pearl TOP 500

@Kjeldhor: la musica è un filo "lugubre" ti pare? Sarà che non esco pazza per i Carmina Burana... anyway, the service made the difference Yesterday: Piacenza was more effective and consistent than Lube. Great match, lots of beautiful rallies and a bit of magic by Il Mago De Cecco. Lovely!

Dedicated to those who think it's not Worth watching Serie A anymore ;)

@casamodena: I cannot imagine a person in the Whole world as happy as you are now mate ?

Bellissimo video Kjeld!! I would only change the title "Macerata destroys Cuneo": Cuneo is perfectly able to destroy itself by itself this year.

@voleifuturo: obrigada pelo video.

@hanus: yes, Zaytsev is usually a beast but he wasn't on that occasion. Vettori was! I was there for the F4 and my impression was that Ivo missed his chance whereas Luca hit the mark. Too much pressure on Zizzo's shoulders maybe. Anyway, Russia was great: every single player (except Spiridonov) showed his best, Musersky was superb. Italy tried to fight but they made too many mistakes (when serving mainly) and playing with Parodi and Savani half injured didn't help them. The funniest thing was that at a certain point, the match was Russia vs Vettori cause he was the only one able to score.

Lube was simply perfect: Zaytsev (who's the new captain) was impressive, as well as Potke and Stankovic. I liked Kurek a lot even though his performance was excellent on attack but not so good on reception and service, but I'm sure he'll improve. Kovar is slowly recovering his shape (but I hope Parodi will be ready to play as a starter quickly). My personal praise, though, goes to Michele Baranowicz who managed the game and all his teammates brilliantly: smart choices, very few mistakes, Always in control and great vision of the game, bravo!! As for Zenit: it wasn't easy for them especially because the chemistry between Grbic and his new teammates is still (obviously) lacking and some players (mikhailov and apalikov mainly) didn't show their best.

@Wilfredo_is_Marshall: number 9 is Francesco De Marchi.

@Someone: I agree.

@eRKa: Kubiak - song for a video about him "Be a man" by the Hole

No way! Haka in Rugby makes sense but it definitely doesn't work here!

@HCLT: you underestimate my knowledge of Volleyball History, pfiiiiiiiiiii

@shinoda: Claudio Di Coste, spiker, 2.07 cm. The setter (n.5) is Francesco "Pupo" Dall'Olio who played in Serie A until he was 43 years old. That Italian Squad of 1978 is known as "il Gabbiano d'argento" (the Silver Seagull).

This match is kind of a milestone for the Italian volleyball: it was the last time Italy was defeated by Cuba in a big international tournament. Cuba had always been Italy’s thorn in the flesh until then with the Azzurri unable to defeat the Cubans until the WCH final in 1990. Velasco has often talked about this match and the so-called "Cuban taboo" when journalists and fans asked him about the Worlds final in 1990 and what had changed between that match and the previous ones; he said he told his players that there are no invincible teams, each match is a different story, and once you are on the court if you think your opponents are invincible just because you've always lost by them, then you'll never win! So the first step towards the victory is to have winning and successful mentality. That World Championship final ended 3-1 for the Azzurri and from that moment on they reversed the situation by becoming Cuba’s bete noire.

@HCLT: This was the first occasion for me to see Bulgaria this summer. The main difference between the 2 teams was that Bulgaria kept concentration and stayed focused throughout the whole match. Abbondanza asked his girls to play simple and tidy, and that’s what they did: they had very good reception and we all know that when reception works all the rest goes the same way. In addition to that I saw a smart and balanced distribution of the attack play (5 players with more than 10 points scored each, Rabadzhieva 16, S.Filipvoa 14, 13 Vasileva, Nikolova 12 Ruseva 10). Bulgarian block worked well too. Brazil on the other hand couldn’t rely on some of their best gunners (especially Fe Garay, she really had a very bad day) and, as you remarked, I think there must be some kind of problem with Sheilla still far from her best condition, 0 points scored and just a pale shadow of the stunning opposite we all know she is.

@Wilfredo: officially he's 194 cm, actually I think he's 1.91 not a cm more. Yet cms were of no importance at all 'cause his technique was superb. The best Italian opposite after Zorzi (and along with Giani when he played in this position).

Henrique, Henrique, you're ageing my friend. If you read my post carefully you'll notice that I wrote that the podium in World League 1991 was the same as the podium in World Championship 1990... so i didn't make any mistake ?

As for Ronnie Zoodsma: of course I remember him. He played in Montichiari for 3 or 4 years. Anyway Dutch MBs were all great.

Epic match! I’m sure my friend Henrique has it in his collection. Italy’s line up in this video wasn’t the actual starting 6: Margutti and Giani weren’t on court from the start (Cantagalli and Bernardi were). The turning key of the match was Margutti, who replaced Bernardi during the third set and he was capable of sounding the charge his team-mates needed. The peculiarity in WL 1991 was that the podium was the same as in WCH 1990: 1st Italy, 2nd Cuba, 3rd URSS. P. S. Zwerver and Klok are completely bald now :D

Creo que la única manera de ver la liga argentina es a través de streaming .... y tampoco estoy segura de eso! @ HCLT: Creo que es realmente Waldo Kantor. Si vas al primer tiempo técnico (00:14:12) se vee bastante bien su cara mientras que él habla y a mi me parece que es él... no ha cambiado mucho desde los días cuando jugaba en Italia (hace muchos años), en Catania junto con Hugo Conte ;)