Hall of Fame: Lorenzo Bernardi

Il migliore di tutti i tempi! ;) l'orgoglio italiano!

Player of the Century A history of gold for this player

lol That's what drama means really.

HCLT: sooner or later we'll have to have a good jaw about Italy before Julio and after Julio and why that team in the 90s was so strong. But maybe in private, not here ;)

The first matches are from my channel :d

Nightfox, as Pearl already informed, I have my own collection, but you can find those aforementioned matches (almost full VT) on YouTube. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH1IJYN_cFw&feature=related Netherlands 3:2 Italy, 1996 Atlanta gold medal match

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK-aus_1OY0&feature=related Brazil 3:0 Netherlands, 1992 Barcelona gold medal match

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbqbwyKtm9w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YADYdJvVg9E Netherlands 3:2 Italy (divided in two parts), 1992 Barcelona quarterfinals

Pearl, certainly something was missing, but I wouldn’t blame Julio Velasco for that. He put Italy on a level “il tifosi” could only dream before him. I remember the team before him, it was a huge change.

NightFox: i think he was referring to his "private collection" of DVDs ;)

HCLT where did you watch that Dutch final ? Can you share ?

HCLT: i didn't remember this episode of the guy trying to punch Zwerver...but i'm not surprised, i mean I remember Ron was a fantastic opposite but not exactly the nicest person in the world :) As regards Italy's incapability of winning a gold Olimpic medal, honestly the only big chance was with the 1992 team: if that squad wasn't able to do it, no other ever will. I don't think they weren't mentally tough enough (the same team won everything except OG, you can't do it if your mind is weak).

Pearl, all teams have their bad moments. Remember the Dutch squad that won Atlanta 1996, they were fighting among themselves in the final match – you may remember one of the young guys trying to punch Zwerver. Watching Team Italy in Barcelona 1992 again, make me think they were also exhausted, which reinforces the idea of bad preparation. If they were physically well, they could overcome other issues. Just my opinion. Maybe in the end they were not that tough mentally, as they arrived three times at the Olympics as the main favourites and never reached the gold.

HCLT: maybe part of that bad result depends on what you wrote about wrong preparation, BUT Barcelona was in Italy's mind (and in Julio's mainly): it had been in their minds for the previous two years...it was an obsession, for them and for us!! What i perfectly remember though, is some players' faces when the tournaments began and the voices about the very bad atmosphere around and inside the team (and Vullo had a relevant part in the whole story).

Pearl, IMO Italy made a wrong preparation. If you remember well, Italy had won the two first editions of WL (1990 and 1991) and was the main favourite for Barcelona Olympics in 1992. However, the 1992 WL had a different schedule, totally crazy. The pool play was scheduled before the Olympics and the finals would be held after Barcelona Games were over. A real mess! IMO, Italy made a huge preparation mistake as they focused on the WL, thinking they could sustain the level for the Olympics. The other teams (Brazil, Netherlands, Russia, Cuba and USA) had Barcelona on their minds. When the Olympics started, we saw an unbalanced Italian squad. Remember the results? Before falling short in quarterfinals in one of the most amazing clashes I ever saw, against the Dutch, Italy had lost 1-3 to USA, and struggled to beat France and Canada. Saying of that match against Netherlands, I just saw again that tie-break (this topic made me want to watch it again). Remember the rules back then? The game had to finish at 17, so when Vullo served at 16-16 we all knew that was the last play. His serve was a gift to the Dutch, who won the match – Selinger was teasing the Italians after that. At 14-14, when Bernardi missed an easy float serve, I remember thinking, “the Dutch will win”. Other teams were victim of bad preparation, too. We have several examples, like France in Athens 2004. It’s even worse when a strong squad is victim of some food poisoning, like Serbia in 2004. Oh, later in 1992 Italy won its third title at World League, but nobody cares. Everybody was focusing the Olympics and I think that title had a bitter taste for Italians, as the other teams were playing with almost no interest, still recovering from Barcelona. It was like, “we took the wrong route”.

Ray: we didn't lose OG because of our defeat from Netherlands (that deserved victory and then medal); we lost those OG from the first match, 'cause the team was broken inside, 'cause there was a lot of tension among some players, 'cause Julio made the only one big mistake he did throughout his whole experience on Italy's bench: he paid heed to public opinion instead of going on with his own vision of the team and the game.

Italy lost from Netherlands in 5 sets, from equal opponent in equal game, it can happen to anyone

"Behind Lorenzo's performance, Italy finished in fifth-place at the 1992 Olympic Games": we could open a specific topic here to discuss why Italy played so bad the 1992 OG :(

the best coach of Polish League in this year :)

The coach of Jastrzebski is a true multitalent, one of the best players ever and an awesome coach!