Hi volleyball fans and welcome back to Volley
Talk, the podcast created for volleyball lovers
who want to dig deep into what is going on in
NCAA and international volleyball. I'm your host
Sarah Pavan. I'm an Olympian, beach volleyball
world champion, former Nebraska Cornhusker, and
longtime pro both indoor and on the beach. And
I'm Adam Schultz, former indoor player, international
volleyball coach, and the show's resident stat
guy. PNL 2025. In the books. It's officially
over. We made it. And Poland is our gold medal
winner. They did it in a pretty dominant fashion
as well. They did not drop one set all week.
It was impressive to watch. Wild stuff. We should
have known, you know, as we've seen in the men's
game forever. Very little went the way we thought
it would. And I think even more surprising than
the results were how one -sided a lot of the
matches were. We usually see a lot of men's games
go five, but we did not see that once. We did
not see that once, which is very rare. So today's
focus is on what went down in the men's VNL Final
Eight in China. So let's get started. We have
some weekly happenings and highlights this week,
everybody. How exciting. Let's hear it. Okay,
first up, because for whatever reason, they decide
not to... award these in the moment which is
you have to wait for them after wild but the
women's vnl dream team was announced let's break
it down okay okay best setter alessia oro no
no contest she's fantastic and i didn't think
the brazilian setters played particularly well
comparatively no i don't think it could have
gone anybody else Best opposite, Paola Egonu.
I think it's a little bit on reputation. She's
just like, whenever there's an award to be won,
she's at the top of the list. Yeah, and she's
earned the right to be there. But to me, she
chose during this V &L. when she wanted to show
up. When she showed up and when you could tell
she was engaged. For me watching her, I can tell
whether she cares about this match or whether
she's like, nah, whatever. I know I have a really
good backup coming up if I get pulled. And no
athlete thinks that way. I realize that. But
you can just kind of see it. There's a difference
in the intensity to how she plays when she needs
to be on and when she's not. And when she was
on, she was very good. I mean, the only person
that I think maybe could have been a consideration
other than her, is her counterpart, Entropova.
But given that Egonu is the one who starts, I
mean, it's hard to make an argument to give it
to Entropova when she comes off the bench. But
given how Entropova played in the final, I thought
she gave herself a chance. You could have given
the final MVP to Entropova, but not VNL best
opposite. Fair. Best outside hitters were Miriam
Silla from Italy and Gabi from Brazil. Yep. That's
fair. I mean, Gabi is always very good. I thought
Silla had a good final week. She had some ups
and downs during the VNL itself, but she was
good in the finals. I mean, these awards always
go to the teams that medal or are in the semifinals.
Like, you're not going to see anybody out of
that. unless they are just putting up the most
astronomical numbers you have ever seen in your
life that you can't even deny it. So if we're
looking at the top four teams, maybe you could
make an argument for an Ishikawa. But they came
fourth. So coming fourth completely ruined their
possibilities. The left side's for Poland. While
I thought they played strong in the finals, like
the final week, they weren't as good as these
two all the way through. Yeah, and I would say
for Ishikawa, she is incredibly skilled, but
she doesn't have the same pop that these two
have. And so it makes it really tough, rightly
or wrongly, for her to win this award. Best middle
blockers, Julia Kudais from Brazil and Anieszka
Korneluk from Poland. I take a little bit of
issue with this one. I think Julia deserves the
award because she set a VNL record. And she was
good. She was consistent. If you're going to
rack up that many blocks, you should get an acknowledgement
for that. Kornelik, I mean, you had to give Poland
a nod. And you had to put at least one of their
players on there. You're not going to give Stiszak
best opposite over Igonu. No, it's not going
to happen. Your setter is not going to beat out
Oro. Your left sides are not going to beat out
the two that were... And in fairness, she had...
One particularly very good match. She blocked
well in the final week. You know, am I taking
her over far if I'm picking a team? Even based
off the performance from that week? No. I understand
why she's on the list. She's not. If we were
taking out, like, you can't just give Italian
players the whole. Yeah, the Italians just sweep
the table. They're like, our starting lineup
is the best in every single position. Good luck.
You know, which is possible. And I read a lot
of comments online talking about, like, tournament
stats and kills and points and blocks. And the
thing that you have to remember is that Italy
wins in three very often. That's the thing that
people don't think about. Total numbers of stats.
is is not a good determinant of how well those
players played so julia got i think it was like
46 or 47 blocks in the tournament 63 what was
the 63 okay my apologies and and that is hugely
impressive brazil played a lot of five setters
give me the the set stats yes how many blocks
per set how many kills per set how many points
per set because like yeah that is the point that
nobody ever thinks about like nobody cares about
the total And on the flip side, the one argument
you can make for Konelek is her importance to
her team. So if you take her out of Poland's
roster, like their block, one then matches. If
you took Farr out and put in somebody who was
slightly less better than her, Italy's still
going to be very good. So, I mean, I understand.
I can reason behind it. Am I taking her over
Farr? No. I mean, yeah, you can't medal in VNL
and have zero players. We also had a lot of people
upset at how good we think the Italian middles
are. They do things away from the ball that are
just... So good. They make life absolutely miserable
for opposing hitters. I'm a huge fan. And we're
going to get to doing our top five players in
each position after Worlds for men and women.
And we can get into it there. We'll see. But,
you know, we'll save that for a later episode.
Finally, Beth Libero, Monica DeGennaro. Hands
down. Who else are you going to pick? Spectacular.
The crazy thing, which you do not see every day,
is Dagenaro won MVP. Do you think that was earned
or deserved? You never see Liberos win an MVP
because they're performing fewer skills, I guess.
Oh, and it's not a flashy position. It's not
a flashy position. If you're noticing the libero
on the court, they're usually doing something
wrong. It's usually not for good reasons. You
don't want to notice. You usually see the opposite
or the point -scoring left side be the MVP. I
think in this case, Egonu was a little inconsistent
and got swapped out with Antropova so much, it
would have been hard to name her the MVP. I agree.
And I think maybe you could make an argument
for Oro. Yeah, probably either or. And those
two kind of go in tandem for me. And the one
thing I will say is that she passes a ton of
court and she stabilizes that defense and she
takes so much responsibility when she plays that
she limits what other players have to do on the
court, allowing them to be more effective. watching
her she boosts the performance of the players
around her because she's so good and you really
have to pay attention to it but she's a player
multiplier i like to call them very rare though
yeah like this is almost unheard of which is
very interesting but yeah i like to see it yeah
i mean the i mean the awards are i don't think
they're really missed boys u19 world championships
happened Over the last couple weeks, but they
finished up this weekend. So we had France winning
gold. They beat Poland in four. And then Spain
actually won bronze. They beat Iran in five.
So France, Poland, Spain were on the podium for
the boys' U19 World Championships. U23 Women's
Pan Am Cup. Was also happening. They finished
up in Mexico with USA dominating Canada 3 -0
in the final. And Mexico came third. It was not
close. No. And USA and Mexico played in the other
semi. And I think that one went to five. So I
heard that was a very, very close game. So maybe
the final should have been USA -Mexico. From
all intents and purposes, I think that was probably
the match for gold. Canada didn't hit 20 in any
set. No. It wasn't competitive. And then the
U23 Men's Pan Am Cup is also happening as we
record this, and the U .S. is in the final with
TBD. It was either Dominican or Mexico. Let me
tell you, they do not care about updating their
website, and I wasn't about to go searching everywhere
on social media. We'll see what happens. The
U .S. is in the final. And probably going to
win that one. Look at that. We had a few things
to talk about this week before we dive in, but...
Here we go. Let's get started talking about these
VNL men's final eight matches. I can't wait.
All right. In match one, we saw Italy defeating
Cuba 3 -1. Going into this match, I think Adam
said that it was the one he was most excited
about a couple weeks ago. Am I remembering that?
That is a correct statement. I have several statements
from the last episode that I'd like to recant.
Me too. We were pretty confident. We'll see what
happens. But nothing went the way we thought,
so yeah. I didn't expect Cuba to win, but I thought
it would be a little bit better of a match. So
a couple things that were just glaringly evident
to me is that Cuba's skilled positions, such
as Libero and Setter, Italy's were just in a
class of their own, and it was painfully obvious.
Yeah. So, I mean, that was kind of the starting
point for it not going super well for Cuba. Also,
you saw a lot of Cuba starters not make it through
the match. Actually, their bench came in and
played really well. Masso struggled. He went
three kills, four errors, got the yank. You had
Lopez started, didn't finish the match. Yant,
he was good in the set they won. but couldn't
play consistently. So, for example, in the first
set, he was two kills, three errors on nine attacks.
They didn't win. That was the closest set that
they lost. In the second set, he was all world.
He went six for seven, and Cuba won. And then
after that, it was kind of downhill for Cuba.
So, I mean, Cuba didn't pass particularly well.
They're players who needed to be good. didn't
step up in the moment they didn't have a true
opposite i don't think that they were putting
themselves in a position to be successful like
you said their passing was struggling which is
accurate but like yant was trapped a lot yeah
and that's where the setting yeah you know italy
is coming over and over and over again they are
consistently putting you under pressure and i
thought the setter really struggled to give hittable
balls. They couldn't run their middle, which
quite frankly is their strength. Simon still
played pretty well. Well, Concepcion kind of
looked out of his depth blocking -wise, which
we haven't seen. He's usually making big moves,
and Italy was just coming at you from all directions.
He looked a little out of his element. And he
couldn't score either. So I think because he
was feeling overwhelmed offensively, he wasn't
much of a threat. So it was a little lopsided.
And you didn't really see Cuba find their swagger,
which is kind of what they need to play well.
And Italy just never gave them a chance to get
there. Except for, you know, Yant for one set
who was feeling himself. It was disappointing.
I was hoping to see the Cuba from week three.
But that's what Italy does to teams, right? They're
just so consistent. It just looked like Cuba
didn't think that they were going to beat them.
Yeah, that was, I think if Cuba would have played.
a different team in the quarter, it would have
been a little different. You would have seen
a different Cuba, but I think that was the worst
matchup for them. Semifinal number two, Brazil
beat China 3 -1. So I'm not going to spend a
ton of time talking about Brazil yet because
we're going to talk about them kind of throughout
the episode because they ended up playing three
games. Yeah. And I have a lot to say. But China
was better than I thought they would be. I think,
so two things. I thought there were actually
a couple standout players for China. I thought
their libero was unbelievably good in that match.
I thought that their right side, Wen, was also
incredibly good. He scored a ton of points. And
I thought their coach was incredibly entertaining.
I thought their coach was realistic, which I
appreciated. Going in, he was like, you know
what? This is their first finals. They need to
learn to compete at this level. They've never
been here before. I just want them to go out
and fight. Brazil got out to a 5 -1 lead in set
one, and I was like, yikes. This is not good.
But it ended up becoming 7 -7 in that set. China
won the first set, and you could see them start
to gain a little confidence. You could see them
starting to really go for it on their attacks.
I agree, their libero was unreal. At the same
time, I kind of felt like Brazil thought they
were going to roll over them. Which happened
to a couple teams in the quarters. Yeah. Getting
out to a 5 -1 lead against China, who you already
think you're going to crush, it probably wasn't
great because it took Brazil a second to regain
some momentum. But China fought. They went for
it. And even though they lost the next three,
the sets were close. Yeah, China played. That
was probably their best game of the VNL from
what I saw. competing they were executing things
that they needed to they were making pretty good
decisions i mean they're not as clean and consistent
as the teams that are at the top obviously but
i wasn't sure how they were going to handle the
moment they've never been in these big competitions
they're in a final they're at home like that
match could have been ugly it could have been
25, 16, 14, and 15. And it wasn't. And they won
a set, and they gave the home crowd something
to watch. It was exciting. I was really impressed
with the product that they were able to put on
the floor. And I really liked their coach. Honestly,
he has personality, okay? And just even at the
end of the game, he was so good -natured. come
out and beat Brazil. And I think everybody knew
that, but like he knew that. So the fact that
he was able to rally his team and get them to
fight and get them to believe in themselves while
understanding that the likelihood of them actually
winning was very slim. I appreciate that so much
because they could have come out and just have
been resigned to their fate. And again, it's
sport. Anything can happen. I'm not saying. that
it was impossible, but just his statements of
how proud he was of them. And I think it lays
a really good foundation for them moving forward.
Yeah, I agree. And, you know, he set realistic
goals. It wasn't, and he wasn't afraid to say
them out loud, which I also appreciate. Like,
hey, you know, we want to get to 2020 and see
what happens. We want to stay with them. We want
to be competitive. And I appreciate that honesty
and those stated objectives. And knowing where
you are. And I think it's especially important
to understand what the objectives are when you're
outclassed like that. And that's just the reality
of the situation. And they did stick with them.
They did. Until like 17 -17 in all the sets.
And then Brazil just pushed back. Yeah, and they
have more experience. I will say, though, that
the issues that Brazil had in this match against
China persisted throughout. And we'll talk about
them a little bit more. But, you know, you probably
should have used that match to tighten up some
of those things. Well, I thought they were going
to. I was like, okay, they've, you know, maybe
they weren't as focused as they should be. Maybe
the jet lag coming from Brazil was insane. I
don't even know if they came from Brazil or if
they trained somewhere else. No, they stayed
in Japan. Oh, my gosh. Okay. Forget that. But,
like. I was like, okay, they got by this one,
but they'll tighten it up. And I agree. Quarterfinal
three. Slovenia beat France 3 -1. I did not see
this coming. I thought this match was really
interesting. So Slovenia dug in and extended
rallies maybe more than I've ever seen in men's
volleyball to date. They did not let the ball
hit the floor. And they ground out an impressive
first set win against France in this match. And
I will say the right side, Stern, for Slovenia
was unbelievably good in this match. And that
was a huge win in that set. And it was interesting,
you saw in the second set, France came out and
absolutely kicked the snot out of Slovenia. And
while they were winning, They were kind of laughing
about how badly they were beating Slovenia. There
was this arrogance about them that was more than
just confidence in how good they are. And don't
get me wrong, you can earn your confidence, and
France has every right to have that confidence.
But they were laughing at plays that kind of
went their way in that set. It almost felt to
me... Like we're going to win this no matter
what after they beat them so badly in the second
set. And Slovenia did not go away. And France
could not find their rhythm in sets three and
four. And it cost them. And I believe it started
with that almost flippant attitude that they
were supposed to win that quarter. That is the
read I got watching that match. Expected more
from France. Their middles were not... For me,
their middles were not running as well as usual.
Everything just seemed a little more dimmed,
I guess, than I expected. Nothing was sharp for
France. They made 41 errors to Slovenia's 17
over those four sets. I'm sorry. They gave up
over 10 points on average a set against Slovenia.
And Slovenia's... No joke. They might not have
the quote unquote individual firepower that France
has, but they play as a team and they will wear
you down. And France did not come prepared to
compete at that level, in my opinion. Well, they
play a similar style. You know, their players
are crafty. They work the shots. They're not
afraid to mix it up. Switch the tempos. They
run fast offense. Both of them have really solid
liberos. But, like, Slovenia doesn't have, like,
the star power, I would say. Like, their setter
does not. He plays in Slovenia. And he plays.
He has played for, like, smaller clubs. Like,
it's not like these guys are going out. Obviously,
some of them are. But they're not, like. signing
these huge contracts like a Brizard or you know
guys like that but I thought the way that they
ran their pipe was virtually unstoppable well
their middles are so good their middles are so
big they're physical honestly they could run
them more but running having those middles with
the pipe over top that was virtually unstoppable
I thought Mojic was So good. You mentioned Stern.
Stern hit over 500 on the match. But Mojic was
like they showed up and they just like did their
job when they needed to make the sub. Their subs
came in and did a really nice job as well. Like
they were able to benefit off of every change
they made. Their coach didn't try to do anything
sneaky with the timeouts like we saw in week
three. He just like let them play. And for me,
like, yeah, I love Klevno. I love Brizard. I
loved how Four has been playing all tournament.
Grabennikov, I thought Grabennikov played very
well. His setting, you guys, if this man was
not a setter in a past life, I don't know. Somebody
tell me, was he a setter in youth? Because, man,
running tempo, running back sets across the court
in tempo, I was like, oh, my gosh, hello. So
Grebennikov was the best player for France for
me. Agreed. But their middle struggled. The way
that Klevno did nothing. Klevno hit zero in set
three and hit minus 300 in set four. Luati hit
minus 250 in set three. He hit 300 in set four.
They didn't have two players have a good set
other than set two where they were. spectacular
so if you take set two out of their statistics
for the batch their outside hitters were not
good well this might be a hot take but i thought
brisard kind of sewered his hitters a bunch i
didn't think he played particularly well either
like he was setting some balls that were like
really tight and then pretty far off and granted
he made some spectacular plays because he just
does But in between those spectacular plays,
like the run -of -the -mill plays, I found him
to be a little more inconsistent than I'm used
to. Well, and with Slovenia's middles as physical
as they are and as disciplined on the block as
they are, that made life really miserable for
the French outside hitters. So that was a big
shock. This match was... I thought it was going
to be much, A, much more competitive, but B,
that France... in bringing a lot of their big
boys, which they didn't even use Chin and Yeze,
by the way. Like, why? Okay, I understand Patry
got sick and had to go home, whatever, but Far
has been, like, holding it down all V &L. Anyway.
I mean, we talked about Slovenia being the team
that makes you beat them, and France did not
beat them. They didn't play well enough, and
that's what happens when you play a team like
Slovenia who just doesn't give up. All of their
outside hitters, all of their players played
particularly well. They all had a match. And
when that happens, they're very, very good. Okay,
our final quarterfinal. Poland beat Japan three
straight. I didn't expect three straight. I was
curious. Every time a Japanese team plays, we
talked about it in the women's side when Japan
played Turkey. Are Japan's strengths going to
be able to overcome their weaknesses and their
opponents' weaknesses? In this case, not even
close. Their serving was awful to me. Well, they
made 17 errors in three sets, which by men's
standard is not, I mean, it's a lot, but it's
not a lot, a lot. But when they weren't, They
weren't applying any pressure. Poland was in
system. It seemed like the whole match. You're
not going to compete at the net with Poland when
they're in system. I'm sorry. So, like, rip it.
Yeah. They did not find a serving rhythm at all.
And if Poland has a weakness, it's that scene
between Leon and Fornell. Or between Leon and
anybody. Well, yeah. The sideline. I mean, you
can expose him in that way, and they didn't do
that. No. No. The number of balls that the other
guys passed, other than Leon, I was like, come
on. And that had to have been the serving strategy.
Like, what are you doing? Yeah. Because the pull
in Libero is unbelievably good. You've got to
have him not touch the ball. And Fornell is an
all -around great player. Yeah. I thought that
was Japan's ticket. And for me, that was a huge
miss. And the other thing is that Japan, I understand,
and I said this about the women's game, your
middles don't match up size -wise, but you have
to find a way to earn the middle of the court.
Or have the middles from the other team at least
respect them for a second. That's what I meant
by earn. You can't have the other middles just
leaving to go to the pins. You sewer those outside
hitters. And Japan's outside hitters played okay.
I thought Miura played really well. I thought
the outsides, not so much. Miura held it down.
I think he was the only person scoring points
for Japan. Ishikawa scored points. Sometimes.
But he wasn't super effective. They did not make
life easy for them. They needed to set the middle.
And I thought setter choice. for Japan wasn't
great. Well, they had their guy that's been coming
in on the double sub starting. Yeah. Japan needs
to run more overload, more movement. You need
to give the blockers something to look at. Their
offense was just too vanilla for not having guys
who can just go out and bang. And on the flip
side, Japan had no answer for Sasek. This guy
was incredible. unstoppable in that match. They
set him the ball, and he was just scoring at
will. It was kind of fun to watch, to be honest.
Well, and of course, they couldn't stop the Polish
medals either. No. It was just a seismic match,
and they could not get them out of system. It
was just as easy as that. But the thing is, even
though they weren't serving Leon, I found Leon
to be very inconsistent. He actually got pulled.
Yeah, he wasn't good. He wasn't good at all.
And he didn't need to be. That's the thing, because
Sasek scored at will, and the middle and right
side of the court, it was just like, okay. For
now, he was fine. He did his job, but the two
left sides for Poland were not spectacular by
any means in that match. But I think Japan's
serving strategy choice, the way, like you mentioned,
their vanilla offense, the fact that Miyawara
was the only one, that was putting up consistent
numbers, it's just not going to happen. No, they
did not play to their identity, I didn't think,
and Poland was very good. I mean, Poland was
a very good all -tournament, but yeah, it was
pretty lopsided. Okay, let's move on to the semifinals
here. In one of the semis, we had Poland defeat
Brazil 3 -0. Are you going to talk about Brazil
now, or are you going to save it for the bronze?
No, you know what? This is where they lost. So
let's talk about the systemic issues that I think
that they have. Buckle up, everybody. You might
not be fans of these comments. I think that Brazil
has a lot of very good hitters on their team.
I don't think that Alain or Darlan are top, top
opposites. However, usually between the two of
them, you can find somebody who's going to have
a good game. So I don't really have an issue
with that. I think that their left sides, Lucarelli,
when he's healthy, is very good. They've got
a couple of young guys who Bergman struggled,
I thought, in this week. But I think their biggest
issue is their setter. I did not like him. All
finals. I thought he underset the middle on good
passes. So one of the things I noticed was when
the pass was in a good place, like close to the
net, he underset both middles pretty consistently.
They were like hitting from their ears. Yeah,
it was tough to watch. He runs the middle actually
pretty well from the 10 -foot line or the attack
line, but it's still... His connection with Flavio,
other than at the end of the bronze medal game,
was not good. I think Flavio was getting too
close to the net on his approach, and he was
being underset. I don't think he sets the left
side. I didn't see a left side look comfortable
on the court. Pretty much all final. Same in
China, same in the semifinal, and same in the
bronze medal. And I think if you were to put
a more consistent setter on that Brazilian side,
they would be scary good because I think they
have the pieces to be able to do it. I think
he really hurts them. And I don't know why he
didn't get taken off the floor, quite frankly.
I don't know what the backup setter, we didn't
really see him at all. Mateusz G. Yeah, so I
mean, maybe he's worse, but that to me is the
glaring difference between them and the other
top teams. Because Bergman did struggle, but
I don't think he's getting hittable balls. a
lot of the time. He's not having rhythm. And
I'm not saying he's the answer. You know, Artur
came in and played pretty well in a couple different
matches. But to me, it was glaring that he was
not connecting with his middles or his left sides
very well. I was getting very frustrated watching.
The announcers kept going on and on about how
amazing Kachopa is. But here's the thing. Kachopa
makes... spectacular plays. When? Like, he'll
make a set where he'll fall down at the attack
line, he'll run the middle on a 31, he'll thread
it in there, and... He serves well. He serves
well. He hustles. Like, there is a good... No,
he tries hard, for sure. He works really hard.
And there's an aura around. You watch those spectacular
plays, but he doesn't take care of the details
as well as you need to. in my opinion, to be
a top -level team. Well, we didn't watch them
play a ton in the preliminary rounds, but speaking
of the finals, the fact that the only player
who was able to consistently make contact with
his swings being the right side, it's not good
enough. No. Like, I can't tell you how many times
the left sides were just tipping balls. I was
like, at what point? Are we going to see a swing
here? Bergman, Onorato, Luccarelli, every single
one running in. They're getting in front of the
ball. You can see from the side view, the ball
is fading off the net. They're getting underneath
the ball. So either slow down your tempo so you
can stay behind the ball or switch your center.
Because these guys were not able to hit anything.
The left sides were able to hit the pipe ball
because they were already coming in from behind.
So to me, I thought it was a setting issue. Yes,
there's always things you can do as a hitter,
but when you're rotating through four outsides
and nobody is finding rhythm, that's a setter
issue. Well, it's not shocking to me that the
left side that I thought was able to make the
best contact was Artur. Yeah. Because he is significantly,
he's bigger. Like you saw Luccarelli getting
under balls or reaching behind his head. You
saw Onorato getting underneath balls, reaching
behind his head. Or looking like they were too
high. But Artur, they were in his window because
he's bigger. And he has a shorter approach. And
so he can kind of adjust a little bit better
than some of those outside hitters who have those
kind of long, flowing approaches. Yeah, it was...
It was frustrating to watch the setting. I think
that that was a huge issue, middle and outside.
I will say Allen held it down between him and
Darlan. They figured it out. Like they, when
Darlan came in, he was good for points every
time he came in. So they did have one section
of the court that was able to run, but. I mean,
and on the flip side, Poland did play very well.
Like you saw the same thing. Unbelievable. Leon
struggled again in the semifinal. He kept getting
pulled, but then Fornal got injured. Fornal got
injured. But then he left the third set, so Leon
had to come back in and stay because Semenyuk
was playing already, but then Fornal got it together
and played the fourth, but Leon was not good
again. Nope. No, he wasn't. It was the, honestly,
for me, the libero right side and middles for
Poland kind of got them to the final. The serving
pressure for Poland against Brazil was also impressive.
They just kept coming and coming and coming,
and their blocking was also very good in that
regard. So, yeah, the combination of Brazil not
being in super rhythm in the middle and on the
left side, the serving pressure from Poland,
Again, Sasek was unstoppable. It just didn't
work out in Brazil's favor. Okay, semifinal number
two. We had Italy beating Slovenia 3 -1. Kind
of an opposite situation to what Slovenia experienced
in the quarterfinal where they lost the first
and then they absolutely dominated Italy in the
second. And then lost the next two. So it was
literally opposite day from when they played
France. Well, Slovenia made zero errors in the
second set. It was insane. Yeah, it was. That
might have been the best set of volleyball from
an individual team I've ever seen. It was incredible.
Zero errors. That's unheard of. Yeah, it was
wild to watch. So you would think they would
have the momentum after that. But this is Italy's
strength, right? They're just so consistent.
They have so many options of guys that can come
in and play and, you know, they know how to compete
and they know how to win. They came out and beat
Slovenia after that. They realized, okay, that
set is what it is. Can you do that two more times
to knock us out? And the answer was no, they
couldn't. I'm obsessed. with the way that Gianelli
lays that ball up for Micheletto, okay? A lefty
left side, that is not an easy task, okay? But
the way that the, where the ball hits its peak
and where it's falling for Micheletto to make
contact is so consistent and so perfect for a
left -handed hitter. I'm just in awe watching
it. Yeah, it's impressive. And this, to me, is
the difference. Right now, when you watch Broussard,
when you watch Fernando, both of those are flashy
setters, I would say. They make spectacular plays.
They do really great things. But when you watch
Gianelli's set, he also does some spectacular
things. But when things go sideways or the pass
isn't in rhythm, he has an ability to keep his
hitters in rhythm. And if you pay attention,
his hitters always know where the ball is going
to be and what the timing should be. And you
watch these huge passes or these super high digs.
Everybody's patient. He comes in and delivers
tempo. And it's super consistent. They ran the
middle pipe combo in this game to perfection.
It was incredible. Which is usually Slovenia's
weapon. Yeah. You know, Ryslikski, I have a tough
time with that name, didn't play particularly
well. He got subbed out and their backup came
into play. Romanov did a good job. Romanov did
a good job. Again, the Italian depth really helped
them here because you had a couple guys not play
amazing and you had pieces come off the bench
who were able to help and be effective. Watching
this match and seeing how Italy was able to...
regroup, stay consistent, and kind of find that
rhythm again, especially after set two, I was
like, they're going to win it all. I was so convinced.
Their ability to apply service pressure consistently
over a match is amazing. They had nine aces to
Slovenia's two, and the ace to arrow ratio sometimes
gets blown out of the water. in terms of its
importance of that specific number, but they
just bring pressure. They take teams out of system,
then they load up the block, or they know where
to be on defense, or they eliminate an option,
and then life is hard. They do that incredibly
well. All right, those medal matches. In the
bronze, we saw Brazil beat Slovenia 3 -1. Seeing
Brazil's quarter in semi, I thought Slovenia
was going to take this one. I thought so going
in as well. I thought the difference was Stern
struggled on the right side for Slovenia, and
they could not find somebody to score points.
And I don't know whether they just ran out of
gas in terms of their defensive play and ability
to extend rallies, or if Brazil was just that
much more physical. You saw Artur come in for
Brazil and really play well. And as the match
went on... My overarching knock on Slovenia is
that I think they have such good middles and
they do not run them enough. I think they could
be so dominant. And by the end, they barely set
them. And Brazil's block, which was on point,
feasted. Especially in set four. Yeah, as the
set went on, it was not even funny how many blocks
they got. Like the fourth set was a blowout.
Yeah. This was the first match that we saw Lucarelli
start. He had been coming off the bench in the
quarter and the semi, but they actually started
him this match. I think they realized that they
needed him. His stability a little bit, because
the left side, as we said, was not working very
well. Well, and I thought the Fernando setting
issue continued. Like, it didn't get any better.
The same issues that we had seen in the quarter
and the semi, I think we saw again in the bronze.
I think Kachoba finally found Flavio. Yep, Flavio.
In the fourth set, but they were already rolling.
Yeah. Well, a couple of things that stuck out
to me from a numbers standpoint in this match
was both left sides for Slovenia hit under 200
in this match, which was not the case in the
other matches. So that was really tough. I thought
the... Left side Stern struggled to pass, so
they had to take him out. They took him out,
yeah. Slovenia only set their middles 15 times
in four sets. That's just not enough. Those are
big boys. They're huge. They hit very good angles.
Yes. I think they're, especially when you saw
that the right side Stern struggled to score
in this match, like you have... You have actually
three very good middles on the Slovenia team,
all who I think can score points. They do a good
job of being open. Get them the ball. I thought
that was a huge miss for Slovenia. Agreed. Well,
and then once Brazil kind of settled into their
defensive system, as you said. They were just
shutting down the outside hitters like crazy.
Like Mulyanovich came in for the right side stern.
He did really well initially, but then as he
stayed in and the middles weren't getting set,
it was just like block fest. Yeah, he was a little
out of his depth on that one. The other thing,
and I don't know why. I thought Slovenia's game
plans, for the most part, were pretty solid.
But Alain, especially in the first two sets when
the game was still pretty close, they were giving
him so much line on the right side of the court
for Brazil, and he was scoring at will. It took
them way too long to adjust. Well, Ana Libero
was coming off the line. Yeah, I thought that
was a huge miss game plan -wise. The left sides
were struggling at the beginning. Fernando was
having trouble connecting with the middles. Alain
kept them in those sets, and they kept giving
him all this line to hit, and I just didn't understand
why. And it took them way too long to adjust.
But I feel like every team did that against him.
Like, I don't know, maybe in preliminary rounds
he was going up and hammering an angle or something.
So they were like, okay, we need to take that
away. But in the finals, like this week, every
team was blocking Allen's angle, leaving him
a truckload of line. And he found it. He was
obviously finding it. But his shots that he was
going for consistently. were line -line seam.
When he was whiffing balls or making errors is
when he was going into the angle. So I'm like,
can we just move this over and force him to hit
an angle? Because that's where he's making his
errors. Your middles are so big that they can
cut that angle off with their hand position as
well. I just didn't think they leaned into their
strength. I wonder if they would have been able
to shut Alain down at the beginning of that match.
with a better game plan, what would have happened?
Because he kept them in that match. He kept them
in every match, honestly. Well, I think Darlan
had a really good semifinal. He came in. Darlan
came in. He played more early on, but I said
this when we were watching. I was like, Darlan
is the perfect sub. Yeah, he might be my favorite
player to watch. I can understand why fans love
him. The attitude, the fire, the passion. As
an anime fan myself, seeing him do the Naruto
stuff is pretty sick. But, you know, every team
needs a sub that, like, only remembers the good
stuff. And just, like, legit thinks that they're
so amazing. I don't know Darlan at all. But the
impression that I get is that he is, like, I
am amazing. I score points. Did I make an error?
I don't know. And it's just like, those are the
best ones. I feel like the reason Alan starts
over him is I can see Darling being a little
more volatile, a little more inconsistent. But
for his role, outstanding. The dude gets off
the ground so fast and hits so hard. He's so
fun to watch. Like from a pure spectator sport
enjoyment standpoint, he's... I think one of
the other things that Slovenia struggled with
in this match was their first ball side out.
None of their players were getting easy points.
And so the rallies extended. Brazil really made
Slovenia grind to earn their points. And it just
looked like they ran out of gas. That first set
really went the distance. Yeah. Yeah. And they
just couldn't keep up. I thought they were going
to keep rolling. Again, I keep talking about
their pipe. I'm obsessed with it. I think that
ran well for them. But Brazil, they found a way,
man. Well, they just kept cycling through players
until they found the right combo. Artur made
a big difference on the left side, I thought.
He came in. I think they played their other middle.
I believe they made a right side. Their double
sub worked really well in that match. I didn't
think Slovenia had enough service pressure in
this match. I think they missed 20 serves. They
only had four aces. But in general, Brazil was
pretty in system. And again, Brazil does have
a tendency to break down on the passing side
of things if you apply enough pressure. But Slovenia
just wasn't able to do that. So Brazil ends up
taking that match. Pretty decisively, especially
in the last set, and earns their second VNL medal.
Ever. Ever. Which is, I was a little surprised
to learn that. But they've won a gold and now
they've won a bronze. So that's a big accomplishment
for them, given their history in the VNL over
the last seven competitions. Since it started.
Yeah. All right, our gold medal match. We already
told you Poland won. We already told you Poland
didn't drop a set. So. Poland beat Italy 3 -0.
And let me tell you, okay, Fornall didn't play.
I think he started feeling that ankle injury
after he cooled down after the semifinal. So
he was out. I watched the replay and I was like,
oh, he's not playing tomorrow. I, again, you
guys know this, I refuse to watch the replays.
I just close my eyes and ask Adam to tell me
what happened. And based on his reaction, I was
glad I didn't watch it. So Fornall was out, but...
Guess who decided to show up in this match? Guess
who decided to show up? Leon. He's like, you
know what? Middle right side, you can take care
of business to get us to the final. But when
the lights are on, that's when I'm going to shine.
I'm going to put my gold earrings in. I'm going
to put my gold chains on. And I am going to come
to this match. And I am going to dominate. He
was unstoppable. And conversely, Sasek. He was
like, you're welcome, everybody. I played a huge
role in getting us here. I'm out. You're welcome.
I'm done. I'm pretty sure he hit negative for
the majority of that match. He was negative.
Correct. The middles were consistent, as always.
The Polish libero, though. Can we talk about
how good he is? He might be the best in the world.
And I, unlike some people, don't throw that statement
out lightly. He is not like one of those announcers
that's like best in the world, best in the world,
best in the world. Did you hear me? Best in the
world. He was outstanding. Outstanding. On everything.
Yes. Passing, defense. Setting. Chasing down
balls. Setting. Coverage. You name it. This man
was everywhere. If he doesn't win best libero
when I check after we're done this, I'm going
to write somebody. You let them know. I will
let them know. So the first set was super competitive.
And the one thing that I noticed and I thought
was the difference was Italy got stuck in rotation
one twice. They gave up four points the first
round through. And I think three points the next
time they were in rotation one. And that to me
was the difference. When they have Rich Lischke,
whoever. And I will tell you, I'm not a fan of
him. He's not my favorite either. If Italy has
a weakness, it's on the right side. He's not
it for me. Yeah, they struggled against Poland.
When in rotation one specifically, it was not
pretty. But the confusing thing is, in rotation
one, I get it. Okay, the right sides typically
aren't amazing hitters on the left. Fine. But
you have a left -handed Micheletto on the right
side. He doesn't hit well there. Who does not
hit well on the right side. He goes in so fast.
And flat. Flat. You're left -handed, my man.
Why are you approaching up the sideline? Like,
create a bit of an angle for yourself here, okay?
Yeah, it was. That rotation cost them that set.
Yeah. It was not good. Not good. But things got
way worse in the second set. So I take notes
when I watch these games. Oh, my gosh. And for
my set two notes, the only thing I have written
down is a swear word disaster. That's how I would...
Somebody needs to get fired. Okay, do you want
to let everybody know what happened? If you missed
the match, here's what happened. I'm assuming
it's the first assistant coach because that's
normally their job. Fireable offense. Yeah, you
stole my line. It's a fireable offense. They
submit the lineup. I mean, it usually is the
assistant coach that submits the lineup. And
they got the lineup wrong. They switched the
six and the five on the lineup card. So Mickey
Aleto and Janelli were swapped in the wrong place.
But here's the thing. They didn't swap the whole
position. They just swapped two players. So Janelli
was supposed to start in position two. So Rich
Litschke would be in five. Mickey Aletto should
have been in three. Lavia in six. And then the
two middles. But it was Mickey Aletto in two.
Rich Litschke in five. Janelli in three. Lavia
in six. So the opposite and the setter were not
across from each other. The two left sides were
not across from each other. And seeing these
guys try to figure out a rotation. Well, the
set started, they were down four nothing. and
the ref, like, they asked for a rotation check
because they got called at a rotation, and they
kept arguing that it was incorrect, and they
didn't realize that they had submitted the wrong
rotation. So Italy started totally discombobulated.
I think it was 3 -1 or 4 -1. They called a timeout.
They figured out that they had submitted the
wrong lineup. And then they started trying to
figure out where they should be standing on the
court, where they should be. They got called
out of rotation again. Are you kidding me? Called
out of rotation in a final. Well, not to mention
you get the lineup wrong in the final. How many
times have you written this lineup down? Well,
I mean, that assistant coach. How do you do that?
As an assistant coach, you get one. mess up a
year, I think. That's fair, but not this one.
You single -handedly lost to the set in B &L.
Potentially set three as well because everybody
was so rattled after set two. Yeah, because halfway
through set two, they could not figure out where
they should be standing. They were so disjointed.
They had to sub out Mikuleto and Janelli. So
they brought off their two... best players to
switch other players, their backups in, to be
back into a normal volleyball rotation. It was
an absolute disaster. There's nothing else to
say about that. And what does the announcer say?
He's like, oh my gosh, are six and five different
in Italian? Dude, what if I'm writing in Roman
numerals? No. I couldn't believe it. I can't
even tell you what happened in that set because
I was just watching the absolute yard sale that
was happening on the Italian side, that whole
set. Mass confusion. But when things like this
happen, it just, like, it's so perplexing to
me how volleyball players, the highest level
volleyball players and coaches in the world,
do, cannot figure out rotations. Okay, yeah.
Real, it's really unfortunate that this person
made that mistake. I mean. But like, it's not
hard to figure out how you should align yourself.
Look at who's beside you. Look at who's in front
of you or behind you. And just like. arrange
yourself volleyball players at the they don't
understand they get so ingrained of how things
are supposed to be that they don't even understand
the absolute basics of what a rotation is they
spent so much time like they receive this one
ball and i was like the two left sides can't
be next to each other the libero needs to be
in the middle what are they doing boop called
out a rotation i'm like how am i telling you
what you should be doing yeah that whole situation
ruined the final it was absolutely outrageous
so disappointing that should have been such a
good match well the first set was so good yeah
and then i was like okay this is going to continue
and then this error completely dismantles italy
and it honestly i think it carried into the third
set as well absolutely like what a waste but
you have to be thinking as a as a player like
if i put myself in those guys shoes I'm out there
thinking we played four full weeks. We ground,
like, got beat up, worked hard, all of this to
get here, and you can't write six numbers on
a piece of paper properly? I mean, yeah, I'd
be pretty upset about it, but at the same time,
you can move so early now. Like, it shouldn't
have been as big of a deal as it was. I understand.
when both left sides are in the front row at
the same time, not ideal. When the setter and
Rich Lischke are in the front row at the same
time, also not great. But did it have to be that
bad? I mean, probably not that bad, but Poland
was playing so well. I'm not sure the result
changes, but the enjoyment factor of watching
the match would have been much higher. We have
to give Poland props. I'm going to say... Super
sub for me, and I've always loved this guy, Semenyuk.
Match MVP. He's so good, and every time he comes
in, he makes a difference. He also is very good
at understanding the flow of the game, and so
if it's time to keep a servant, he keeps the
servant. If it's time to go for it, he will go
for it, but you can just tell that he has such
a high intelligence Both volleyball, but emotionally
too. Yeah, I really like him. I think he stepped
up huge coming in for Fernal, who was injured.
I think he starts on a ton of teams. Oh, he's
great on his pro team. Leon, we already said,
outstanding. Yeah, I mean. Unstoppable. And his
serving, I don't think he even missed hardly
any serves either. He needed to show up for the
final, and he showed up. I mean, it's as easy
as that. I appreciated his post -game interview,
too, though. Yeah. He acknowledged that he did
not play well in the quarter in the semi, and
he's like, you know what? My teammates were really
supportive. They kept, like, standing by me.
I knew I wasn't playing my best. And then we
were missing a really big player, and so I told
them, like, I'm going to try my best. And I just
thought it was, like, really great. I will say
the garbage sound bites might start to be my
favorite thing in volleyball. He might be my
favorite coach. I'm not going to lie. He is outstanding.
They're like, oh, wow, you're wearing the hat.
He's like, I don't look good in hats. I'm only
wearing this for the picture. But even after
they do those coach interviews between the second
and the third set. So the second set was when
Italy was on fire and there was an absolute yard
sale happening. And they come and they're talking
to Gervich. And he's like, yeah, Leon finally
showed up. He's playing really well. It would
be nice if Sasek, you know, decided to join us
and maybe he doesn't have to be great, but maybe
just show up. Maybe just like help a little bit.
I'm like, you're hammering these guys. Sasek
has literally gotten you to this point. He's
been so good. Gurbic just, he says it how it
is and nothing he says is incorrect, but his
delivery is just priceless. And there's a reason
that he was so good. And I think that the way
he speaks in the TV timeouts is probably the
way he speaks exactly to his players. And it
just creates this environment of expectation.
I'm going to push you. It's not going to be fun.
Here are the expectations. Here's what you're
capable of. And we can win. I'm a huge fan. I
was a little worried about Poland watching them
play in week three. They had their big boys in
week three. They did not look good to me. So
I was a little concerned. But dang, they found
a way. They stepped up. Different guys stepped
up in different ways based on the need of the
team. And, yeah, they were dominant. Given how
week three went, I was like, no, it's not going
to happen. But they turned things around. Well,
them and Brazil kind of flip -flopped. Because
I thought Brazil played really well in week three
and then not so well in the final, like you said
about Poland. So it was interesting. But I think
Worlds is going to be a ton of fun. I can't wait
to see that volleyball because I think. I think
there's going to be some grudge matches that
happens, and the level of volleyball here was
really high. I think Worlds is going to be a
ton of fun. Huge congrats to Poland. They have
been consistent VNL performers since the tournament
started in 2018. The VNL men's has been dominated
by Poland, France, and USA, I would say, for
the most part. Although USA's never won, I don't
think. They generally medal, but I don't think
they won. Yeah, but dominated, like, the podium.
Yeah, yeah, fair, fair. So Italy got their first
medal, and Brazil got their second. So, yeah,
it was a very interesting week of volleyball.
But, again, Poland earned it. They were dominant,
and honestly, they were just really fun to watch.
I'll be curious to see if the Italian coaching
staff is different for Worlds. All right, let's
get into some listener questions. We are going
to focus mostly on the men's questions we've
received. And because we have a bit of a slower
couple weeks coming up, we will throw in a bunch
of our women's ones because we got a ton of women's
questions from our last episode. But question
one, is Mikio Leto the best player in the world
currently? If not, where do you rank him and
who is number one? I mean, I think there's probably
a couple players who you could argue for. I would
say he is probably pretty close. If you ask me
that, then people that pop into my mind would
be Mikuleto, Fornal. Is Engapeth still playing?
Yeah, it's tough. We don't know who's coming
back. There was discussion during the tournament
this week about Fornal is the best player in
the world. I personally am a Micheletto fan.
I think his size kind of sets him apart. He's
a six rotation player. He's not a liability.
I think in anything, especially because of his
size, you see a lot of bigger players like struggle
with the ball control aspect. I personally am
a fan. So I would probably put him at number
one. I think that that's a fair. statement. I
think if you asked me, are you going to take
Micheletto or Fornal to build a team around,
if I was running a pro team, I would probably
choose Micheletto at this point. Question two,
why did the U .S. shuffle coaches? I know the
men's team from the Olympics was getting a little
old, so I'm assuming that's a factor, but silver
and bronze were solid results at the Olympics,
so we've heard some rumors. Well, okay, so Spraw,
who was on the men's side, ended up getting promoted
to CEO of USA Volleyball. So whether he just
didn't want to travel as much anymore or it was
just too good of an opportunity. I think he does
have young daughters. So I can't speak to why
he took the CEO position over coaching other
than maybe travel. Or money. Yeah, that too.
So, I mean, that opened up a spot. on the men's
side. I don't know this for sure. I think that,
you know, we saw a lot of U .S. women decide
not to come back and play for the national team
for this round. We don't know who's coming back
for Worlds. And probably there's a couple factors
here. I don't know if Karch wanted to start over.
On the women's side, after doing that, you're
kind of going back to ground zero. I don't know
if he always wanted to coach men, and when that
position opened, he wanted to take it. I do know,
so I think that Karch and Gerbich, for example,
are probably cut from the same cloth in terms
of creating an atmosphere, having very high expectations,
being very hard on their players. I believe Karch
was with the women's program for two cycles.
Is that accurate? I think since 2012, maybe.
And I just wonder if, you know, being in that
environment for so long, the program needed a
change or, you know, they needed somebody else
to come in with the young female players. I'm
not sure. I've heard rumors, but they're not
substantiated. Yeah. And it might be as simple
as... I've heard that the women were ready for
a change. Yeah. Again, it's... To play for somebody
like that, I think Bernardo, and you can speak
to this, is of the same cloth. Every contact
is expected to be perfect. Every time you show
up at the gym, it's 100%. And that can be really
hard. And so whether it was the women wanting
a change or Karch wanting to coach men in that
position being open, who knows? My question's
about whether more national teams should take
the VNL more seriously than they do. Obviously,
the sample size is pretty small, but The U .S.
women won all three VNLs prior to Tokyo. And
then prior to Paris, Italy won two out of the
three. So the eventual gold medalist on the women's
side at the last two Olympics did very well in
the preceding VNLs. Do you think Sullivan -era
USA may be doing itself a disservice by treating
the VNL as a way to evaluate players rather than
Italy, who's treating it as an important event
on the calendar? I don't think those two things
are necessarily causal. So you think it's coincidental?
I mean, I think when you're a good team, you
win things. But I don't think that winning VNL
means you're going to win the Olympics. If you
win a tournament right before the Olympics, does
that put you in a good headspace to go? I would
say maybe the VNL right before the Olympics,
you kind of want to be peaking. But even if the
U .S. wanted to win this VNL, it was never going
to happen. They're not good enough right now.
No, well, like, maybe if their top players came
back. Well. I don't think they were going to
win anyway. Yeah. I think Italy or Brazil were
going to win, no matter who the U .S. brought.
But, again, I think that that was the players'
choice, not the coaches'. Yeah, fair. So, again.
I think it would be you want to be playing your
best volleyball going into the Olympics. What
happens in this V &L is irrelevant, in my opinion,
to the 2028 LA Olympics. We just like to talk
about it like it is. Yeah, but again, you have
the best teams winning these tournaments. Let's
talk about the 2028 V &L and see if there's a
correlation there. But I don't think that teams
don't take it seriously. They're just on different
rebuild schedules. Question four, can you provide
your feedback and perspective on the overall
U .S. men's team strategy and performance this
VNL? Well, I think you had three of your top
players choose not to play this VNL. I think
from a load management standpoint, as most of
them played in Japan and probably hit a ton of
balls. Whoa. We had a lot of straight -up retirement,
too. Yeah, but who's potentially available? We
heard Anderson is going to play in LA. Well,
Anderson wasn't in Japan this past year. I think
he just took a break. I think Micah Christensen
took a break. I think some of the players legit
were done. Okay, so we think that potentially...
DeFalco for sure took a break. Yeah, so DeFalco
potentially is available. Taylor Avril. Taylor
Averill, Anderson, Micah Christensen. So, I mean,
you have four players there. And if you're going
to take a break, this is the year to do it. And
you saw France do it with some of their players.
There were definitely teams whose top players
were like, listen, if we're gearing up for another
Olympic run, I'm going to take this year off,
which is totally fine. So they do have holes
to fill. Yes. But I think they made sure. to
have some Olympians present. Like Micah Ma 'a
was setting. Where typically Micah Christensen
would, is Ma 'a as good as him? No, but he's
not a brand new setter. He has experience. We
had Jendrik, who played in the Olympics. We had
Shoji and Nsing, who was the alternate. So they
had a decent foundation, but I think this VNL
was about... like finding replacements for those
players who are for sure not coming back yeah
and the difference to me between the men's strategy
and the women's strategy was I like to call them
the skilled positions but you had competent liberos
and setters on the men's side and that can stabilize
a team right we talked about I mean they did
give Andrew Rowan a chance yeah they did who
was is not He's very inexperienced. But you always
had that option. You put Shoji in to pass. It
makes life easier for the other two outside hitters,
right? You have a setter who can deliver consistent
tempo. Your hitters have some time to figure
it out. And I think sometimes that's where the
women's side struggled more, even though they
had a better result, is you lacked... any kind
of consistency because you had players coming
in and out so i actually liked the way the u
.s men approached that and you got a chance to
see some of these other players who are going
to be needed for 2028 get a chance in a let's
call it a contained environment yeah because
i would say like you saw the wheels fall off
and you saw the inexperience really show on the
women's side in those as you say skilled positions
i honestly felt like what like watching i felt
like the men performed better than the women
did i agree albeit with a worse result watching
them i felt like the women were more out of their
depth than the men and i felt that the young
inexperienced athletes on the men's side like
cooper robinson i'm thinking of in particular.
I was impressed by him overall. Did really well.
Yeah. So I like that they had some stability
in those key positions and that allowed the inexperienced
athletes to kind of like take a deep breath and
not feel like they had to do so much. I also
think it speaks to the parity of the men and
the women's side. Right. You didn't really have
many gimme games on the men's side and that happens
on the women's side. Question five. I am currently
watching the China -Brazil and the Italy -Cuba
matches, and it seems like the rallies are way
longer, more chaotic, and fun than most men's
games all tournament. Kind of alluding to the
fact that they were closer to the women's style
rallies. Was this accurate, and if so, why? Was
it a stylistic matchup? Was it players understanding
the stakes? If you look at the evolution of the
men's game over the last several years, you're
starting to see more rallies. Defenses are improving
for sure. And you always go through different
iterations of the game. For a while, you had
the men who were just going back and bombing
serves, and you were missing a ton, but you were
trying to get teams out of system. Then it kind
of changed. The offense is sped up to try and
get away from the big blocks. If you miss those
sets, then you're tipping, then you're looking
for some of those sets over that we see. See,
I think that the tipping and stuff started because
the defenses have improved. Yeah, that could
be the reason as well. I do think that you're
starting to see the men be able to make better
reads, be in better places, control those heavy
swings. I think the blocking has gotten more
strategic in terms of leaving. low priority options
open to get solid blocks around. You're seeing
teams dig off the top of the blocks pretty efficiently.
And we're seeing the players continue to get
bigger and bigger and bigger. So the block at
the net is easier to play around. Yeah. So I
do think your observation is correct that we
are seeing more rallies in the men's games than
we have seen previously. And it's been trending
in that direction for a while. But yeah, there
was a point in time where watching men's volleyball
was boring. Lots of errors, you know, team swinging
or players swinging as hard as they can, both
from the service line and on all balls and it
being a little more terminal. And that's not
the case anymore. And it's way more fun to watch,
quite frankly. Question six. For the men's tournament,
how do you think the NCAA players looked during
this year's VNL? Do you think they were able
to adjust their style of play from college? So
for those non -American viewers, those would
be some of the college players who joined the
national team for this VNL. So who were they?
So you had Robinson. who's a left side. You had
Rowan, who's a setter. You had Flexen, who was
a right side. Left side. Yeah, hybrid. McHenry,
he was pretty fresh out of college. I think we
saw Cooper Robinson get better and better as
the tournament went on. I saw adjustments from
him, both in the angles he was searching for,
the hands, how his passing kind of... evolved
to the speed of the game. I was most impressed
by his composure in those situations, which I
think will serve him well. Rowan, I feel like,
was still kind of playing a college style. I
think he has potential. He was only really needed
in week one when Michael Ma didn't come to Brazil,
but I think that he was still a step behind.
Yeah, I didn't love his decision making. The
hitters are a little... different in terms of
their capabilities. I thought he underset a bunch
of hitters. I didn't think his decision making
was amazing. It's a tough position to step into
with no experience and not really knowing your
hitters that well. Again, I think he has potential,
but he's not ready yet. Seeing Flexen switch
to the left side in college, I was a little worried,
but he did better than I thought he would. Yeah,
I still don't think he's it. Yeah, he's got a
ways to go, but he was fine. His passing was
more fine than I thought it would be because
in college it was a little dicey. Yeah, I'm curious
if that's a partly shoji effect, if they were
able to kind of shelter him a little bit. I don't
know if teams would pick on him a little more
given video or a chance to see that, but... Well,
yeah, he held his own, but I still think Cooper
Robinson was the best of those NCAA players who
came out. Okay, our last question of the day.
I don't think it's fair to consider only ranking
points to qualify for VNL. Teams located in less
competitive regions, Africa comes to mind for
me in this, won't earn as many points as teams
that you would see play in Europe or Asia or
something. Wouldn't it be better to have a direct
competition between these teams to enter the
VNL? Okay, so, I mean, I don't know all of the
ins and outs of how the point system works, but
I believe that some of the competitions are weighted.
So, like, European Championships and the Continental
Championships have the same... number of points.
So whether you win like Europe champs or you
win Africa champs. I don't know if that is that
just a beach thing or is it an indoor thing too?
I want to say it's an indoor thing as well, but
I could be wrong. I know that they do the ranking
based off also an algorithm in terms of every
match you play, but I think you get points for
also winning competitions. So again, with the
ranking system, it's more about the space. in
between you and your opponent if you win or lose.
So it doesn't really matter. Like if the 23rd
team is playing the 25th team in, let's say,
Norseka, or the 7th and the 9th place team are
playing, the algorithm really takes into consideration
the difference in skill or points between those
opponents. So you have the same opportunities
to earn points even if your competition is lower.
No, this person is referring to like the African
teams, for example, will never play VNL because
they are only playing each other. They're only
playing teams rated in the whatever, you know,
so they're not going to get the opportunity to
earn points by playing a number 10 ranked team.
I think that's what the question is alluding
to. The thing is, VNL is considered an elite
event. prestigious event even the fact that I
think the relegation is great because we will
finally start to see a little bit of variety
like indoor volleyball has been you've seen the
same teams for decades because it is so hard
to there are so few competitions that it's so
hard to break into it But at its essence, VNL
is showcasing the best that the world has to
offer. It's not like the Olympics. Like the Olympics
is very much like let's bring the world together
through sport. So that's why you see there needs
to be a team from at least every continent. I
understand what you're saying, but I think diluting...
The level of competition, like we're not going
to see those teams from the lower ranked regions
qualify anyway, even if there was a direct competition,
I think. Yeah. But I mean, which region other
than Africa and volleyball is not a big sport
in Africa isn't represented. Like you saw South
Korea on the women's side make it because they
have done well in the Asian championships, which
would be considered a lower skilled. Well. I
don't know if that's necessarily the case because
relegation has never been a thing. I think up
until this point, money has played a role in
some of the teams qualifying. So you think that
the switching of relegation from here on out
will always be like a Europe team will come in?
It will likely be that because the European teams
will always play each other. It'll be hard for,
like, unless you see massive upsets in North
America, in, you know, even South America for
women, you get Brazil. Like, is Argentina ever
going to make an appearance? Like, it's just,
it's hard. I understand what this person is saying,
and it makes sense. But, like, how far down the
list do we want to go? it is it's really hard
to make it an indoor volleyball yeah absolutely
but i don't think that that's a bad thing you
want the best teams there and again some of the
competition no i'm not saying that it should
be easy to make it i'm just saying that's what
how it is yeah i think that they're trying something
new to try and be more inclusive and to make
it mean something i think you need to give it
a few years to see how it plays out i think it
will actually be more balanced than you think
it is i look at They're using something similar
to chess ratings where the points you get are
less about one playing 10 and more about the
difference in strength based on what you can
get. So I think that there will be opportunities
for some of those teams in other regions if they're
consistent to beat out the Europe regions. And
so I think we'll have to let it play out and
see how it goes. I know they've run a bunch of
different models to see how things would go.
And I think it's worth waiting to see how it
plays out over the next couple of years. Thanks
again for a great bunch of questions, everybody.
We have a ton of them in the bank, so keep them
coming. We're going to have some episodes coming
up where we're going to need a whole bunch. So
we always enjoy this part of the show. Not a
lot of volleyball coming up over the next little
while, but the Women's U21 World Championships
are happening this week in Indonesia. Matches
start on Wednesday. Those are all available on
VBTV. So if you want to watch those, check it
out there. That can be your volleyball fix for
the week. But we do have Worlds coming up in
less than a month on the women's side and a little
bit more for the men's side. NCAA will be starting.
Leagues will be starting soon. So a little bit
of a lull. Enjoy your break. We will still be
here, and we'll see you guys next week. That
concludes this week's episode of Volley Talk.
There's always something shaking in the volleyball
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