Wilma Salas confirmed in Cuneo!
She said after 3 years in Turkey she was also open to try a new chapter and Halkbank didn't officiallize her contract yet. So she signed when Cuneo offered a nice contract.
Very good move by Cuneo! Salas is a offensive force, but they will need good defensive players along her and good MBs.
I don't know what Halkbank is trying to do. They can't reach the playoffs with only a bunch of local youngsters 
For me only player who is not on the level is Danesi. Even though She had some good performance I just can't understand that Ognjenovic gives Boskovic so high ball and She still is not ready for block. Yeah when She is their she is making kill-blocks but She is to slow for MB and I don't like her clumsiness. Not only talking about her now but overall her as player.
What the heck? She is like best blocker of the tournament, sometimes I think you are being sarcastic in your posts
Stopping Boskoviç is not easy for any MB in the world. Only one who is good at it is her teammate Rasiç
Speaking of world class opposites (or European opposites for that matter), I always wondered why Boskovic was always compared to Zhu, when they both play different positions. Now we finally have Egonu who can give Tijana some serious competiton. I personally think Boskovic hits the ball harder, but Egonu it seems can hit anywhere in the court and I think has a higher contact point when spiking.
Sloetjes and Goncahrova are just a notch below these two. Your thoughts guys?
True indeed, comparing Zhu and Boskovic is not right. I think Boskovic vs Egonu and Zhu vs Kim sound better comparisons. Both Boskovic and Egonu have been leading starter in their team in such early ages (Boskovic was only 17 in 2014 WCh while Egonu played as starter when she was 18 years old at 2016 OG.) Both of them has very good blocking techniques and dangerous serves. Boskovic is better at digging but I see Egonu is also improving in this element. Only player I could compare to these two is Haak. Since she is not playing in a strong NT, she is not praised as much as Egonu and Boskovic but I think she is the only player who has the same potential of Boskovic and Egonu (considering Haak is also even younger than Egonu and Boskovic)
I agree with you that veterans Goncharova, Sloetjes and Tandara are just below these 3 youngsters.
Lippman, Rahimova and Smarzek are the other 3 top Opps in my opinion.
http://www.fivb.org/en/volleyb…System_Volleyball_eng.pdf
I like the new qualification. It would have been even better if continental tournaments would be held before intercontinental tournaments since now BRA, CHN and USA will give free spots to their continents if they manage to qualify through intercontinental tournament first. Especially giving a spot to a south american team would be horrible. That's why I really hope that BRA won't be able to qualify in first intercontinental tournament.
Considering the current semifinalists, all SRB, ITA and NED will be in top 7 in the next world ranking, which will allow them to be seeded separately and get their tickets. Then the final spot will be between RUS and TUR. Of course all will depend on the new world ranking. Indeed I will calculate it myself for top 24 teams once WCh ends 
What a match!
Kudos to Japan, they did show a great fight and prove people wrong who think they don't deserve to be there (including me) Especially Araki was great, what an experienced player, I think she will be missed as much as Saori after she retires
Egonu is Egonu, what a beast! It will be great to see the match against Serbia (if SRB bothers to play with their starters of course). I think key player is Sylla, Egonu is playing great for a long time but Sylla stepped up her game big time and playing as first class player. This is a game changer, all top teams (except USA, CHN) has a killer Opp, but having both a good Opp and scorer OH get Italy to the same level of SRB. SRB has better MBs whereas Italy has better 2nd OH and libero, which makes these two team equally strong. Looking forward to watch them at the final
What the hell, Egonu is out of this world
Chrichella has been very explosive in this game, why are you guys complaining?
De gennaro made a fast tempo set to Egonu with bump set, amazing!
so are you doing the same thing by automatically counting Japan out?
You are right, I shouldn't assume they will lose for sure. Italy can win tomorrow and advance to semis even if they lose today
Once in a life time hahahah
Congrats NED anyway
Not really, It was the same in 2006 WCh with RUS, SRB and ITA
When was the last time you guys have watched Hooker? Stop living in the past and please don't mention about Fawcett who is one of the most overrated Opp ever.
USA's problem is the system they are trying to implement. This system can only work with special setter such as Glass who is a natural. And it clearly doesn't work with current setters in the roster. Lloyd is a great setter but she is not useful in such a system. I think in the absence of strong Opp, Karch should focus on big hitters such as Bartch and use a receiver Opp
Congratulations NED! Great job for a team with a weak mentality
I remember someone (ehm Pope) was also saying 'who cares about ECH since strongest teams in the world are BRA, USA and CHN anyway'. Now 3 out of 4 teams are European. I love it when things prove himself wrong over and over again, especially right after he posted something like 'I told you so, I was right' 
Special congratulations to Sloetjes, she showed a great leading mentality. I hope she shows same performance in Vakıfbank this year, pity that Ebrar has be benched with such a good Opp 
If you really think Malinov is more talented than Cansu as "pure setter" you should watch basketball more...
Of course, if someone disagrees with you, he should quit watching volleyball.
If you can't handle opposing opinions, you should try other forums
Display MoreSeriously?
Was Michael Jordan more talented than Larry Bird?
Let's not be coy about the real issue here...
Nobody can match Egonu&Sylla's athleticism, power and explosiveness...
Can you say Malinov more talented than Cansu, or Danesi than Zehra or Sylla than Hande...
Thanks to African immigrants Italians are building a "Cuban" team in the middle of Europe.
And good for them.
French should take an example, I am sure thay can overmatch Italians easily.
But they don't seem to care about volleyball.
I don't watch basketball so I don't get your analogy. Malinov and Cansu was from the same generation and I have been watching both since they were playing junior NT. Cansu wasn't even starter of our NT whereas Malinov has been great since an early age. On top of her precise setting, she is a good blocker/defender too which is something Cansu severely miss. To me both Danesi and Chirichella are more talented than Zehra.
Well after watching JPN-BRA match, I hope all the conspiracy theorists would stop blaming SRB and accept the fact that BRA simply did not deserve to be there. They had all the chances to change things but they didn't. The fall of BRA was not hard to guess. Ze relied on the golden generation for many years, playing with the same small pool just to win everything possible. It worked for that era but if you don't keep up bringing new talents from younger generations and make a smooth transition, it is obvious that they will stuck after golden generation retires.
I am rooting for ITA for this tournament, they have an amazing group of talented youngsters with experienced Bosetti and De Gennaro. They are similar to TUR in that sense (youngsters with Eda and Simge) but simply their youngsters are way more talented than Turkish ones. In theory, ITA can dominate next 3 Olympic games with the same roster (replacing Lucia with her sister and a new libero). This young team already achieved more than they were expected, so every win from now on will be a huge success. I hope they will play the final against SRB.
CHN seems to be even more fragile than OG due to their shaky reception line. They need a player like Hui against good server teams. Gong is playing way better than she played in VNL but still she is too inconsistent to be starting Opp a top team like CHN. I think Li Yingying should be trained as Opp to help this team. She has more potential as Opp than OH with such a bad receiving technique. The problem of this team, next to a weak reception line, the servers are quite bad in general (except Yuan)
I don't like American team in this tournament. Everybody is showing less than what they are capable of. Akinradewo has never been a good blocker so if she is not used as a scoring player in a team, she will be very useless. In theory, Hill&Larson duo should most balanced OH duo in the world but both are quite bad at both attacking and reception. Opp is still a problem. Dixon is not showing anything special. They should play with Gibby instead. The only thing I like about this team is Robinson. She plays like a very experienced libero and she is one of the best of this tournament so far, she is very consistent especially at reception. I hope she can show such good performance in Vakifbank this year. All in all, I won't be surprised if they will be out of semis with a defeat against NED
The most surprising team of this tournament was RUS. They have played very good in the absence of their star player. I really like Voronkova&Ilchenko I think they are a very balance OH duo and can serve to Russia for many years. Also Fetisova&Koroleva are great blockers. Considering the great performance of Startseva, this team could achieve a lot more with Goncharova. I hope she will recover soon. Only player I don't like was Galkina. If Malova will be back to her old level, this team will be medal contender again.
I don't think it was a shady situation and even then BRA should just be angry with themselves. They can't expect other team would win games for them.
I am also not happy that JPN manages to reach to final 6. It just shows that any mediocre team can reach top 6 if they have enough money and power on FIVB to mess with draws
Let's see if RUS will be able to make it to final 6 as well
Wow, don't know that they have a strong bond.
No they don't. He is just making things up
Cansu, Zehra and Meryem are 'his' players. If they play good they will get all the credits but if they are not playing good enough, they won't be changed. Because they are 'his' players
Today there is no reason to continue with Meryem, Zehra and Cansu but that is Guidetti. He won't change them
what do you mean by his players? Ebrar iş indeed his player from his club, so he could be in favor of her if he is picking a side.
I do not understand your way of thinking.
I do not see difference as most probably the same number of CEV teams can be qualified but please think twice.
Best three teams from WQT will be qualified let say each from other continent (1x Norceca, 1x CSV and 1x CEV), three other best teams can get tickets from 3 FIVB tournaments (I bet 3 x CEV) and finally one more can be added via continental tournament (one more from CEV). It means 5 CEV but the last CEV ticket can be granted for non qualified team (at least 4 strong European teams are already excluded). In the past it was the other way max 1-2 CEV teams got tickets and Continental tournament was second chance for most of teams and it was too difficult for middle class teams as strong Russia, Italy, France, Poland or Serbia participated. These middle class CEV teams have no chance to participate in any other step of OG qualification due to low ranking.
Unfortunately, FIVB is such unpredictable ...
It is very simple;
If the continental championship will be held first: Most likely USA, BRA, CHN, SRB and Kenya will qualify. Other top European teams such as ITA, NED and TUR will get top 3 position in World Cup (or whatever FIVB wants to call it). 3 other positions can go to other CEV teams such as RUS, AZE, POL (GER or BEL or even BUL with their full roster). With this order, there can be 7 strong European teams in OG. However, if World Cup is held before continental tournaments, CHN, USA and BRA will get the 3 spot (SRB might grab BRA's slot indeed). Then, THA, DOM and ARG will win their continental tournaments. This means only 3 spots will be left. Even these 3 will be taken by european teams there will be only 4 CEV teams in total. Thus, the order of the tournament will make a big difference in the composition of qualified teams
Such combination with last step Continental qualification looks ok as stronger qualified teams will not participate.
I wish it was other way around. Best teams from each continents should qualify and then the leftover teams should fight at the WQT and other tournaments. Otherwise, Argentina, Dominic Republic and Thailand would qualify instead of European teams although they don't deserve it
