World Cup 2011 - first round

1. Brazil
2. Italy
3. Poland or Russia

I think Cuba and USA aren't strong enough and Serbia has too young and unexperienced team for such a long tournament. Argentina has very good players, but only about 8-9. Russia's problem might be injury od Grankin, we'll see if Grankin is good enough. I hope Poland will be able to achieve third place, even with two opposites that are good, but nod good enough I would say

Russia and Poland get out of our way, qualify now! Italy and Serbia are our "easy teams" according to tradition

hahaha Right behind you,raylight ? I'll be rooting for at least 2 European teams in the Top 3 ?

@Buziak_PL: I hope your prediction won't bring our NT bad luck ? I still haven''t got an idea of what might happen in this WC. I only hope our guys will be able to do as well as the girls are currently doing in the Women WC ?

Russia or Italy I think.

I don't actually care about who will win it, my only concern is Italy being on top3 ?
And if can't be Italy, I hope there will be Russia, Poland and Serbia ?

Espero que o Brasil fique entre os três! E quem sabe, ganhar a copa.
E que NÃO repita a atuação da seleção feminina ?

Brazil is obviously the favorite...Then it is very difficult to predict the top 3 and I think it will depend on the schedule but it will be a fight between europeans Poland,Italy,Russia and Serbia I think.Poland are in top shape as well as italians.Russia will have problems without Grankin and Serbia is no more an outsider so maybe poland and italy have better chances...

Voices about an injury to Russian Taras Khtei (twisted ankle) during training.

Poor Kthey! Even if... also Priddy shouldn't have to play with Zenit at WCCh according to Alenko...
Well, I'm so sorry for him, but I'm not so sure I'll miss him on sunday vs Italy ?

BTW, I hope someone will be able to record WC matches: if the timetable wasn't hard enough to follow, we also have the problem that only the paytv will trasmitt the WC... And of course I don't have it ?
(actually it would have been really tough not spending the whole month on Sky watching volleyball, they setted a channel with volleyball 24h/24 from october the 31 to december the 4th! Inlcuding the famale WC, of course)

Russia really wants to come to Bulgaria for the European qualification

Well,they're not welcomed here hahaha Russia qualify NOW! LOL Seriously,though - I really like the Russian team,so fingers crossed,all the injuries won't affect your performance ?

As Kk15 wrote, we've got a problem here in Italy: if you don't pay you can't see the WC ? That's not fair!!
Kk15, I don't have Sky either, so I hope I'll find a streaming to watch something: engagements and timetable permitting ? Otherwise, I'm sure our friend raylight will record all the matches and then upload them here ? Am I right raylight?? We can count on you man, can't we?? ? ?

I don't record pearl, I uploaded what others gave me, but now I can only up to 15 minutes. Ask proud, she can upload full matches ?)

I will use the WC rest for me to make more videos related to CSKA, Bulgarian players and Bulgarian NT

@pearl,I'll try to upload all the matches I can find ?

@proud: thank you a lot :-) and, please, pay special attention and care for my boys!! ;-P
Oh...proud, so you're a girl like me??! Cool ;-) I thought you were a man ahahah :-D

Haha,don't worry,I'll make Italy's matches a priority ?

:DD

I suggest that video xDDDDD
http://dal15al25.gazzetta.it/post/25759858/e-berruto-divenne-gandalf


BTW, I realized nobody wrote that Baretto is injuried on a shoulder: no broken bones, but they'll run others test. Maruotti is going in Japan, BTW.

Gandalf!!! LOL Thank you,Kk15,I'm going to bed with a smile on my face ?

@Kk15: if you had read the discussion about Berruto's List for WC, you'd have noticed that I had already posted this info about Bari's injury ;-)

I post this info here for Kk15 :-P and also in the discussion on Italy's lineup for WC: it seems that Bari's injury is not so serious as it seemed! So, poor Maruotti has flown to Japan to watch the WC from the stands of the Japanese Sports Halls instead of watching the matches from his house :-D

We all say that Brazil will be the first. I do not think so. I think it could be Russia or Serbia. For further positions Brazil and Italy or Poland. But soon we shall see. Perhaps the final result will surprise us all. ?

any tournament's always unpredictable, especially now, when there's a bunch of 5-6 teams which are on about an equal level.. i don't like it when people try to make predictions, i believe sometimes it can "scare the luck away"..)
let's just wait, hope and see, there's not much time to wait left,is there?))

We're going to start with fireworks, my friends!! Italy v Russia, OMG what a kick-off ?
Hope I'll find a decent streaming to watch something ?

Latest news about Italy: Bari's recovered from his shoulder injury almost completely and Berruto has decided to keep him in the squad along with Maruotti (and that's the real surprise) in lieu of Mattia Rosso who is going to fly back to Italy!

Wow,3:0 for Argentina against Serbia ! Guys,I'll look for the match and try to upload it today ?

Poland - Cuba 3:0 ?

proud, yes you should :*

Yeah, great start and great performance of Nowakowski and Zagumny. Whole team was good, but I hope that Bartman will play better in next matches.

It's funny. Bartman played the worst in the team and was MVP of the match. I do not know who is giving away statues. For me, this game MVP is Winiarski. Also played a fantastic match Zagumny and Nowakowski.

Yeah,I agree with Roninho ? Congrats,Poland ?
SkyloIoannes ,слушам ?

It was hard to get up, but it was worth it. For me the best was Zagumny.

I wish You to think only about who from our team should be MVP after next matches ?

And look who's in the Argentinian team... Young Castellani. I watched him playing a year ago in Nisko, Poland in the Argentinian youth team. He impressed me the most from the Argentinian team.

Congrats,Russia ? Great match with Italy! 3:1

Russia won 3-1 over Italy. I'm pretty disappointed by the way our guys played. It's always the same story: they start well and then, all in a sudden, they stop playing. Lack of concentration? Lack of motivation? Fear to win??? I don't know, but they absolutely have to stop making all those silly mistakes in crucial moments of a match: that's what makes the difference (in worse for us).

Fei is MB, it suprised me o lot, Berutto want to make team like in 2004 probably. left handed spiker and Fei as MB

if you dont know who was MVP of the match, MVP is a setter ?
but Nowakowski was today teh best

In Italian team, only Michal Lasko is not enough. Poor Christian Savani game in attack and adoption.
Statue MVP again controversial. For me it Tetyukhin MVP of this match.

will anybody upload poland cuba match ? pleaaaaseee

Go, Poland and Russia! BTW, imagine team with Mikhaylov and Kaziyski as outside hitters ? The Russian will have better reception probably ?

Cuba are too weak, unfortunately. Zagumny with perfect game and as always MVP for Poland

The OHs are Russia's main problem imo.Khtey's not well right now and Biryukov has tendencies to be unstable.They keep bringing Tetyukhin back from retirement,because "the pretty boy" didn't live up to the expectations,and Sivozhelez is(I'm sorry for the strong choice of words)pathetic...Anyway,I love Max,Dima and Sasha,and really like Russian players' attitude as a whole.They don't smile that much,but are actually very friendly and ALWAYS humble ? Good luck in the tournament,today was a very good start!
No sign of any of today's matches so far ?

Proud, Russians humble? ? Well, Maxim Mihaylov is the coolest guy ever, but remember Poltavsky and Spiridonov, please ?

OK,you got me with Spiridonov(I actually gave him as an exception,but then deleted it from my post,'cause it was becoming too mean-spirited ? ),but Poltavsky?Come on ? Plus,he's friends with Matey,so good or nothing about him LOL
And,yes,very weak game for Cuban...I was rooting for Poland anyway,but still,it could have been a much more interesting match...made it easier to just switch to Russia - Italy and not watch 2 games at the same time - I HATE when that happens ?

what's about nicola kovacevic? he's injured or something like that? serbia can have enormous problem without him... i think it's not a good idea that fei plays as MB. he hasn't played on this position in many years. but both fei and łasko are great so berutto maybe don't know who he should choose and they play together

Did You see Iran? They have got a lot of impressive players. I didn't knew them. They're opposite has very strong spike.

Italy-Russia already on rutracker:

http://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3827563

I'm uploading it right now ?

Maybe someone knows of you where to download the whole match between Poland and Cuba ?

brazil campeon!!!

cuando colombia clasifique les gana a todos!!!

@esin,I can't find it anywhere,sorry.I'll keep looking,though ?
@anyone_Italian( ? ),is there anything wrong with Birareli?It's seems strange that he wasn't on the list,instead of Butti.

here you've got Poland - Cuba but you have to be register to see the links
http://www.sports-video.pl/topic/10844-polska-kuba-pl/

I can't download that part : //www.filesonic.pl/file/3958055124
Can anyone do it and then upload it here - http://www.sendspace.com/ (as it is ,in .rar)and then send me the link,so I can add it to the other parts and put it on youtube? Thanks in advance :)

@proud: I have no news about Bira, so I presume he was out of the team-list only for technical reasons. Obviously if Berruto's intention is that of starting with Fei and Mastro as first string MB, one between Buti and Birarelli must be left out. This time was Bira's turn...next one, who knows?? Just wait and see ? Anyway, Fei didn't impress me much: it's pretty evident that he's not used to playing as a MB anymore and he hasn't done for years!! If I have to say one name in Italy's squad that imho played well, is Lasko. Savani ...mmmm, decent but nothing more. Zaytsev?? Was he on court?? I didn't notice him at all o_O I hope the following matches will be better for us ?
OhOh...one more thing: congratulations to all the teams that won today (Poland, above all ;->, Russia, Argentina, USA etc.)

Never mind my previous comment,it's all good now ?
@pearl,that's why I was surprised that Bira was out.There's no way Berutto hasn't noticed Fei is rusty as a MB at practices,so why did he leave out the more experienced player(Bira),instead of Butti?

Cool ? Thanks,vViktor ?

@proud: just to be precise, the correct name is BUTI and not Butti; BIRARELLI and not Birareli; and BERRUTO and not Berutto ? I can understand your difficulty with Italian names' spelling ?

Sorry,will try to be correct next time ?

thanks for the link?

@pearl: Bira got a little problem at right shoulder

He can't rotate well, so he can still play but opposite player know he can't attack so is better if we (Italy) play whit another MB for 1 or 2 match