pesazi

And Wlazly was awarded MVP at the CL F4

Sorry, I didn't get it. Do you mean Raphael will stay in Trento and De Cecco wants to play in Trento even if Rapha stays? Do you have any sources for that?

You're right, I actually did misunderstand you in your thoughts about Trento's system.
If the rumors about Monza are true, what I'm not sure about because I heard different things, I still don't see the reason why you think they should let Sokolov play as a wing spiker and Conte as opposite. To me it sounds more logical to take either Sokolov or Stokr as an opposite and let Conte play on his used position, even if he plays opposite sometimes.
In general, I don't like the switch from opposite to wing spiker that much. Sokolov's case reminds me of Grozer, who did the same. He had a decent reception and could have continued as a wing spiker, but in the end he didn't because he simply has the mentality and the talent to be even better as an opposite. Sokolov has such a talent, I don't like the idea to make him change the position.

As for Djuric, I don't know about the legal position, but two additional citizenships within six years is definitely special.

@champion: You think the third wing spiker/opposite would be Kaziyski? I know you said "hypothetically", but seriously, I don't see any sense in this. Why would you like to have three at most average receivers on the court and turn an opposite into a wing spiker, without getting any advantage from it? Moreover you would bench Stokr.
Also it's hard for the setter to alternate between two opposites. I was surprised when Copra tried it, now I am sure that this system will not be seen in any top club these days.

@Jurij-kk: whatsoever, a reliable opposite is absolutely essential in today's game. Plus I think Zlatanov and Marshall fit better in this role than Savani and Zaytsev do. Imho Macerata would make a crucial error in not taking full advantage of Trento's weakness by showing up with such experiments.

If that's true, this would be an awful plan by Macerata. There are good reasons why the game gets more and more specialised, and Copra already failed with the same system. Btw, what will happen with Omrcen? Did I miss something?

Zaytsev does exactly the right thing. In Macerata he plays next to Travica and has a better coach than Stoychev. Plus, Macerata is more balanced, with can only be helpful for a young player to make further progress.
In my opinion, there are good chances that Trento will not only lose their dominance at international competitions, but will also have problems in the A1 withhout Juantorena and probably Raphael. With Zaytsev and the right system, Macerata will definitely be able to be the better team.

@ Zyta: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTHd1y7T2Aw

This is a short cut of the match, including the scene in which players and fans pay tribute to Bovolenta. Even when the match had started, Grbic and Zlatanov were moved to tears. Touching scene.

@ Nagor, hey you should become politician. You responded to every point in a polemic way without even proving one of them wrong, lol. You have a talent as a discourser.

Todorov
Podrascanin
Hubner

Murilo Endres
Michal Winiarski
Maksim Mihaylov

So you think that Todorov and Podrascanin are among the top three blockers of all time or what? Podrascanin is very good and has the potential and the years to get even better. Stankovic is the better overall MB, but we're only talking about blocking and Marko has the advantage here.
Todorov... I know you guys think he is the next bulgarian star with his 527cm reach... sorry, Todorov might have talent and is on a streak in the Superliga at the moment, but so far he has proven nothing. Yes he is high and still young, but there are tons of young talented players. But not every country hypes his talents as Bulgaria and Poland. He has the physics, hopefully for Bulgaria he can add some technique in the future.

As for your list with outside hitters, it's hart to compare outside hitters in blocking, because teams design their block/defense differently. Some outside hitters observe the hits of the opponent and go for glory, reaching in the direction they anticipate the attack. Others just try to cover a certain space of their court, relying on their defense to come up with digs.
I'm surprised that nobody mentioned Kurek so far. I'm not his biggest fan, but his blocking is outstanding.

In my list I referenced MB solely for blocking ability.

About the list of fame, where are Kazakov and Kuleshov?

Don't know. Maybe they are still in the air trying to block the middle attack, while the pass is on the way to the outside, lol.

Well, it's as always. Everybody names his own favorite from his club or his country, and in the end every middle blocker out there is on the list. I just wonder if it's only the disability to be objective, or the lack of knowledge. I really had to laugh about some names mentioned. M_G already made a good comment about the different blocking situations.

If there was something like a Hall of Fame in volleyball, there are only few middles since 2000 that should be named: Gustavo, Hübner, Geric, Lebl, Mastrangelo and Simon. Maybe Rodrigao.
Before 2000, there were great middle blockers too, as pearl e.g. mentioned Gardini and Posthuma. In general, it's hard to compare the players from this time to those today, because the game became much faster.

In a few years we can talk about Muserskiy or Lucas.

Btw, honorable mentions go to José, Apalikov and Egortchev. Gotta love those undersized players, who rule by pure skill and volleyball IQ.

Okay folks, let's get this topic back on track.

Friedrichshafen vs. Kazan, that's an easy guess. With Venno (and even more important Böhme as middle) there would've been a slight chance for the Germans due to that stupid golden set rule. During the pool stage they defeated Kazan. The Russians suffer from Volkov's absence, young Gutsalyuk can't close this gap. Regarding Friedrichshafen's current situation, playing without both opposites and putting a starter from the middle position on the opposite instead, makes the whole thing an impossible mission.

Izmir vs. Novosibirsk, a little bit more difficult. There's no doubt about the Russians being stronger, individually and as a team. But since the golden set rule gives the hometeam such a huge advantage, Izmir still has a chance. They won all matches at home so far, which should give them some confidence, even though they didn't host any topteam. Agamez and Joao Bravo having a good day will be essential.
Novosibirsk already played in Turkey during the pool stage, crushing Fenerbace 3-0. They are a good example for the new russian mentality. A very good setter along with fast wingspikers and Sanchez as opposite are hard to beat for every team left in the competition. If they manage to advance to the F4, which they should, they really can make a run and cause a surprise.

Trentino vs. Macerata, the top match. The recent matches between those teams gave a good impression what's gonna happen: If Macerata is able to put on pressure with their serves, what they will definitely try, and don't start to choke as seen during the italian cup, they can win the match. In this case it will be for Juantorena and Stokr to keep Trentino in the match. If Macerata doesn't play on their limit, we will see a blowout.
In case of a golden set, it's hard to make a prediction. Both team proved to be able to win a tiebreak. Still, I would bet on Trentino in this case.

NXT, you are asking for arguments? Henrique listed several things like Zagumny couldn't make the difference and was not able to bring the Poles anywhere near the level of the Brazilians. The only person who doesn't even try to argue is you. Instead you're trying it with polemic, not being good a this. Imo Zagumny is a good setter, Polands best. He might also be the best in PlusLiga at the moment, but that's close. Compared to others, especially Ricardo, Zagumny looks very ordinary. Ricardo opened up a gap of skill, that nobody could close til now. If you want to judge Zagumny, you have to measure him by Ricardo's level. Then he suddenly looks mediocre. I think that's what Henrique is saying.

I'm gonna produce a movie, starring Dineykin as the russian bad guy. If Arnie doesn't want to play the good guy, I'll ask Baranov. He looks like Conan anyway. Btw, Grbic and Vujevic are one of the greatest wingspiker duo ever.

our team since 2006 is on level for medals in every competition, just bad coaching and shape of players lead to this results, helped a lot with some teams cheating in the last two years on WL2010, WCH2010, WL2011 final round and ECH2011 group stage.

Seems like the whole universe gangs up against Bulgaria.

We are medal quality because:.....

Maybe you don't even make it to London because:
1) Bulgaria is an unbalanced team. Kaziyski is able to kill all kinds of balls, and Nikolov always delivers. If not, Sokolov can pull off a great match if he finds his rhythm. No complains here, but:
Zhekov is not close to the level of the opponent's setter. The passing unit is average at most. Even if the outside hitters can fix it quite often, it's hard to make a living out of it.
Aleksiev can't deliver anymore. Don't know why he's still playing.
The middles are not bad, but nothin special either. Definitely worse than the Brazils, Russians, Italians, Serbians and even the Poles.
2) Kaziyski's and Nikolov's best days are gone. Sokolov's shape could be really important.
3) Bulgaria's weak mentality. Not much to add here, I think even the bulgarian fans agree.
4) Bad coaching. Raylight, you mentioned coaching as a pro-argument. In the beginning of your comment you mentioned bad coaching to justify the bad results since 2006?!
Whatsoever, Stoychev won some titles with Trentino, but that team rules by overpowering other teams, not relying much on tactics. I don't see any great impact of Stoychev.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with seeing Bulgaria in London, though their style is not too entertaining and sometimes the fans scare me, lol. But I would grant Nikolov and Kaziyski playing there.

Did you guys know that Wilt Chamberlain tried to compete as a professional volleyball player after ending his NBA career? Guess what, he sucked at it. And he was way higher than Menzel or Marshall.
Pure height doesn't mean much. Menzel really has to work on his game, if he wants to have a chance in one of the bigger leagues.
@raylight: You can't compare your pics to Menzel's. Especially Leon only seems to be high because of the camera angle.

@belgiumvolley: Favorite to win the championchip in Russia this year is definitely Kazan. Even Odintsovo would be my favourite in a series against Novosibirsk. Still, they have a good team and play some really attracktive volleyball.

Why do I have to repeat myself over and over again... By calling a player like Zlatanov, Kaziyski or Kurek uncomplete, one-sided or whatever you call it, that doesn't mean I call them a bad player. Everybody, me included recognises their abilities. I know very well, that those players can make the difference on the court by scoring difficult balls.

Zyta, I would have expected something better too. But the stats don't show everything. If a team has an outside hitter as main scorer, opponents often target on him with hard jump serves to break his rhythm in attack. And some players cover a bigger part of the court in receiving than others. Btw that is no excuse for Zlatanov. Next to Marra and Papi, is is for sure not the main receiver.

Oh please, I really didn't want to restart this discussion about complete or uncomplete players.
Raylight, of course being tall doesn't mean automatically being a bad receiver, Konstantinov is the best example, no doubt.
But being tall means being slower than small players because of your higher balance point. Standing tall, means that tall players have to bend down more to receive jump serves. In general tall players are not as mobile. You will always find exceptions.

ehm... I guess you know the impact of talent and natural given ball-handling skills. Savani and Zlatanov are totally different types.

To verify my talking, I just checked out the statistics from Serie A this year. Zlatanov was and still is a great player, but his reception is only decent. By far the worst of his team(Papi rocks!), worse than Kaziyski and Juantorena. Btw Savani has the worst reception of all of them, which surprises me.

Are you serious? To me he always seemed to be one of those big outside hitters, without reception and defense, relying on high passes. Maybe I'm wrong, I already showed up with my lack of knowledge about italian players once in this discussion. But I just cannot belive that a man with his stature has also skills in reception and defense... Maybe we should continue our fight in pm's... polaco kids or matey freaks could be annoyed.