Saitama (Japan)

Before saying goodbye to the wonderful girls, who played an astonishing 2007 World Cup, I’ll let you know my opinion about the Women teams.

Below you can see the final standing and, on the right, my personal judgment on their performances.

+ means that they played BETTER than I expected

= means that they played EXACTLY as I expected

- means that they played WORSE than I expected



Of course, if anyone of you disagrees my opinion, let’s be so kind to send your motivations by mail (mailto Andrea Zorzi)


and now let's go to the 2007 Men's Volleybal World Cup

 
After the first six matches of the there are many questions that are still waiting for an answer. The most important matters are:

Brazil, the dominator of the Volleyball World since 2002, has to face a great loss. Ricardo, the Brazilian setter, after an harsh argument with Bernardinho was excluded from the team.

1) Will South American squad be able to overcome the significant absence of their setter?

I would avoid to overestimate the defeat with USA, because many times Brazilian started the tournaments playing poorly due to the overconfidence.

2) Bulgaria received a wild card from FIVB, will they be worthy of this choice?

Don’t forget that obtaining the Olympic qualification for the others European teams is very tough, because of the highest level of European Volleyball. The Bulgarian have a double advantage: first they can get immediately the berth and rather if they fail, in the 2007 World Cup they will earn points allowing them to participate in May at the last Olympic qualification tournaments.

In September the Russian team lost the 2007 European Championship final with Spain against all odds. One more time they performed by far under their possibilities.

3) Finally, will they show their actual value during this tournament?

US team seems slight weaker than other three teams looking at the individual players’ value. However the North American squad, led by Mc Cutcheon’s, surprised everybody winning the bronze medal in the last World League.

4) Will they reach one more time, a game level higher than the simple sum of individual skills?

These are the four most noteworthy questions because I think that Brazil, Russia, Bulgaria and USA are the favorites to get the three available berths to Beijing. In the next days, we will see which team, among the others eight squads, will takes up the role of best candidate to subvert the general expectations.
After Bulgarian, Russian and US victories, these questions remain proper because the World Cup is a long and difficult tournament and we cannot rely on only one matches out of eleven.


Why Australia won: a wonderful, astonishing, fantastic and breathtaking opening match. Australia and Korea are the perfect ingredients for a “very exciting match”. Two young and enthusiastic squads, physically and technically talented and two different playing styles generated a wonderful fifth sets match, ended 29-27.
There aren’t typing errors, actually the fifth set finished 29-27, after ten match-balls for Koreans and five for Aussie.
Australia and Korea are second level teams, behind the top World’s teams. Anyway, the match was the proof that what make enjoyable a game is the balance and the unpredictability, not the simple technical exhibition.


Why Russia won: It’s bad seeing this match soon after the previous (AUS-KOR) because the two games that opened the First Round in Saitama, are the two coin sides. Balance versus overmuch disparity, enthusiasm vs apathy and unpredictability on place of obviousness. As ever, the Russian are strong Volleyball players but passionless. I’m in the hunt for any clues of change in Russian playing manners: until now no one hint.


Why Tunisia won: another exciting match closed the first day. Tunisia never gave up and took advantage of the Japanese mistakes at the end of fifth set.
I’ll promise you that I’ll write next days my detailed opinion about the Japanese Men’s Volleyball Team. Today I limit myself to ask: why, after they get a dig, they set the ball so high? Neither Russian players, the tallest and most powerful, give a similar advantage to the opponents. Probably I would have to ask directly to Ueta, the Japanese coach.

Bye bye andrea zorzi