23 July 2008

Rio de Janeiro (BRA)

Nothing new in sight .

The Brazilians are still the best and the Russians seem unable to shorten the gap.

I have written many times that I’m actually impressed by the South Americans consistency: they are non-stop leading the Volleyball World since 2002. They keep on working even harder (if it’s possible), playing with enthusiasm and uncommon willpower. Therefore the level of their performances are unreachable by the opponents.

Before the 2008 World League’s Finals opening match, my only doubt was concerning the slow start Brazilian had in the last two editions. In 2006 in Moscow (Russia) and last year in Katowice (Poland), they lost the first match (both against Bulgaria) playing a spiritless game.
After the first defeat, the group leaded by Bernardino, improved quickly performing wonderfully again. No need to remember that they ended up winning both the editions, given that they succeeded in the last five World League editions!

Today they haven't got any hesitation nor pause, maybe due to the home playing or the Olympic Games proximity.

The match lasted only few points: in the first set Russian were leading 22-19 when Giba was serving. His team got a three points winning streak tying the set. Suddenly, Russians were missing and the match went under Brazilian control until the end.

During the press conference after the match, both coaches gave the standard comments (to say the truth a slightly false ones). Alekno pointed out only the Russians' mistakes (27 against 12) avoiding a deeper and a more factual examination. Bernardinho welcomed the victory noticing that Russia can play much better than today!
By the way, regarding the common and acceptable hypocrisy used in the public statements, Giba said that tomorrow they will rest but then Japan will be a tough opponent…

Thus, nothing new in sight is a good news for Brazilian.


The second match, USA - Serbia, has a peculiarity: both teams have two powerful and expert setters and opposites (N. Grbic - L. Ball and I. Milijkovic - C. Stanley). The Serbian middle bockers (M. Podrascanin and N. Bjelica) are younger than US (R. Millar and D. Lee) but equally physically gifted.
In those positions the match could have been very balanced. The key was the performance of the swing hitters.
All the three Serbians and the four North Americans athletes who have played as hitters (excluding S. Roonie who is pretty big) are very small.

The battle between the tiny Volleyball players was clearly won by Serbian.

Bye bye andrea zorzi