost, if not more than 2m, and they move like snail on court.

japan has given me some of my all time favorite players. the legendary kimura who was one of the best all around players of all time. the best thing about kimura is her attitude on court. she never shows arrogance, always humble, and smiling. and during her last years on court, she was like the big sisters to the younger players. even when she was no longer on her glory days, she often rose to the occasion when needed. her floater serve is just amazing to watch and her defensive skills is always entertaining. kimura, ebata, sakoda, and the iconic takeshita and sano made me fall in love with Japan NT even more.

these young players, especially this new Olympic cycle, is quickly caught my attention. the team on the Rio Olympic cycle lacked something, I don't know what. but i lost my interest watching them. but this Grand Prix team brought back the spark.it is nice to see Koga finally playing like that future star that she is destined to be. she is much, much better this time than the last cycle. Ishii and Shinnabe always provide the support system that the team needs. I might be bias but Miyashita is my favorite setter of Japan. I hope she will step up her game. her defensive skills are amazing but she lacks precision and connections. but when she gets it right, she gets it right real good.

kinda funny as well that i also fell in love with japan men nt recently because of their performance in world league. yanagida, yamauchi, otake, and fuji caught my attention. and of course my japan favorite boy, ishikawa, these new generations of players, both men and women, seems promising. i am excited to watch these two teams in more tournament after this.

Quote from harboboy

Btw, I guess there are some changes in the roster of Turkey, Seems like Gamze is not playing the 2nd week, she posted a picture where she thanked the Ankara crowd and already wished luck to the girls. Maybe she is in maybe not. Özgenur is for sure in, she wasnt last weekend so is Dicle too, that mean she got the place of either Beyza Kübra or Asli.

Quote from harboboy

Btw, I guess there are some changes in the roster of Turkey, Seems like Gamze is not playing the 2nd week, she posted a picture where she thanked the Ankara crowd and already wished luck to the girls. Maybe she is in maybe not. Özgenur is for sure in, she wasnt last weekend so is Dicle too, that mean she got the place of either Beyza Kübra or Asli.

Kubra is one of the most annoying player on court. Her face looks like she smells something bad all the time. And her attitude is off-putting. I wish she will jave a chance to go face-to-face with Rahimova and let Rahimova teach her how to be rude on court. She is not that good of an MB too. Her killing skills is average but her blocking skills. OMG. SHE IS SOOOOOOO EFFING SLOW. If I were playing against her I will be playing fast tempo attack all the time or combination play. That girl cant move quickly.

I found the solution for the country restriction on YouTube. I can't watch it live tho, only replay. I will search the match on Google, typing full name of the match such as World Grand Prix 2017 Japan VS Netherlands, then the first option will be the FIVB video. I click on it and it will open the YouTube page and of course it wilk show the "blocked in your country" notification. Then comes the trick: on the url bar, change the word "youtube" to "youpak". Such as www. youtube. com/jsgaibdie to www. Youpak. Com/jsdhsjw then voila! I get to watch the remarch in all its glorious HD!

So there will be no replay video on FIVB YouTube channel like they did for World League. Why?????

PS Thailand VS Japan is always a pleasure to watch. These players always give all out defensively. It is interesting to see the battle of two future stars of each NT, Ajcharaporn from THA and Koga from JPN. I always like Ajcharaporn. I watch her during SEA Games and she was unstoppable. She has incredible jumping height and fire power. And Koga is playing much better it seems. She is definitely going to fill in Kimura's shoes perfectly.

I don't have high hopes for Brazil this year. Their team seems underperforming although they won most of the matches they played so far. Especially without Gabi and Juciely around. Gosh, how I miss the Gabi-Nati duo.

I just feel like the team is not up there with the standard of Brazil. I know they are young and new and most of them are playing on Senior NT for their first time but I don't remember Mari, Paula, Jaque, Sheilla, etc this green. I don't understand the deal with Rosamaria. She seems a bit over-rated for me. Natalia is not performing like she used to on Turkey. Carol is getting her rhythm on attacking. Tandara, as much as a beast that she is, she needs to lose some weight. Don't give me crap about she is beautiful just the way she is, this is highlyu competitive sport we are talking about. Roberta is inconsistent although I like her game play.

I don't expect much from them this year. Maybe next year they'll get better.

Quote from saishuu

Both are recovering from injuries afaik.

will they be playing on some stage? maybe the final round?

Quote from JoanaBG

Serbian roster for Ankara has been anounced. Tijana Bošković is going, but it's not certain how much she'll play.

S: Ana Antonijević, Bojana Živković
OPP: Tijana Bošković, Sanja Malagurski, Ana Bjelica
MB: Milena Rašić, Stefana Veljković and Jovana Stevanović
OH: Brankica Mihajlović, Tijana Malešević, Bjanka Buša, Bojana Milenković
L: Jelena Blagojević, Teodora Pušić

Terzić said that Serbia is definitely going for a medal this season and will play each tournament with the strongest squad at the moment.

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It seems like Serbia has the best line-up of middle blockers as for now.

I wonder where is Gabi and Juicely? Why are they not playing?

Quote from Mapuan

Players to watch out this coming quad are:

Rahmat Alhassan is a very good blocker with incredible height reach. She reminds me of Christa Harmatto's blocking ability... she is just more imposing. Slide attack is one area that she needs to improve but her A and B quicks are super good.

Inky Ajanaku is pretty much like Foluke, incidentally they are both from Stanford University. Currently injured and hopefully she will see action in Grand Champions Cup. She has incredible offense both in slide and quick attacks. I gotta say that she is a better blocker than Foluke hopefully it will translate in the international scene. Her downside is her health, she has been injured several times.

Lauren Carlini will be the main setter for this quad. She's the most ready player of all recent NCAA graduates. She has good blocking skill and can play the fast offense that Karch is asking. I can see her beating Lloyd as the starter as the latter is perfect for double sub.

Justine Wong-Orantes is not the most prolific libero in the NCAA history but her dedication and focus will carry her and get that starting position. I believe that her passing will be the key to USA's success. She reminds me of Kayla Banwarth, not the most decorated but eventually came out on top.


Liz Mchammon is a prototype opposite hitter -- tall and physical at 6'6". She was great in Korea and Germany but will she survive higher level leagues? Only time can tell. Her attacking style is within the likes of Boskovic, Pavan, Brakocevic, etc. who play with high balls. With her playing style, I'm not sure if she can adapt to the offense speed of USA but I'm hoping for her success.

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Seems like everything is over-estimated.

USA has a long road ahead of them. Alisha Glass is retired. Hope Lloyd can fill in her shoes and be able to play fast tempo attack like Glass. And, hopefully her connection with USA main scorer, Akinradewo, can be established better.

Karsta Lowe also retired. Meh, don't really care about her though. I don't understand why Kiraly insisted on pushing her as main starter while she has been underperforming all through her seasons. Even Fawcett is 10000x better option. (Well, if Hooker is on the team, that is a whole different story).

The golden triangle of Ishikawa-Nagaida-Otake is amazing. In a weird way it reminisce me of the Brazilian women NT golden triangle in 2008 of Mari-Paula-Sheilla. These Japanese players looks like high school students, imitating Haikyuu to the extreme I must say. HAHAHAHA. Cannot wait to see how these kids will perform in Tokyo 2020. With Otake current performance, I won't be mad if Shimizu is no longer the starting OPP.

Also kudos to Fuji the setter. He always knows where to set so his wing spikers can have a blast. And the connection with his MBs is completely amazing. I don't follow Japanese volleyball league so I wonder how does he establish the connection with those MBs. I think Yamauichi will be one of the tops MB in the world in few years time.

I think the problem with Natalia now is that she has to re-adjust with the Brazil style of volleyball -- fast tempo offence. In Fenerbahce she was given mostly high balls because her jumping height is insane and she can kill really high ball with her hard spike. I just wish Coach Ze will allow her to play high ball because she is really efficient that way.

Natalia is filling in Mari Steinbrecher's shoes very well, having being able to play both OH and OPP position very well and can kill high ball. Hope Gabi will step up to the plate to become the next Paula because she has the jumping ability. She just need to be very smart with her target placing like Paula. Brazil need another Mari-Paula duo since the block is getting faster and taller.

I really hope Coach Ze will not develop any problem with Roberta. Compare to Naiane (which is also a good setter) she has a better prospect. Roberta and Naiane will be another Dani Lins - Fabiola battle to fill in the starting place. Unless Macris slays everyone out of the blue.

Japan's serves are insane. They are putting a lot of pressure of Turkey's passing and to make it worse, Turkey's OHs are being inconsistent with high balls.

The triangle of Nagaida, Yamauchi, and Otake is doing amazing.

The referee made some really bad call, especially that carry that he called on the Turkish player on serve-receive. I thought overhead receive is legal in any form for receiving serve?

Quote from ossubtus

wow... did you guys see that POR MB still does the back slide???????

I dont see any problem with it. Lucas performed back slide perfectly well. I wonder why men no longer do back slide. It is quite efficient tbh.

Quote from Maxwell

I have a question, if the USA had a league similar to other leagues would they be able to draw foreign players to play here?

i think for the first few years it will be hard because they have to establish the league first in order to attract sponsors. i am sure it will be a competetive one but players don't really think about competetive league without reasonable salary - which only come from good sponsors.