Posts by mdacs

Rains wrote:

I'm sorry to Tandara but she was a pipoqueira.I hope Ze or the next coach explores the possibility of Lorenne and Julia Bergmann in the selection. Brazil needs an opposite who can play under pressure and sadly Tandara wasn't up to the responsibility. Maybe competition will help and she's also old and be unfit to continue to become protagonist.

Who knows what will happen in two years before Tokyo. She may not be the same player as she is today.

I would love to see younger players with the NT as well, but they need to start making better career decisions. Lorenne probably earned some good amount of money in the past seasons playing for Osasco and Rio, but is she always going to be a bench player? I am sure she could find a spot for her in an intermediate team to play in Brazil (like Pinheiros and São Caetano) or even in a good team overseas. Same story with Naiane, Edinara, Juma, Fran, Paula Borgo, Lays... All of them play for top teams in Brazil, but they won't get many chances to play. Whats the point then?

About Julia Bergmann, I guess it is not her time yet. She's only 17, still plays for her hometown team bc she wants to graduate from secondary school. I don't think it is appropriate to invite players who are not even pro yet.

saishuu wrote:

I agree completely. I have a lot of thoughts about the team this year and I'm not sure I'm able to put them into words yet, but... I just hope Zé can put together a better plan, starting with next year's VNL. More importantly, I hope at least one younger player stands out in this Superliga to help give us at least a tiny little bit of hope, but knowing how our youth squads are doing, it's hard to have any real expectations...

I am hoping for good performances of youger players as well. I am trying to follow the development of Diana, a MB playing for São Caetano this season. She has a good slide attack and seems consistent for her age (18 y/o). In OH position, I guess we are well served with many attackers with poor reception skills, so I guess maybe he could try Mari Paraíba and Amanda again.

If they play well, I would love to see Edinara (as OPP) and Milka with the main NT.

A few points I would like to make after Brazil's performance in 2018:

1. Ze Roberto need to figure it out how to get a stable reception line. We need to see how players will perform this season, but I guess he needs to call someone who can receive even if it means that we are going to play like Serbia. In some matches the reception line was terrible and Ze could not do anything, because he had Natalia, Drussyla, Rosamaria and Gabiru as options in the bench.

2. Players who wants to be in NT should play with the team for the entire year. Garay had an amazing Superliga, but she lacked court time when she decided to play for the NT. She could have done way better than she did.

3. We need setters to be less conservative. Brazil's game was never characterized (or limited) by sets to OH and OPP. I was shocked about how bad was the connection between the MBs with Roberta and Dani. We won't win anything playing a conservative game because our players are not able to kill high and predictable sets to the back and front all the time.

4. We need to stop relying on experienced players simply because they are experienced. If these players are not playing their best, I think they shouldn't be so untouchable. And IMO Ze needs to open his horizons to other players immediately. Gabiru as a backup libero is shameful, especially after being out of court for a long time due to an injury. Players should be called given their performance in leagues they play. It may sound harsh but NT is not a rehabilitation center.

sitenoise wrote:

I forget who I'm supposed to be rooting for

What would be best for Japan?

A defeat of Brazil, because then Japan can classify today if they win against Serbia.

sitenoise wrote:

If you would have asked me before the WCh started who I thought was a better setter--strictly speaking--I would have said Tominaga. Not to say that now I think Tashiro is a better setter--strictly speaking--but things are going well and things look different to me. As I pointed out in the post above, the MBs were the high scorers for Japan against PUR. That doesn't happen very often. Okumura attacking from the middle is happening more. And overall this tournament I'm seeing more pipe attacks, which I think is crucial for Japan's game. Tashiro is making those things happen.

That's a great observation. I had the chance to watch Japan's last matches and I was happy to see Okumura and Araki were being set by Tominaga. Since Takeshita, I was thinking that their game was quite predictable before this WCH. Better championship of Japanese team in these past two years.

sloth wrote:

Anyone can do better than Ze, because everybody is tired of him. A fresh restart will do amazing to the NT. Especially because their problem looks to be more psicological than technical

Well, I tend to disagree with this psychological argument... Out of 14 players, 5 are coming back from recent injuries (Drussyla, Tandara, Bia, Suelen, and Natalia). Thaisa, Dani Lins and Fe Garay are not playing their best yet, and probably they won't in this championship. So, 8 players are not in their best shape. The other 6 are Rosamaria, Roberta, Carol, Gabiru, Gabi, and Adenízia. None of them are spectacular players nowadays.

I know it is unfair to compare different generations, but Brazil will struggle way more than before to get medals. In 2016, considering MB position, we used to have Fabiana, Thaisa and Juciely playing their best. IMO they were among the best in the world in this position. I don't see Bia, Carol, and Adenízia anywhere close to the level of the first trio. We used to have more options for libero position (Brait and Leia), and now we have Suelen's amazing defense but shaky reception. Gabiru is useless at this point. Rosamaria is versatile, but unstable both as OH and OPP. Unfortunately, Adenízia is not a reliable attacker. Carol can attack and block, but she is playing just ok in WCH.

Rains wrote:

I want Ze out of the national team regardless of Brazil making or not making the third round.

I disagree with most of Ze's decision, but who could have been better than him?

I know that Brazil's game is not as it used to be, but we have to consider that this NT is way weaker than the previous ones. We used to survive based on a fast game with Fabiana and Thaisa, but now we can't rely on Carol-Bia-Ade trio to do the same those two used to do. Then, what we have is a predictable game in which the sets always go to Tandara, Garay, and Gabi. I am trying to accept this new reality, it is easier than blaming the coach.

Turkish girls' energy is great, love them. But I have to confess that I am watching the game on mute, they scream sooooo much.

Where was Guidetti's head when he decided to start the 2nd set with Seyma and Meliha?

Ozbay's level dropped a lot in the WCH if we compare with her performance during VNL.

Parubets is playing great today. I think she has a lot of potential.

beri wrote:

Goncharova injured :O

What happened to her? She was playing so great... Huge loss for the Russians.

pope wrote:

I hate to say this and of course I'm not blaming her... But that set Zivkovic gave her was not good... I wish Bojana had just tiped it over. During VNL I was so worried that Boskovic would get hurt trying to reach for those terrible sets....and tonight she gave Bjelica some terrible sets, after Bojana went down I noticed that Bjelica started to simply pass over a free ball instead of trying to reach for those off sets.

Again I'm not blaming Zivkovic ..injuries are part of the sport and there's nothing to stop. Is just a fatality.

But I'm not only saying this now.. U guys can look up my past posts and see that I mentioned before about someone getting hurt with Zivkvoic's bad sets

"I am not blaming Zivkovic but damnnnn her sets are so bad"... So, you're blaming Zivkovic, at least indirectly.

Mkmalaluan wrote:

lets just wait and see on the 28th. Ur comments are a big blow to my reputation but thats fine.

You should post your sources then!

Everyone knows that Ze will choose between Amanda and Natalia, with greater chances of picking Natalia (he told that he would wait for her as long as he could), so if Amanda gets cut, this does not mean that your source has secret information about our NT

USAvolleyfan wrote:

So Amanda got cut.. I wasn't impressed with her this summer, but she is very useful as a serving sub.. The fact that they had to wait till the last moment to decide whether Natalia can play is nonsense to me..

It seems Natalia was almost 100% recovered from the injury she had while playing for Fener, but she felt some pain in her shin which seems to be related to the metal plate she had to put before the London Olympics, so that's why her situation is kinda uncertain now.

pope wrote:

But my guess is that Amanda will be the one cut if Natalia can`t play. All players must join their respective clubs as soon as they are done with the NT duties.....but once Amanda is playing for Ze Roberto ( Barueri) next season so they are OK with her going and staying in Japan as a "fan" basically" .... I don`t think any club would accept a player showing up late unless she`s with the NT.

I guess the player he decides to cut will go back to Brazil as soon as possible. But right now she is not just a fan yet, she's training with the whole team as I could notice through our federation website.

USAvolleyfan wrote:

I think he meant Tandara was an option as an OH in 2012

Exactly, thanks!

Agguerro wrote:

I went to Montreux and Natalia was hitting over the net during the warm up. She even did a few backcourt attacks during the warm up. Maybe she is the secret weapon lol.

I was not able to watch the warm-ups, so that's really good information. Thank you for that. Many brazilian media (not all of them are reliable) says that Natalia is not able to jump nor play an entire match.

Natalia has a great team spirit, but I am still worried whether she is able to help or not. In 2012 she was chosen by Ze to be in the Olympics, but she did almost nothing in court and we became champions anyway. But it is worth mentioning that at that time we had Jaque, Garay and Paula in good shape, and also Tandara who was able to play as OH. Nowadays, all we have is Gabi, Garay and Drussyla, and none of them has shown full stability when they were in court.

pope wrote:

Neither Lubian or Fahr are "ready" right now... Melandri and Bonifacio are still young but has more experience and could help this team much more. Unless their focus is Tokyo and not the WCH.

I feel like the Italians never know what they want.... Like Bonifacio was a great prospect, she won the tittle with Novara ...and then after that she goes to Novara bench barely plays and now does not even get a call for the NT anymore.....same goes for Melandri as 2 seasons ago she was one of the TOP middles in the league....

and just watch....next year another younger girl will show up and they will drop Lubian and Fahr. .......Orro is another example.

another thing....wasting time in the VNL by playing with Guerra while keeping Syla on the bench??? I just don`t think Mazzanti is the right coach for Italy. Just imagine what Guiddetti would do if he was their coach.....

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I guess Italian coaches are focusing on long-term results, that's why they are investing in younger players. Take Danesi as an example, she was quite unexperienced in 2016, although she was chosen as one of Italy's starter MB in that olympics. I don't know, but maybe this is a guideline of the Italian federation, and not simply Mazzanti's choices.

Wasn't Sylla recovering from an injury during VNL? That's why I thought she was out.

I know that Natalia is our team captain but it doesn't seems fair if Ze decides to keep her to the WCH. She is not even jumping yet, and WCH is only in 3 weeks. I don't like Amanda, but at least she is able to play in her position.