WEBVTT

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Hi volleyball fans and welcome back to Volley

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Talk, the podcast created for volleyball lovers

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who want to dig deep into what is going on in

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NCAA and international volleyball. I'm your host

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Sarah Pavan. I'm an Olympian, beach volleyball

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world champion, former Nebraska Cornhusker, and

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longtime pro both indoor and on the beach. And

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I'm Adam Schultz, former indoor player, international

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volleyball coach, and the show's resident stat

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guy. PNL 2025. In the books. It's officially

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over. We made it. And Poland is our gold medal

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winner. They did it in a pretty dominant fashion

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as well. They did not drop one set all week.

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It was impressive to watch. Wild stuff. We should

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have known, you know, as we've seen in the men's

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game forever. Very little went the way we thought

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it would. And I think even more surprising than

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the results were how one -sided a lot of the

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matches were. We usually see a lot of men's games

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go five, but we did not see that once. We did

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not see that once, which is very rare. So today's

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focus is on what went down in the men's VNL Final

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Eight in China. So let's get started. We have

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some weekly happenings and highlights this week,

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everybody. How exciting. Let's hear it. Okay,

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first up, because for whatever reason, they decide

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not to... award these in the moment which is

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you have to wait for them after wild but the

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women's vnl dream team was announced let's break

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it down okay okay best setter alessia oro no

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no contest she's fantastic and i didn't think

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the brazilian setters played particularly well

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comparatively no i don't think it could have

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gone anybody else Best opposite, Paola Egonu.

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I think it's a little bit on reputation. She's

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just like, whenever there's an award to be won,

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she's at the top of the list. Yeah, and she's

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earned the right to be there. But to me, she

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chose during this V &L. when she wanted to show

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up. When she showed up and when you could tell

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she was engaged. For me watching her, I can tell

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whether she cares about this match or whether

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she's like, nah, whatever. I know I have a really

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good backup coming up if I get pulled. And no

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athlete thinks that way. I realize that. But

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you can just kind of see it. There's a difference

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in the intensity to how she plays when she needs

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to be on and when she's not. And when she was

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on, she was very good. I mean, the only person

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that I think maybe could have been a consideration

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other than her, is her counterpart, Entropova.

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But given that Egonu is the one who starts, I

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mean, it's hard to make an argument to give it

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to Entropova when she comes off the bench. But

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given how Entropova played in the final, I thought

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she gave herself a chance. You could have given

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the final MVP to Entropova, but not VNL best

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opposite. Fair. Best outside hitters were Miriam

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Silla from Italy and Gabi from Brazil. Yep. That's

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fair. I mean, Gabi is always very good. I thought

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Silla had a good final week. She had some ups

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and downs during the VNL itself, but she was

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good in the finals. I mean, these awards always

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go to the teams that medal or are in the semifinals.

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Like, you're not going to see anybody out of

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that. unless they are just putting up the most

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astronomical numbers you have ever seen in your

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life that you can't even deny it. So if we're

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looking at the top four teams, maybe you could

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make an argument for an Ishikawa. But they came

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fourth. So coming fourth completely ruined their

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possibilities. The left side's for Poland. While

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I thought they played strong in the finals, like

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the final week, they weren't as good as these

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two all the way through. Yeah, and I would say

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for Ishikawa, she is incredibly skilled, but

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she doesn't have the same pop that these two

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have. And so it makes it really tough, rightly

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or wrongly, for her to win this award. Best middle

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blockers, Julia Kudais from Brazil and Anieszka

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Korneluk from Poland. I take a little bit of

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issue with this one. I think Julia deserves the

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award because she set a VNL record. And she was

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good. She was consistent. If you're going to

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rack up that many blocks, you should get an acknowledgement

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for that. Kornelik, I mean, you had to give Poland

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a nod. And you had to put at least one of their

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players on there. You're not going to give Stiszak

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best opposite over Igonu. No, it's not going

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to happen. Your setter is not going to beat out

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Oro. Your left sides are not going to beat out

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the two that were... And in fairness, she had...

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One particularly very good match. She blocked

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well in the final week. You know, am I taking

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her over far if I'm picking a team? Even based

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off the performance from that week? No. I understand

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why she's on the list. She's not. If we were

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taking out, like, you can't just give Italian

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players the whole. Yeah, the Italians just sweep

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the table. They're like, our starting lineup

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is the best in every single position. Good luck.

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You know, which is possible. And I read a lot

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of comments online talking about, like, tournament

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stats and kills and points and blocks. And the

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thing that you have to remember is that Italy

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wins in three very often. That's the thing that

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people don't think about. Total numbers of stats.

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is is not a good determinant of how well those

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players played so julia got i think it was like

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46 or 47 blocks in the tournament 63 what was

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the 63 okay my apologies and and that is hugely

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impressive brazil played a lot of five setters

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give me the the set stats yes how many blocks

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per set how many kills per set how many points

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per set because like yeah that is the point that

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nobody ever thinks about like nobody cares about

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the total And on the flip side, the one argument

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you can make for Konelek is her importance to

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her team. So if you take her out of Poland's

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roster, like their block, one then matches. If

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you took Farr out and put in somebody who was

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slightly less better than her, Italy's still

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going to be very good. So, I mean, I understand.

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I can reason behind it. Am I taking her over

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Farr? No. I mean, yeah, you can't medal in VNL

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and have zero players. We also had a lot of people

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upset at how good we think the Italian middles

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are. They do things away from the ball that are

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just... So good. They make life absolutely miserable

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for opposing hitters. I'm a huge fan. And we're

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going to get to doing our top five players in

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each position after Worlds for men and women.

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And we can get into it there. We'll see. But,

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you know, we'll save that for a later episode.

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Finally, Beth Libero, Monica DeGennaro. Hands

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down. Who else are you going to pick? Spectacular.

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The crazy thing, which you do not see every day,

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is Dagenaro won MVP. Do you think that was earned

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or deserved? You never see Liberos win an MVP

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because they're performing fewer skills, I guess.

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Oh, and it's not a flashy position. It's not

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a flashy position. If you're noticing the libero

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on the court, they're usually doing something

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wrong. It's usually not for good reasons. You

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don't want to notice. You usually see the opposite

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or the point -scoring left side be the MVP. I

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think in this case, Egonu was a little inconsistent

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and got swapped out with Antropova so much, it

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would have been hard to name her the MVP. I agree.

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And I think maybe you could make an argument

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for Oro. Yeah, probably either or. And those

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two kind of go in tandem for me. And the one

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thing I will say is that she passes a ton of

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court and she stabilizes that defense and she

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takes so much responsibility when she plays that

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she limits what other players have to do on the

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court, allowing them to be more effective. watching

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her she boosts the performance of the players

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around her because she's so good and you really

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have to pay attention to it but she's a player

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multiplier i like to call them very rare though

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yeah like this is almost unheard of which is

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very interesting but yeah i like to see it yeah

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i mean the i mean the awards are i don't think

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they're really missed boys u19 world championships

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happened Over the last couple weeks, but they

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finished up this weekend. So we had France winning

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gold. They beat Poland in four. And then Spain

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actually won bronze. They beat Iran in five.

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So France, Poland, Spain were on the podium for

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the boys' U19 World Championships. U23 Women's

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Pan Am Cup. Was also happening. They finished

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up in Mexico with USA dominating Canada 3 -0

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in the final. And Mexico came third. It was not

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close. No. And USA and Mexico played in the other

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semi. And I think that one went to five. So I

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heard that was a very, very close game. So maybe

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the final should have been USA -Mexico. From

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all intents and purposes, I think that was probably

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the match for gold. Canada didn't hit 20 in any

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set. No. It wasn't competitive. And then the

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U23 Men's Pan Am Cup is also happening as we

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record this, and the U .S. is in the final with

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TBD. It was either Dominican or Mexico. Let me

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tell you, they do not care about updating their

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website, and I wasn't about to go searching everywhere

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on social media. We'll see what happens. The

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U .S. is in the final. And probably going to

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win that one. Look at that. We had a few things

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to talk about this week before we dive in, but...

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Here we go. Let's get started talking about these

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VNL men's final eight matches. I can't wait.

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All right. In match one, we saw Italy defeating

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Cuba 3 -1. Going into this match, I think Adam

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said that it was the one he was most excited

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about a couple weeks ago. Am I remembering that?

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That is a correct statement. I have several statements

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from the last episode that I'd like to recant.

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Me too. We were pretty confident. We'll see what

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happens. But nothing went the way we thought,

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so yeah. I didn't expect Cuba to win, but I thought

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it would be a little bit better of a match. So

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a couple things that were just glaringly evident

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to me is that Cuba's skilled positions, such

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as Libero and Setter, Italy's were just in a

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class of their own, and it was painfully obvious.

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Yeah. So, I mean, that was kind of the starting

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point for it not going super well for Cuba. Also,

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you saw a lot of Cuba starters not make it through

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the match. Actually, their bench came in and

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played really well. Masso struggled. He went

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three kills, four errors, got the yank. You had

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Lopez started, didn't finish the match. Yant,

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he was good in the set they won. but couldn't

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play consistently. So, for example, in the first

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set, he was two kills, three errors on nine attacks.

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They didn't win. That was the closest set that

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they lost. In the second set, he was all world.

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He went six for seven, and Cuba won. And then

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after that, it was kind of downhill for Cuba.

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So, I mean, Cuba didn't pass particularly well.

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They're players who needed to be good. didn't

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step up in the moment they didn't have a true

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opposite i don't think that they were putting

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themselves in a position to be successful like

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you said their passing was struggling which is

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accurate but like yant was trapped a lot yeah

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and that's where the setting yeah you know italy

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is coming over and over and over again they are

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consistently putting you under pressure and i

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thought the setter really struggled to give hittable

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balls. They couldn't run their middle, which

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quite frankly is their strength. Simon still

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played pretty well. Well, Concepcion kind of

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looked out of his depth blocking -wise, which

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we haven't seen. He's usually making big moves,

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and Italy was just coming at you from all directions.

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He looked a little out of his element. And he

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couldn't score either. So I think because he

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was feeling overwhelmed offensively, he wasn't

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much of a threat. So it was a little lopsided.

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And you didn't really see Cuba find their swagger,

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which is kind of what they need to play well.

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And Italy just never gave them a chance to get

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there. Except for, you know, Yant for one set

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who was feeling himself. It was disappointing.

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I was hoping to see the Cuba from week three.

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But that's what Italy does to teams, right? They're

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just so consistent. It just looked like Cuba

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didn't think that they were going to beat them.

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Yeah, that was, I think if Cuba would have played.

00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:20.899
a different team in the quarter, it would have

00:14:20.899 --> 00:14:23.460
been a little different. You would have seen

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a different Cuba, but I think that was the worst

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matchup for them. Semifinal number two, Brazil

00:14:29.700 --> 00:14:33.679
beat China 3 -1. So I'm not going to spend a

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ton of time talking about Brazil yet because

00:14:35.100 --> 00:14:37.279
we're going to talk about them kind of throughout

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the episode because they ended up playing three

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games. Yeah. And I have a lot to say. But China

00:14:43.659 --> 00:14:46.120
was better than I thought they would be. I think,

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so two things. I thought there were actually

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a couple standout players for China. I thought

00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:56.059
their libero was unbelievably good in that match.

00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:00.220
I thought that their right side, Wen, was also

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incredibly good. He scored a ton of points. And

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I thought their coach was incredibly entertaining.

00:15:09.340 --> 00:15:12.299
I thought their coach was realistic, which I

00:15:12.299 --> 00:15:16.059
appreciated. Going in, he was like, you know

00:15:16.059 --> 00:15:19.039
what? This is their first finals. They need to

00:15:19.039 --> 00:15:20.620
learn to compete at this level. They've never

00:15:20.620 --> 00:15:24.559
been here before. I just want them to go out

00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:29.139
and fight. Brazil got out to a 5 -1 lead in set

00:15:29.139 --> 00:15:32.620
one, and I was like, yikes. This is not good.

00:15:32.919 --> 00:15:38.700
But it ended up becoming 7 -7 in that set. China

00:15:38.700 --> 00:15:40.919
won the first set, and you could see them start

00:15:40.919 --> 00:15:43.779
to gain a little confidence. You could see them

00:15:43.779 --> 00:15:46.220
starting to really go for it on their attacks.

00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:51.080
I agree, their libero was unreal. At the same

00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:53.279
time, I kind of felt like Brazil thought they

00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:56.039
were going to roll over them. Which happened

00:15:56.039 --> 00:15:59.860
to a couple teams in the quarters. Yeah. Getting

00:15:59.860 --> 00:16:03.139
out to a 5 -1 lead against China, who you already

00:16:03.139 --> 00:16:06.539
think you're going to crush, it probably wasn't

00:16:06.539 --> 00:16:09.700
great because it took Brazil a second to regain

00:16:09.700 --> 00:16:15.120
some momentum. But China fought. They went for

00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:18.179
it. And even though they lost the next three,

00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:23.460
the sets were close. Yeah, China played. That

00:16:23.460 --> 00:16:27.240
was probably their best game of the VNL from

00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:32.519
what I saw. competing they were executing things

00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:35.419
that they needed to they were making pretty good

00:16:35.419 --> 00:16:38.240
decisions i mean they're not as clean and consistent

00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:41.299
as the teams that are at the top obviously but

00:16:41.299 --> 00:16:44.539
i wasn't sure how they were going to handle the

00:16:44.539 --> 00:16:47.620
moment they've never been in these big competitions

00:16:47.620 --> 00:16:49.740
they're in a final they're at home like that

00:16:49.740 --> 00:16:52.909
match could have been ugly it could have been

00:16:52.909 --> 00:16:57.169
25, 16, 14, and 15. And it wasn't. And they won

00:16:57.169 --> 00:16:59.570
a set, and they gave the home crowd something

00:16:59.570 --> 00:17:03.389
to watch. It was exciting. I was really impressed

00:17:03.389 --> 00:17:06.269
with the product that they were able to put on

00:17:06.269 --> 00:17:08.910
the floor. And I really liked their coach. Honestly,

00:17:09.089 --> 00:17:13.369
he has personality, okay? And just even at the

00:17:13.369 --> 00:17:21.920
end of the game, he was so good -natured. come

00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:25.599
out and beat Brazil. And I think everybody knew

00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:29.160
that, but like he knew that. So the fact that

00:17:29.160 --> 00:17:31.940
he was able to rally his team and get them to

00:17:31.940 --> 00:17:35.079
fight and get them to believe in themselves while

00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:37.480
understanding that the likelihood of them actually

00:17:37.480 --> 00:17:41.099
winning was very slim. I appreciate that so much

00:17:41.099 --> 00:17:44.680
because they could have come out and just have

00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:47.559
been resigned to their fate. And again, it's

00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:50.380
sport. Anything can happen. I'm not saying. that

00:17:50.380 --> 00:17:53.859
it was impossible, but just his statements of

00:17:53.859 --> 00:17:57.079
how proud he was of them. And I think it lays

00:17:57.079 --> 00:17:59.099
a really good foundation for them moving forward.

00:17:59.220 --> 00:18:02.299
Yeah, I agree. And, you know, he set realistic

00:18:02.299 --> 00:18:04.759
goals. It wasn't, and he wasn't afraid to say

00:18:04.759 --> 00:18:06.680
them out loud, which I also appreciate. Like,

00:18:06.759 --> 00:18:09.460
hey, you know, we want to get to 2020 and see

00:18:09.460 --> 00:18:11.680
what happens. We want to stay with them. We want

00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:15.880
to be competitive. And I appreciate that honesty

00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:20.109
and those stated objectives. And knowing where

00:18:20.109 --> 00:18:22.210
you are. And I think it's especially important

00:18:22.210 --> 00:18:25.309
to understand what the objectives are when you're

00:18:25.309 --> 00:18:29.029
outclassed like that. And that's just the reality

00:18:29.029 --> 00:18:31.549
of the situation. And they did stick with them.

00:18:31.609 --> 00:18:34.930
They did. Until like 17 -17 in all the sets.

00:18:35.630 --> 00:18:38.309
And then Brazil just pushed back. Yeah, and they

00:18:38.309 --> 00:18:40.450
have more experience. I will say, though, that

00:18:40.450 --> 00:18:44.349
the issues that Brazil had in this match against

00:18:44.349 --> 00:18:48.200
China persisted throughout. And we'll talk about

00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:50.859
them a little bit more. But, you know, you probably

00:18:50.859 --> 00:18:52.759
should have used that match to tighten up some

00:18:52.759 --> 00:18:54.779
of those things. Well, I thought they were going

00:18:54.779 --> 00:18:58.720
to. I was like, okay, they've, you know, maybe

00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:01.940
they weren't as focused as they should be. Maybe

00:19:01.940 --> 00:19:04.700
the jet lag coming from Brazil was insane. I

00:19:04.700 --> 00:19:06.140
don't even know if they came from Brazil or if

00:19:06.140 --> 00:19:07.019
they trained somewhere else. No, they stayed

00:19:07.019 --> 00:19:11.359
in Japan. Oh, my gosh. Okay. Forget that. But,

00:19:11.400 --> 00:19:15.089
like. I was like, okay, they got by this one,

00:19:15.190 --> 00:19:19.250
but they'll tighten it up. And I agree. Quarterfinal

00:19:19.250 --> 00:19:25.630
three. Slovenia beat France 3 -1. I did not see

00:19:25.630 --> 00:19:28.150
this coming. I thought this match was really

00:19:28.150 --> 00:19:33.210
interesting. So Slovenia dug in and extended

00:19:33.210 --> 00:19:36.589
rallies maybe more than I've ever seen in men's

00:19:36.589 --> 00:19:40.650
volleyball to date. They did not let the ball

00:19:40.650 --> 00:19:43.960
hit the floor. And they ground out an impressive

00:19:43.960 --> 00:19:47.859
first set win against France in this match. And

00:19:47.859 --> 00:19:52.339
I will say the right side, Stern, for Slovenia

00:19:52.339 --> 00:19:58.240
was unbelievably good in this match. And that

00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:03.579
was a huge win in that set. And it was interesting,

00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:06.059
you saw in the second set, France came out and

00:20:06.059 --> 00:20:09.660
absolutely kicked the snot out of Slovenia. And

00:20:09.660 --> 00:20:13.460
while they were winning, They were kind of laughing

00:20:13.460 --> 00:20:17.519
about how badly they were beating Slovenia. There

00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:22.500
was this arrogance about them that was more than

00:20:22.500 --> 00:20:25.480
just confidence in how good they are. And don't

00:20:25.480 --> 00:20:27.980
get me wrong, you can earn your confidence, and

00:20:27.980 --> 00:20:31.299
France has every right to have that confidence.

00:20:31.740 --> 00:20:34.740
But they were laughing at plays that kind of

00:20:34.740 --> 00:20:39.000
went their way in that set. It almost felt to

00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:43.039
me... Like we're going to win this no matter

00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:45.240
what after they beat them so badly in the second

00:20:45.240 --> 00:20:49.619
set. And Slovenia did not go away. And France

00:20:49.619 --> 00:20:53.099
could not find their rhythm in sets three and

00:20:53.099 --> 00:20:57.279
four. And it cost them. And I believe it started

00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:01.000
with that almost flippant attitude that they

00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:03.119
were supposed to win that quarter. That is the

00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:08.819
read I got watching that match. Expected more

00:21:08.819 --> 00:21:13.880
from France. Their middles were not... For me,

00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:17.019
their middles were not running as well as usual.

00:21:17.859 --> 00:21:21.559
Everything just seemed a little more dimmed,

00:21:21.559 --> 00:21:25.799
I guess, than I expected. Nothing was sharp for

00:21:25.799 --> 00:21:29.400
France. They made 41 errors to Slovenia's 17

00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:32.619
over those four sets. I'm sorry. They gave up

00:21:32.619 --> 00:21:35.740
over 10 points on average a set against Slovenia.

00:21:35.779 --> 00:21:39.250
And Slovenia's... No joke. They might not have

00:21:39.250 --> 00:21:42.750
the quote unquote individual firepower that France

00:21:42.750 --> 00:21:47.130
has, but they play as a team and they will wear

00:21:47.130 --> 00:21:52.049
you down. And France did not come prepared to

00:21:52.049 --> 00:21:54.289
compete at that level, in my opinion. Well, they

00:21:54.289 --> 00:21:58.569
play a similar style. You know, their players

00:21:58.569 --> 00:22:03.140
are crafty. They work the shots. They're not

00:22:03.140 --> 00:22:05.759
afraid to mix it up. Switch the tempos. They

00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:09.180
run fast offense. Both of them have really solid

00:22:09.180 --> 00:22:12.299
liberos. But, like, Slovenia doesn't have, like,

00:22:12.380 --> 00:22:16.359
the star power, I would say. Like, their setter

00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:19.339
does not. He plays in Slovenia. And he plays.

00:22:19.539 --> 00:22:21.960
He has played for, like, smaller clubs. Like,

00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:24.819
it's not like these guys are going out. Obviously,

00:22:24.819 --> 00:22:29.730
some of them are. But they're not, like. signing

00:22:29.730 --> 00:22:33.329
these huge contracts like a Brizard or you know

00:22:33.329 --> 00:22:35.950
guys like that but I thought the way that they

00:22:35.950 --> 00:22:39.710
ran their pipe was virtually unstoppable well

00:22:39.710 --> 00:22:42.430
their middles are so good their middles are so

00:22:42.430 --> 00:22:45.769
big they're physical honestly they could run

00:22:45.769 --> 00:22:50.390
them more but running having those middles with

00:22:50.390 --> 00:22:52.930
the pipe over top that was virtually unstoppable

00:22:52.930 --> 00:22:58.609
I thought Mojic was So good. You mentioned Stern.

00:22:58.890 --> 00:23:03.009
Stern hit over 500 on the match. But Mojic was

00:23:03.009 --> 00:23:06.210
like they showed up and they just like did their

00:23:06.210 --> 00:23:09.569
job when they needed to make the sub. Their subs

00:23:09.569 --> 00:23:12.450
came in and did a really nice job as well. Like

00:23:12.450 --> 00:23:14.750
they were able to benefit off of every change

00:23:14.750 --> 00:23:17.390
they made. Their coach didn't try to do anything

00:23:17.390 --> 00:23:19.670
sneaky with the timeouts like we saw in week

00:23:19.670 --> 00:23:23.619
three. He just like let them play. And for me,

00:23:23.619 --> 00:23:28.940
like, yeah, I love Klevno. I love Brizard. I

00:23:28.940 --> 00:23:31.640
loved how Four has been playing all tournament.

00:23:31.839 --> 00:23:34.299
Grabennikov, I thought Grabennikov played very

00:23:34.299 --> 00:23:38.140
well. His setting, you guys, if this man was

00:23:38.140 --> 00:23:41.500
not a setter in a past life, I don't know. Somebody

00:23:41.500 --> 00:23:44.220
tell me, was he a setter in youth? Because, man,

00:23:44.380 --> 00:23:47.980
running tempo, running back sets across the court

00:23:47.980 --> 00:23:52.139
in tempo, I was like, oh, my gosh, hello. So

00:23:52.139 --> 00:23:54.380
Grebennikov was the best player for France for

00:23:54.380 --> 00:23:59.400
me. Agreed. But their middle struggled. The way

00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:02.880
that Klevno did nothing. Klevno hit zero in set

00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:07.279
three and hit minus 300 in set four. Luati hit

00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:11.960
minus 250 in set three. He hit 300 in set four.

00:24:12.039 --> 00:24:16.160
They didn't have two players have a good set

00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:19.240
other than set two where they were. spectacular

00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:22.180
so if you take set two out of their statistics

00:24:22.180 --> 00:24:25.420
for the batch their outside hitters were not

00:24:25.420 --> 00:24:29.160
good well this might be a hot take but i thought

00:24:29.160 --> 00:24:33.259
brisard kind of sewered his hitters a bunch i

00:24:33.259 --> 00:24:35.819
didn't think he played particularly well either

00:24:35.819 --> 00:24:38.380
like he was setting some balls that were like

00:24:38.380 --> 00:24:41.220
really tight and then pretty far off and granted

00:24:41.220 --> 00:24:44.079
he made some spectacular plays because he just

00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:47.500
does But in between those spectacular plays,

00:24:47.660 --> 00:24:51.700
like the run -of -the -mill plays, I found him

00:24:51.700 --> 00:24:53.900
to be a little more inconsistent than I'm used

00:24:53.900 --> 00:24:57.460
to. Well, and with Slovenia's middles as physical

00:24:57.460 --> 00:24:59.660
as they are and as disciplined on the block as

00:24:59.660 --> 00:25:02.839
they are, that made life really miserable for

00:25:02.839 --> 00:25:05.079
the French outside hitters. So that was a big

00:25:05.079 --> 00:25:09.640
shock. This match was... I thought it was going

00:25:09.640 --> 00:25:13.720
to be much, A, much more competitive, but B,

00:25:13.799 --> 00:25:17.000
that France... in bringing a lot of their big

00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:19.740
boys, which they didn't even use Chin and Yeze,

00:25:19.799 --> 00:25:23.819
by the way. Like, why? Okay, I understand Patry

00:25:23.819 --> 00:25:26.380
got sick and had to go home, whatever, but Far

00:25:26.380 --> 00:25:29.759
has been, like, holding it down all V &L. Anyway.

00:25:29.960 --> 00:25:32.500
I mean, we talked about Slovenia being the team

00:25:32.500 --> 00:25:36.720
that makes you beat them, and France did not

00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:38.440
beat them. They didn't play well enough, and

00:25:38.440 --> 00:25:41.019
that's what happens when you play a team like

00:25:41.019 --> 00:25:45.000
Slovenia who just doesn't give up. All of their

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:46.740
outside hitters, all of their players played

00:25:46.740 --> 00:25:49.559
particularly well. They all had a match. And

00:25:49.559 --> 00:25:52.920
when that happens, they're very, very good. Okay,

00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:58.660
our final quarterfinal. Poland beat Japan three

00:25:58.660 --> 00:26:03.599
straight. I didn't expect three straight. I was

00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:07.440
curious. Every time a Japanese team plays, we

00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:10.500
talked about it in the women's side when Japan

00:26:10.500 --> 00:26:17.230
played Turkey. Are Japan's strengths going to

00:26:17.230 --> 00:26:20.529
be able to overcome their weaknesses and their

00:26:20.529 --> 00:26:24.869
opponents' weaknesses? In this case, not even

00:26:24.869 --> 00:26:31.190
close. Their serving was awful to me. Well, they

00:26:31.190 --> 00:26:35.349
made 17 errors in three sets, which by men's

00:26:35.349 --> 00:26:38.210
standard is not, I mean, it's a lot, but it's

00:26:38.210 --> 00:26:42.130
not a lot, a lot. But when they weren't, They

00:26:42.130 --> 00:26:44.470
weren't applying any pressure. Poland was in

00:26:44.470 --> 00:26:46.730
system. It seemed like the whole match. You're

00:26:46.730 --> 00:26:48.710
not going to compete at the net with Poland when

00:26:48.710 --> 00:26:52.930
they're in system. I'm sorry. So, like, rip it.

00:26:53.210 --> 00:26:56.569
Yeah. They did not find a serving rhythm at all.

00:26:56.829 --> 00:27:01.950
And if Poland has a weakness, it's that scene

00:27:01.950 --> 00:27:05.650
between Leon and Fornell. Or between Leon and

00:27:05.650 --> 00:27:08.740
anybody. Well, yeah. The sideline. I mean, you

00:27:08.740 --> 00:27:11.319
can expose him in that way, and they didn't do

00:27:11.319 --> 00:27:14.779
that. No. No. The number of balls that the other

00:27:14.779 --> 00:27:17.579
guys passed, other than Leon, I was like, come

00:27:17.579 --> 00:27:19.579
on. And that had to have been the serving strategy.

00:27:19.880 --> 00:27:23.400
Like, what are you doing? Yeah. Because the pull

00:27:23.400 --> 00:27:28.400
in Libero is unbelievably good. You've got to

00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:32.460
have him not touch the ball. And Fornell is an

00:27:32.460 --> 00:27:36.250
all -around great player. Yeah. I thought that

00:27:36.250 --> 00:27:39.609
was Japan's ticket. And for me, that was a huge

00:27:39.609 --> 00:27:43.710
miss. And the other thing is that Japan, I understand,

00:27:43.789 --> 00:27:46.549
and I said this about the women's game, your

00:27:46.549 --> 00:27:49.349
middles don't match up size -wise, but you have

00:27:49.349 --> 00:27:53.369
to find a way to earn the middle of the court.

00:27:53.990 --> 00:27:55.930
Or have the middles from the other team at least

00:27:55.930 --> 00:27:58.410
respect them for a second. That's what I meant

00:27:58.410 --> 00:28:01.170
by earn. You can't have the other middles just

00:28:01.170 --> 00:28:05.079
leaving to go to the pins. You sewer those outside

00:28:05.079 --> 00:28:08.279
hitters. And Japan's outside hitters played okay.

00:28:08.599 --> 00:28:12.880
I thought Miura played really well. I thought

00:28:12.880 --> 00:28:17.240
the outsides, not so much. Miura held it down.

00:28:17.380 --> 00:28:20.140
I think he was the only person scoring points

00:28:20.140 --> 00:28:23.559
for Japan. Ishikawa scored points. Sometimes.

00:28:23.859 --> 00:28:28.180
But he wasn't super effective. They did not make

00:28:28.180 --> 00:28:30.339
life easy for them. They needed to set the middle.

00:28:30.660 --> 00:28:34.349
And I thought setter choice. for Japan wasn't

00:28:34.349 --> 00:28:36.970
great. Well, they had their guy that's been coming

00:28:36.970 --> 00:28:41.750
in on the double sub starting. Yeah. Japan needs

00:28:41.750 --> 00:28:46.049
to run more overload, more movement. You need

00:28:46.049 --> 00:28:48.210
to give the blockers something to look at. Their

00:28:48.210 --> 00:28:52.609
offense was just too vanilla for not having guys

00:28:52.609 --> 00:28:55.750
who can just go out and bang. And on the flip

00:28:55.750 --> 00:29:00.589
side, Japan had no answer for Sasek. This guy

00:29:00.589 --> 00:29:04.799
was incredible. unstoppable in that match. They

00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:08.460
set him the ball, and he was just scoring at

00:29:08.460 --> 00:29:11.559
will. It was kind of fun to watch, to be honest.

00:29:12.279 --> 00:29:15.539
Well, and of course, they couldn't stop the Polish

00:29:15.539 --> 00:29:19.019
medals either. No. It was just a seismic match,

00:29:19.220 --> 00:29:23.440
and they could not get them out of system. It

00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:25.440
was just as easy as that. But the thing is, even

00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:28.460
though they weren't serving Leon, I found Leon

00:29:28.460 --> 00:29:30.700
to be very inconsistent. He actually got pulled.

00:29:31.309 --> 00:29:33.670
Yeah, he wasn't good. He wasn't good at all.

00:29:34.069 --> 00:29:36.789
And he didn't need to be. That's the thing, because

00:29:36.789 --> 00:29:39.710
Sasek scored at will, and the middle and right

00:29:39.710 --> 00:29:42.769
side of the court, it was just like, okay. For

00:29:42.769 --> 00:29:47.690
now, he was fine. He did his job, but the two

00:29:47.690 --> 00:29:50.730
left sides for Poland were not spectacular by

00:29:50.730 --> 00:29:53.250
any means in that match. But I think Japan's

00:29:53.250 --> 00:29:56.690
serving strategy choice, the way, like you mentioned,

00:29:56.789 --> 00:29:59.529
their vanilla offense, the fact that Miyawara

00:29:59.529 --> 00:30:02.299
was the only one, that was putting up consistent

00:30:02.299 --> 00:30:05.720
numbers, it's just not going to happen. No, they

00:30:05.720 --> 00:30:08.619
did not play to their identity, I didn't think,

00:30:08.759 --> 00:30:12.799
and Poland was very good. I mean, Poland was

00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:15.140
a very good all -tournament, but yeah, it was

00:30:15.140 --> 00:30:18.559
pretty lopsided. Okay, let's move on to the semifinals

00:30:18.559 --> 00:30:22.960
here. In one of the semis, we had Poland defeat

00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:27.039
Brazil 3 -0. Are you going to talk about Brazil

00:30:27.039 --> 00:30:29.059
now, or are you going to save it for the bronze?

00:30:30.119 --> 00:30:32.680
No, you know what? This is where they lost. So

00:30:32.680 --> 00:30:37.039
let's talk about the systemic issues that I think

00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:40.880
that they have. Buckle up, everybody. You might

00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:45.619
not be fans of these comments. I think that Brazil

00:30:45.619 --> 00:30:50.099
has a lot of very good hitters on their team.

00:30:51.039 --> 00:30:56.480
I don't think that Alain or Darlan are top, top

00:30:56.480 --> 00:31:00.460
opposites. However, usually between the two of

00:31:00.460 --> 00:31:02.519
them, you can find somebody who's going to have

00:31:02.519 --> 00:31:05.200
a good game. So I don't really have an issue

00:31:05.200 --> 00:31:11.000
with that. I think that their left sides, Lucarelli,

00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:13.299
when he's healthy, is very good. They've got

00:31:13.299 --> 00:31:15.900
a couple of young guys who Bergman struggled,

00:31:16.220 --> 00:31:20.039
I thought, in this week. But I think their biggest

00:31:20.039 --> 00:31:27.039
issue is their setter. I did not like him. All

00:31:27.039 --> 00:31:33.099
finals. I thought he underset the middle on good

00:31:33.099 --> 00:31:35.279
passes. So one of the things I noticed was when

00:31:35.279 --> 00:31:38.259
the pass was in a good place, like close to the

00:31:38.259 --> 00:31:42.240
net, he underset both middles pretty consistently.

00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:44.279
They were like hitting from their ears. Yeah,

00:31:44.339 --> 00:31:47.259
it was tough to watch. He runs the middle actually

00:31:47.259 --> 00:31:49.920
pretty well from the 10 -foot line or the attack

00:31:49.920 --> 00:31:53.740
line, but it's still... His connection with Flavio,

00:31:53.799 --> 00:31:56.420
other than at the end of the bronze medal game,

00:31:56.539 --> 00:31:59.019
was not good. I think Flavio was getting too

00:31:59.019 --> 00:32:01.279
close to the net on his approach, and he was

00:32:01.279 --> 00:32:04.740
being underset. I don't think he sets the left

00:32:04.740 --> 00:32:06.940
side. I didn't see a left side look comfortable

00:32:06.940 --> 00:32:10.980
on the court. Pretty much all final. Same in

00:32:10.980 --> 00:32:13.779
China, same in the semifinal, and same in the

00:32:13.779 --> 00:32:17.759
bronze medal. And I think if you were to put

00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:21.440
a more consistent setter on that Brazilian side,

00:32:22.479 --> 00:32:24.900
they would be scary good because I think they

00:32:24.900 --> 00:32:27.220
have the pieces to be able to do it. I think

00:32:27.220 --> 00:32:29.180
he really hurts them. And I don't know why he

00:32:29.180 --> 00:32:30.539
didn't get taken off the floor, quite frankly.

00:32:30.539 --> 00:32:32.319
I don't know what the backup setter, we didn't

00:32:32.319 --> 00:32:35.279
really see him at all. Mateusz G. Yeah, so I

00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:38.519
mean, maybe he's worse, but that to me is the

00:32:38.519 --> 00:32:42.880
glaring difference between them and the other

00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:45.900
top teams. Because Bergman did struggle, but

00:32:45.900 --> 00:32:48.440
I don't think he's getting hittable balls. a

00:32:48.440 --> 00:32:50.700
lot of the time. He's not having rhythm. And

00:32:50.700 --> 00:32:52.680
I'm not saying he's the answer. You know, Artur

00:32:52.680 --> 00:32:55.480
came in and played pretty well in a couple different

00:32:55.480 --> 00:32:58.960
matches. But to me, it was glaring that he was

00:32:58.960 --> 00:33:02.200
not connecting with his middles or his left sides

00:33:02.200 --> 00:33:05.420
very well. I was getting very frustrated watching.

00:33:06.799 --> 00:33:09.480
The announcers kept going on and on about how

00:33:09.480 --> 00:33:13.619
amazing Kachopa is. But here's the thing. Kachopa

00:33:13.619 --> 00:33:19.220
makes... spectacular plays. When? Like, he'll

00:33:19.220 --> 00:33:22.380
make a set where he'll fall down at the attack

00:33:22.380 --> 00:33:25.420
line, he'll run the middle on a 31, he'll thread

00:33:25.420 --> 00:33:29.200
it in there, and... He serves well. He serves

00:33:29.200 --> 00:33:32.019
well. He hustles. Like, there is a good... No,

00:33:32.019 --> 00:33:34.960
he tries hard, for sure. He works really hard.

00:33:35.279 --> 00:33:38.720
And there's an aura around. You watch those spectacular

00:33:38.720 --> 00:33:41.460
plays, but he doesn't take care of the details

00:33:41.460 --> 00:33:45.230
as well as you need to. in my opinion, to be

00:33:45.230 --> 00:33:47.170
a top -level team. Well, we didn't watch them

00:33:47.170 --> 00:33:52.250
play a ton in the preliminary rounds, but speaking

00:33:52.250 --> 00:33:56.789
of the finals, the fact that the only player

00:33:56.789 --> 00:33:59.609
who was able to consistently make contact with

00:33:59.609 --> 00:34:02.950
his swings being the right side, it's not good

00:34:02.950 --> 00:34:07.529
enough. No. Like, I can't tell you how many times

00:34:07.529 --> 00:34:11.210
the left sides were just tipping balls. I was

00:34:11.210 --> 00:34:14.550
like, at what point? Are we going to see a swing

00:34:14.550 --> 00:34:20.530
here? Bergman, Onorato, Luccarelli, every single

00:34:20.530 --> 00:34:22.789
one running in. They're getting in front of the

00:34:22.789 --> 00:34:25.010
ball. You can see from the side view, the ball

00:34:25.010 --> 00:34:27.409
is fading off the net. They're getting underneath

00:34:27.409 --> 00:34:30.869
the ball. So either slow down your tempo so you

00:34:30.869 --> 00:34:34.289
can stay behind the ball or switch your center.

00:34:34.630 --> 00:34:37.469
Because these guys were not able to hit anything.

00:34:37.690 --> 00:34:39.610
The left sides were able to hit the pipe ball

00:34:39.610 --> 00:34:41.989
because they were already coming in from behind.

00:34:42.840 --> 00:34:46.519
So to me, I thought it was a setting issue. Yes,

00:34:46.559 --> 00:34:48.500
there's always things you can do as a hitter,

00:34:48.519 --> 00:34:50.820
but when you're rotating through four outsides

00:34:50.820 --> 00:34:53.639
and nobody is finding rhythm, that's a setter

00:34:53.639 --> 00:34:55.840
issue. Well, it's not shocking to me that the

00:34:55.840 --> 00:34:59.579
left side that I thought was able to make the

00:34:59.579 --> 00:35:03.739
best contact was Artur. Yeah. Because he is significantly,

00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:07.760
he's bigger. Like you saw Luccarelli getting

00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:09.719
under balls or reaching behind his head. You

00:35:09.719 --> 00:35:11.800
saw Onorato getting underneath balls, reaching

00:35:11.800 --> 00:35:15.039
behind his head. Or looking like they were too

00:35:15.039 --> 00:35:18.119
high. But Artur, they were in his window because

00:35:18.119 --> 00:35:21.880
he's bigger. And he has a shorter approach. And

00:35:21.880 --> 00:35:24.260
so he can kind of adjust a little bit better

00:35:24.260 --> 00:35:26.559
than some of those outside hitters who have those

00:35:26.559 --> 00:35:30.480
kind of long, flowing approaches. Yeah, it was...

00:35:31.179 --> 00:35:33.480
It was frustrating to watch the setting. I think

00:35:33.480 --> 00:35:36.380
that that was a huge issue, middle and outside.

00:35:36.500 --> 00:35:40.239
I will say Allen held it down between him and

00:35:40.239 --> 00:35:44.340
Darlan. They figured it out. Like they, when

00:35:44.340 --> 00:35:47.079
Darlan came in, he was good for points every

00:35:47.079 --> 00:35:50.760
time he came in. So they did have one section

00:35:50.760 --> 00:35:54.260
of the court that was able to run, but. I mean,

00:35:54.260 --> 00:35:57.699
and on the flip side, Poland did play very well.

00:35:57.780 --> 00:36:02.869
Like you saw the same thing. Unbelievable. Leon

00:36:02.869 --> 00:36:05.989
struggled again in the semifinal. He kept getting

00:36:05.989 --> 00:36:10.090
pulled, but then Fornal got injured. Fornal got

00:36:10.090 --> 00:36:14.889
injured. But then he left the third set, so Leon

00:36:14.889 --> 00:36:18.030
had to come back in and stay because Semenyuk

00:36:18.030 --> 00:36:21.769
was playing already, but then Fornal got it together

00:36:21.769 --> 00:36:24.929
and played the fourth, but Leon was not good

00:36:24.929 --> 00:36:28.900
again. Nope. No, he wasn't. It was the, honestly,

00:36:29.099 --> 00:36:33.639
for me, the libero right side and middles for

00:36:33.639 --> 00:36:37.280
Poland kind of got them to the final. The serving

00:36:37.280 --> 00:36:40.500
pressure for Poland against Brazil was also impressive.

00:36:40.679 --> 00:36:43.539
They just kept coming and coming and coming,

00:36:43.639 --> 00:36:47.739
and their blocking was also very good in that

00:36:47.739 --> 00:36:51.179
regard. So, yeah, the combination of Brazil not

00:36:51.179 --> 00:36:53.300
being in super rhythm in the middle and on the

00:36:53.300 --> 00:36:55.340
left side, the serving pressure from Poland,

00:36:56.570 --> 00:36:59.869
Again, Sasek was unstoppable. It just didn't

00:36:59.869 --> 00:37:02.389
work out in Brazil's favor. Okay, semifinal number

00:37:02.389 --> 00:37:06.650
two. We had Italy beating Slovenia 3 -1. Kind

00:37:06.650 --> 00:37:12.969
of an opposite situation to what Slovenia experienced

00:37:12.969 --> 00:37:17.070
in the quarterfinal where they lost the first

00:37:17.070 --> 00:37:21.590
and then they absolutely dominated Italy in the

00:37:21.590 --> 00:37:25.650
second. And then lost the next two. So it was

00:37:25.650 --> 00:37:27.469
literally opposite day from when they played

00:37:27.469 --> 00:37:30.190
France. Well, Slovenia made zero errors in the

00:37:30.190 --> 00:37:33.389
second set. It was insane. Yeah, it was. That

00:37:33.389 --> 00:37:37.429
might have been the best set of volleyball from

00:37:37.429 --> 00:37:41.469
an individual team I've ever seen. It was incredible.

00:37:41.869 --> 00:37:45.949
Zero errors. That's unheard of. Yeah, it was

00:37:45.949 --> 00:37:49.269
wild to watch. So you would think they would

00:37:49.269 --> 00:37:53.369
have the momentum after that. But this is Italy's

00:37:53.369 --> 00:37:55.989
strength, right? They're just so consistent.

00:37:56.130 --> 00:37:59.409
They have so many options of guys that can come

00:37:59.409 --> 00:38:02.929
in and play and, you know, they know how to compete

00:38:02.929 --> 00:38:06.349
and they know how to win. They came out and beat

00:38:06.349 --> 00:38:10.309
Slovenia after that. They realized, okay, that

00:38:10.309 --> 00:38:14.429
set is what it is. Can you do that two more times

00:38:14.429 --> 00:38:17.329
to knock us out? And the answer was no, they

00:38:17.329 --> 00:38:20.940
couldn't. I'm obsessed. with the way that Gianelli

00:38:20.940 --> 00:38:28.039
lays that ball up for Micheletto, okay? A lefty

00:38:28.039 --> 00:38:33.420
left side, that is not an easy task, okay? But

00:38:33.420 --> 00:38:36.400
the way that the, where the ball hits its peak

00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:39.480
and where it's falling for Micheletto to make

00:38:39.480 --> 00:38:44.760
contact is so consistent and so perfect for a

00:38:44.760 --> 00:38:48.969
left -handed hitter. I'm just in awe watching

00:38:48.969 --> 00:38:52.989
it. Yeah, it's impressive. And this, to me, is

00:38:52.989 --> 00:38:56.829
the difference. Right now, when you watch Broussard,

00:38:56.949 --> 00:39:01.789
when you watch Fernando, both of those are flashy

00:39:01.789 --> 00:39:04.150
setters, I would say. They make spectacular plays.

00:39:04.289 --> 00:39:07.369
They do really great things. But when you watch

00:39:07.369 --> 00:39:09.849
Gianelli's set, he also does some spectacular

00:39:09.849 --> 00:39:13.519
things. But when things go sideways or the pass

00:39:13.519 --> 00:39:16.400
isn't in rhythm, he has an ability to keep his

00:39:16.400 --> 00:39:19.119
hitters in rhythm. And if you pay attention,

00:39:19.320 --> 00:39:21.139
his hitters always know where the ball is going

00:39:21.139 --> 00:39:23.119
to be and what the timing should be. And you

00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:26.719
watch these huge passes or these super high digs.

00:39:27.260 --> 00:39:29.820
Everybody's patient. He comes in and delivers

00:39:29.820 --> 00:39:32.820
tempo. And it's super consistent. They ran the

00:39:32.820 --> 00:39:36.659
middle pipe combo in this game to perfection.

00:39:37.119 --> 00:39:39.000
It was incredible. Which is usually Slovenia's

00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:44.449
weapon. Yeah. You know, Ryslikski, I have a tough

00:39:44.449 --> 00:39:47.110
time with that name, didn't play particularly

00:39:47.110 --> 00:39:50.849
well. He got subbed out and their backup came

00:39:50.849 --> 00:39:53.590
into play. Romanov did a good job. Romanov did

00:39:53.590 --> 00:39:56.989
a good job. Again, the Italian depth really helped

00:39:56.989 --> 00:39:59.650
them here because you had a couple guys not play

00:39:59.650 --> 00:40:02.550
amazing and you had pieces come off the bench

00:40:02.550 --> 00:40:06.610
who were able to help and be effective. Watching

00:40:06.610 --> 00:40:08.969
this match and seeing how Italy was able to...

00:40:09.610 --> 00:40:14.710
regroup, stay consistent, and kind of find that

00:40:14.710 --> 00:40:17.369
rhythm again, especially after set two, I was

00:40:17.369 --> 00:40:21.409
like, they're going to win it all. I was so convinced.

00:40:21.809 --> 00:40:24.530
Their ability to apply service pressure consistently

00:40:24.530 --> 00:40:30.289
over a match is amazing. They had nine aces to

00:40:30.289 --> 00:40:34.369
Slovenia's two, and the ace to arrow ratio sometimes

00:40:34.369 --> 00:40:37.679
gets blown out of the water. in terms of its

00:40:37.679 --> 00:40:40.360
importance of that specific number, but they

00:40:40.360 --> 00:40:43.619
just bring pressure. They take teams out of system,

00:40:43.739 --> 00:40:45.380
then they load up the block, or they know where

00:40:45.380 --> 00:40:47.460
to be on defense, or they eliminate an option,

00:40:47.559 --> 00:40:50.340
and then life is hard. They do that incredibly

00:40:50.340 --> 00:40:54.019
well. All right, those medal matches. In the

00:40:54.019 --> 00:40:58.619
bronze, we saw Brazil beat Slovenia 3 -1. Seeing

00:40:58.619 --> 00:41:02.179
Brazil's quarter in semi, I thought Slovenia

00:41:02.179 --> 00:41:04.519
was going to take this one. I thought so going

00:41:04.519 --> 00:41:07.940
in as well. I thought the difference was Stern

00:41:07.940 --> 00:41:11.920
struggled on the right side for Slovenia, and

00:41:11.920 --> 00:41:15.619
they could not find somebody to score points.

00:41:15.800 --> 00:41:17.760
And I don't know whether they just ran out of

00:41:17.760 --> 00:41:22.659
gas in terms of their defensive play and ability

00:41:22.659 --> 00:41:25.780
to extend rallies, or if Brazil was just that

00:41:25.780 --> 00:41:28.139
much more physical. You saw Artur come in for

00:41:28.139 --> 00:41:31.780
Brazil and really play well. And as the match

00:41:31.780 --> 00:41:36.269
went on... My overarching knock on Slovenia is

00:41:36.269 --> 00:41:38.210
that I think they have such good middles and

00:41:38.210 --> 00:41:41.210
they do not run them enough. I think they could

00:41:41.210 --> 00:41:44.170
be so dominant. And by the end, they barely set

00:41:44.170 --> 00:41:48.349
them. And Brazil's block, which was on point,

00:41:48.570 --> 00:41:53.230
feasted. Especially in set four. Yeah, as the

00:41:53.230 --> 00:41:56.869
set went on, it was not even funny how many blocks

00:41:56.869 --> 00:41:58.530
they got. Like the fourth set was a blowout.

00:41:58.769 --> 00:42:02.809
Yeah. This was the first match that we saw Lucarelli

00:42:02.809 --> 00:42:05.869
start. He had been coming off the bench in the

00:42:05.869 --> 00:42:09.389
quarter and the semi, but they actually started

00:42:09.389 --> 00:42:11.769
him this match. I think they realized that they

00:42:11.769 --> 00:42:14.530
needed him. His stability a little bit, because

00:42:14.530 --> 00:42:17.510
the left side, as we said, was not working very

00:42:17.510 --> 00:42:19.550
well. Well, and I thought the Fernando setting

00:42:19.550 --> 00:42:21.730
issue continued. Like, it didn't get any better.

00:42:21.829 --> 00:42:24.670
The same issues that we had seen in the quarter

00:42:24.670 --> 00:42:27.730
and the semi, I think we saw again in the bronze.

00:42:28.909 --> 00:42:35.449
I think Kachoba finally found Flavio. Yep, Flavio.

00:42:35.449 --> 00:42:37.469
In the fourth set, but they were already rolling.

00:42:37.730 --> 00:42:39.869
Yeah. Well, a couple of things that stuck out

00:42:39.869 --> 00:42:43.389
to me from a numbers standpoint in this match

00:42:43.389 --> 00:42:47.170
was both left sides for Slovenia hit under 200

00:42:47.170 --> 00:42:51.909
in this match, which was not the case in the

00:42:51.909 --> 00:42:54.510
other matches. So that was really tough. I thought

00:42:54.510 --> 00:42:58.730
the... Left side Stern struggled to pass, so

00:42:58.730 --> 00:42:59.969
they had to take him out. They took him out,

00:43:00.050 --> 00:43:04.570
yeah. Slovenia only set their middles 15 times

00:43:04.570 --> 00:43:09.630
in four sets. That's just not enough. Those are

00:43:09.630 --> 00:43:12.329
big boys. They're huge. They hit very good angles.

00:43:12.409 --> 00:43:16.409
Yes. I think they're, especially when you saw

00:43:16.409 --> 00:43:20.530
that the right side Stern struggled to score

00:43:20.530 --> 00:43:24.670
in this match, like you have... You have actually

00:43:24.670 --> 00:43:26.889
three very good middles on the Slovenia team,

00:43:26.989 --> 00:43:29.789
all who I think can score points. They do a good

00:43:29.789 --> 00:43:34.369
job of being open. Get them the ball. I thought

00:43:34.369 --> 00:43:37.570
that was a huge miss for Slovenia. Agreed. Well,

00:43:37.809 --> 00:43:42.210
and then once Brazil kind of settled into their

00:43:42.210 --> 00:43:47.099
defensive system, as you said. They were just

00:43:47.099 --> 00:43:49.599
shutting down the outside hitters like crazy.

00:43:49.719 --> 00:43:52.840
Like Mulyanovich came in for the right side stern.

00:43:53.139 --> 00:43:57.719
He did really well initially, but then as he

00:43:57.719 --> 00:43:59.980
stayed in and the middles weren't getting set,

00:44:00.119 --> 00:44:03.719
it was just like block fest. Yeah, he was a little

00:44:03.719 --> 00:44:06.639
out of his depth on that one. The other thing,

00:44:06.739 --> 00:44:09.800
and I don't know why. I thought Slovenia's game

00:44:09.800 --> 00:44:12.039
plans, for the most part, were pretty solid.

00:44:12.360 --> 00:44:15.079
But Alain, especially in the first two sets when

00:44:15.079 --> 00:44:17.739
the game was still pretty close, they were giving

00:44:17.739 --> 00:44:20.440
him so much line on the right side of the court

00:44:20.440 --> 00:44:23.280
for Brazil, and he was scoring at will. It took

00:44:23.280 --> 00:44:25.480
them way too long to adjust. Well, Ana Libero

00:44:25.480 --> 00:44:28.280
was coming off the line. Yeah, I thought that

00:44:28.280 --> 00:44:32.000
was a huge miss game plan -wise. The left sides

00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:33.860
were struggling at the beginning. Fernando was

00:44:33.860 --> 00:44:35.980
having trouble connecting with the middles. Alain

00:44:35.980 --> 00:44:38.900
kept them in those sets, and they kept giving

00:44:38.900 --> 00:44:43.280
him all this line to hit, and I just didn't understand

00:44:43.280 --> 00:44:46.559
why. And it took them way too long to adjust.

00:44:46.559 --> 00:44:48.659
But I feel like every team did that against him.

00:44:48.880 --> 00:44:51.760
Like, I don't know, maybe in preliminary rounds

00:44:51.760 --> 00:44:54.320
he was going up and hammering an angle or something.

00:44:54.780 --> 00:44:57.000
So they were like, okay, we need to take that

00:44:57.000 --> 00:45:01.900
away. But in the finals, like this week, every

00:45:01.900 --> 00:45:06.280
team was blocking Allen's angle, leaving him

00:45:06.280 --> 00:45:09.380
a truckload of line. And he found it. He was

00:45:09.380 --> 00:45:12.800
obviously finding it. But his shots that he was

00:45:12.800 --> 00:45:16.949
going for consistently. were line -line seam.

00:45:17.050 --> 00:45:19.969
When he was whiffing balls or making errors is

00:45:19.969 --> 00:45:22.110
when he was going into the angle. So I'm like,

00:45:22.170 --> 00:45:26.449
can we just move this over and force him to hit

00:45:26.449 --> 00:45:27.949
an angle? Because that's where he's making his

00:45:27.949 --> 00:45:30.969
errors. Your middles are so big that they can

00:45:30.969 --> 00:45:34.250
cut that angle off with their hand position as

00:45:34.250 --> 00:45:36.690
well. I just didn't think they leaned into their

00:45:36.690 --> 00:45:38.949
strength. I wonder if they would have been able

00:45:38.949 --> 00:45:42.130
to shut Alain down at the beginning of that match.

00:45:42.460 --> 00:45:45.199
with a better game plan, what would have happened?

00:45:45.260 --> 00:45:48.739
Because he kept them in that match. He kept them

00:45:48.739 --> 00:45:51.539
in every match, honestly. Well, I think Darlan

00:45:51.539 --> 00:45:54.579
had a really good semifinal. He came in. Darlan

00:45:54.579 --> 00:45:59.280
came in. He played more early on, but I said

00:45:59.280 --> 00:46:01.400
this when we were watching. I was like, Darlan

00:46:01.400 --> 00:46:04.619
is the perfect sub. Yeah, he might be my favorite

00:46:04.619 --> 00:46:06.920
player to watch. I can understand why fans love

00:46:06.920 --> 00:46:12.239
him. The attitude, the fire, the passion. As

00:46:12.239 --> 00:46:15.300
an anime fan myself, seeing him do the Naruto

00:46:15.300 --> 00:46:21.199
stuff is pretty sick. But, you know, every team

00:46:21.199 --> 00:46:26.099
needs a sub that, like, only remembers the good

00:46:26.099 --> 00:46:29.380
stuff. And just, like, legit thinks that they're

00:46:29.380 --> 00:46:32.179
so amazing. I don't know Darlan at all. But the

00:46:32.179 --> 00:46:35.280
impression that I get is that he is, like, I

00:46:35.280 --> 00:46:40.199
am amazing. I score points. Did I make an error?

00:46:40.360 --> 00:46:44.039
I don't know. And it's just like, those are the

00:46:44.039 --> 00:46:46.659
best ones. I feel like the reason Alan starts

00:46:46.659 --> 00:46:48.679
over him is I can see Darling being a little

00:46:48.679 --> 00:46:51.639
more volatile, a little more inconsistent. But

00:46:51.639 --> 00:46:55.739
for his role, outstanding. The dude gets off

00:46:55.739 --> 00:46:59.840
the ground so fast and hits so hard. He's so

00:46:59.840 --> 00:47:04.139
fun to watch. Like from a pure spectator sport

00:47:04.139 --> 00:47:08.030
enjoyment standpoint, he's... I think one of

00:47:08.030 --> 00:47:10.469
the other things that Slovenia struggled with

00:47:10.469 --> 00:47:13.349
in this match was their first ball side out.

00:47:13.550 --> 00:47:18.269
None of their players were getting easy points.

00:47:18.530 --> 00:47:22.090
And so the rallies extended. Brazil really made

00:47:22.090 --> 00:47:26.150
Slovenia grind to earn their points. And it just

00:47:26.150 --> 00:47:28.809
looked like they ran out of gas. That first set

00:47:28.809 --> 00:47:31.670
really went the distance. Yeah. Yeah. And they

00:47:31.670 --> 00:47:33.150
just couldn't keep up. I thought they were going

00:47:33.150 --> 00:47:37.150
to keep rolling. Again, I keep talking about

00:47:37.150 --> 00:47:39.550
their pipe. I'm obsessed with it. I think that

00:47:39.550 --> 00:47:45.090
ran well for them. But Brazil, they found a way,

00:47:45.110 --> 00:47:47.429
man. Well, they just kept cycling through players

00:47:47.429 --> 00:47:51.389
until they found the right combo. Artur made

00:47:51.389 --> 00:47:52.909
a big difference on the left side, I thought.

00:47:53.030 --> 00:47:55.489
He came in. I think they played their other middle.

00:47:55.670 --> 00:47:58.389
I believe they made a right side. Their double

00:47:58.389 --> 00:48:03.400
sub worked really well in that match. I didn't

00:48:03.400 --> 00:48:05.960
think Slovenia had enough service pressure in

00:48:05.960 --> 00:48:08.099
this match. I think they missed 20 serves. They

00:48:08.099 --> 00:48:13.000
only had four aces. But in general, Brazil was

00:48:13.000 --> 00:48:18.239
pretty in system. And again, Brazil does have

00:48:18.239 --> 00:48:20.340
a tendency to break down on the passing side

00:48:20.340 --> 00:48:23.639
of things if you apply enough pressure. But Slovenia

00:48:23.639 --> 00:48:27.239
just wasn't able to do that. So Brazil ends up

00:48:27.239 --> 00:48:30.260
taking that match. Pretty decisively, especially

00:48:30.260 --> 00:48:34.320
in the last set, and earns their second VNL medal.

00:48:34.659 --> 00:48:37.579
Ever. Ever. Which is, I was a little surprised

00:48:37.579 --> 00:48:39.599
to learn that. But they've won a gold and now

00:48:39.599 --> 00:48:42.400
they've won a bronze. So that's a big accomplishment

00:48:42.400 --> 00:48:44.860
for them, given their history in the VNL over

00:48:44.860 --> 00:48:47.940
the last seven competitions. Since it started.

00:48:48.239 --> 00:48:52.639
Yeah. All right, our gold medal match. We already

00:48:52.639 --> 00:48:55.860
told you Poland won. We already told you Poland

00:48:55.860 --> 00:49:00.389
didn't drop a set. So. Poland beat Italy 3 -0.

00:49:01.349 --> 00:49:04.010
And let me tell you, okay, Fornall didn't play.

00:49:04.269 --> 00:49:06.550
I think he started feeling that ankle injury

00:49:06.550 --> 00:49:09.230
after he cooled down after the semifinal. So

00:49:09.230 --> 00:49:11.409
he was out. I watched the replay and I was like,

00:49:11.449 --> 00:49:13.389
oh, he's not playing tomorrow. I, again, you

00:49:13.389 --> 00:49:15.889
guys know this, I refuse to watch the replays.

00:49:15.889 --> 00:49:17.829
I just close my eyes and ask Adam to tell me

00:49:17.829 --> 00:49:20.329
what happened. And based on his reaction, I was

00:49:20.329 --> 00:49:25.590
glad I didn't watch it. So Fornall was out, but...

00:49:26.610 --> 00:49:28.289
Guess who decided to show up in this match? Guess

00:49:28.289 --> 00:49:31.690
who decided to show up? Leon. He's like, you

00:49:31.690 --> 00:49:34.469
know what? Middle right side, you can take care

00:49:34.469 --> 00:49:37.530
of business to get us to the final. But when

00:49:37.530 --> 00:49:40.250
the lights are on, that's when I'm going to shine.

00:49:40.530 --> 00:49:42.969
I'm going to put my gold earrings in. I'm going

00:49:42.969 --> 00:49:45.429
to put my gold chains on. And I am going to come

00:49:45.429 --> 00:49:49.170
to this match. And I am going to dominate. He

00:49:49.170 --> 00:49:53.059
was unstoppable. And conversely, Sasek. He was

00:49:53.059 --> 00:49:56.619
like, you're welcome, everybody. I played a huge

00:49:56.619 --> 00:49:59.900
role in getting us here. I'm out. You're welcome.

00:49:59.980 --> 00:50:02.019
I'm done. I'm pretty sure he hit negative for

00:50:02.019 --> 00:50:04.139
the majority of that match. He was negative.

00:50:04.539 --> 00:50:08.099
Correct. The middles were consistent, as always.

00:50:08.900 --> 00:50:11.099
The Polish libero, though. Can we talk about

00:50:11.099 --> 00:50:13.139
how good he is? He might be the best in the world.

00:50:13.260 --> 00:50:17.219
And I, unlike some people, don't throw that statement

00:50:17.219 --> 00:50:20.739
out lightly. He is not like one of those announcers

00:50:20.739 --> 00:50:22.960
that's like best in the world, best in the world,

00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:25.199
best in the world. Did you hear me? Best in the

00:50:25.199 --> 00:50:30.099
world. He was outstanding. Outstanding. On everything.

00:50:30.420 --> 00:50:33.199
Yes. Passing, defense. Setting. Chasing down

00:50:33.199 --> 00:50:36.460
balls. Setting. Coverage. You name it. This man

00:50:36.460 --> 00:50:38.360
was everywhere. If he doesn't win best libero

00:50:38.360 --> 00:50:41.480
when I check after we're done this, I'm going

00:50:41.480 --> 00:50:45.519
to write somebody. You let them know. I will

00:50:45.519 --> 00:50:51.090
let them know. So the first set was super competitive.

00:50:51.349 --> 00:50:54.769
And the one thing that I noticed and I thought

00:50:54.769 --> 00:50:57.670
was the difference was Italy got stuck in rotation

00:50:57.670 --> 00:51:01.769
one twice. They gave up four points the first

00:51:01.769 --> 00:51:04.769
round through. And I think three points the next

00:51:04.769 --> 00:51:08.030
time they were in rotation one. And that to me

00:51:08.030 --> 00:51:11.429
was the difference. When they have Rich Lischke,

00:51:11.469 --> 00:51:15.230
whoever. And I will tell you, I'm not a fan of

00:51:15.230 --> 00:51:18.179
him. He's not my favorite either. If Italy has

00:51:18.179 --> 00:51:22.599
a weakness, it's on the right side. He's not

00:51:22.599 --> 00:51:25.780
it for me. Yeah, they struggled against Poland.

00:51:25.880 --> 00:51:28.280
When in rotation one specifically, it was not

00:51:28.280 --> 00:51:30.760
pretty. But the confusing thing is, in rotation

00:51:30.760 --> 00:51:33.820
one, I get it. Okay, the right sides typically

00:51:33.820 --> 00:51:38.280
aren't amazing hitters on the left. Fine. But

00:51:38.280 --> 00:51:40.880
you have a left -handed Micheletto on the right

00:51:40.880 --> 00:51:43.000
side. He doesn't hit well there. Who does not

00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:46.559
hit well on the right side. He goes in so fast.

00:51:46.940 --> 00:51:49.960
And flat. Flat. You're left -handed, my man.

00:51:50.079 --> 00:51:52.300
Why are you approaching up the sideline? Like,

00:51:52.320 --> 00:51:54.559
create a bit of an angle for yourself here, okay?

00:51:54.780 --> 00:52:00.440
Yeah, it was. That rotation cost them that set.

00:52:00.619 --> 00:52:05.360
Yeah. It was not good. Not good. But things got

00:52:05.360 --> 00:52:07.559
way worse in the second set. So I take notes

00:52:07.559 --> 00:52:12.599
when I watch these games. Oh, my gosh. And for

00:52:12.599 --> 00:52:15.639
my set two notes, the only thing I have written

00:52:15.639 --> 00:52:20.260
down is a swear word disaster. That's how I would...

00:52:20.260 --> 00:52:22.659
Somebody needs to get fired. Okay, do you want

00:52:22.659 --> 00:52:24.780
to let everybody know what happened? If you missed

00:52:24.780 --> 00:52:27.219
the match, here's what happened. I'm assuming

00:52:27.219 --> 00:52:29.239
it's the first assistant coach because that's

00:52:29.239 --> 00:52:32.380
normally their job. Fireable offense. Yeah, you

00:52:32.380 --> 00:52:35.239
stole my line. It's a fireable offense. They

00:52:35.239 --> 00:52:39.199
submit the lineup. I mean, it usually is the

00:52:39.199 --> 00:52:41.840
assistant coach that submits the lineup. And

00:52:41.840 --> 00:52:46.800
they got the lineup wrong. They switched the

00:52:46.800 --> 00:52:50.539
six and the five on the lineup card. So Mickey

00:52:50.539 --> 00:52:55.159
Aleto and Janelli were swapped in the wrong place.

00:52:55.440 --> 00:52:58.579
But here's the thing. They didn't swap the whole

00:52:58.579 --> 00:53:02.900
position. They just swapped two players. So Janelli

00:53:02.900 --> 00:53:06.800
was supposed to start in position two. So Rich

00:53:06.800 --> 00:53:10.900
Litschke would be in five. Mickey Aletto should

00:53:10.900 --> 00:53:14.800
have been in three. Lavia in six. And then the

00:53:14.800 --> 00:53:18.880
two middles. But it was Mickey Aletto in two.

00:53:19.000 --> 00:53:23.400
Rich Litschke in five. Janelli in three. Lavia

00:53:23.400 --> 00:53:26.900
in six. So the opposite and the setter were not

00:53:26.900 --> 00:53:29.519
across from each other. The two left sides were

00:53:29.519 --> 00:53:32.300
not across from each other. And seeing these

00:53:32.300 --> 00:53:36.679
guys try to figure out a rotation. Well, the

00:53:36.679 --> 00:53:40.400
set started, they were down four nothing. and

00:53:40.400 --> 00:53:43.159
the ref, like, they asked for a rotation check

00:53:43.159 --> 00:53:46.219
because they got called at a rotation, and they

00:53:46.219 --> 00:53:48.880
kept arguing that it was incorrect, and they

00:53:48.880 --> 00:53:51.099
didn't realize that they had submitted the wrong

00:53:51.099 --> 00:53:54.639
rotation. So Italy started totally discombobulated.

00:53:54.699 --> 00:53:57.860
I think it was 3 -1 or 4 -1. They called a timeout.

00:53:57.880 --> 00:53:59.539
They figured out that they had submitted the

00:53:59.539 --> 00:54:02.300
wrong lineup. And then they started trying to

00:54:02.300 --> 00:54:04.500
figure out where they should be standing on the

00:54:04.500 --> 00:54:06.699
court, where they should be. They got called

00:54:06.699 --> 00:54:09.659
out of rotation again. Are you kidding me? Called

00:54:09.659 --> 00:54:14.119
out of rotation in a final. Well, not to mention

00:54:14.119 --> 00:54:17.659
you get the lineup wrong in the final. How many

00:54:17.659 --> 00:54:20.079
times have you written this lineup down? Well,

00:54:20.119 --> 00:54:21.699
I mean, that assistant coach. How do you do that?

00:54:21.800 --> 00:54:24.940
As an assistant coach, you get one. mess up a

00:54:24.940 --> 00:54:27.159
year, I think. That's fair, but not this one.

00:54:27.159 --> 00:54:30.239
You single -handedly lost to the set in B &L.

00:54:30.559 --> 00:54:32.639
Potentially set three as well because everybody

00:54:32.639 --> 00:54:35.739
was so rattled after set two. Yeah, because halfway

00:54:35.739 --> 00:54:39.440
through set two, they could not figure out where

00:54:39.440 --> 00:54:41.940
they should be standing. They were so disjointed.

00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:46.360
They had to sub out Mikuleto and Janelli. So

00:54:46.360 --> 00:54:49.409
they brought off their two... best players to

00:54:49.409 --> 00:54:51.789
switch other players, their backups in, to be

00:54:51.789 --> 00:54:54.230
back into a normal volleyball rotation. It was

00:54:54.230 --> 00:54:56.289
an absolute disaster. There's nothing else to

00:54:56.289 --> 00:54:57.989
say about that. And what does the announcer say?

00:54:58.130 --> 00:55:01.730
He's like, oh my gosh, are six and five different

00:55:01.730 --> 00:55:06.030
in Italian? Dude, what if I'm writing in Roman

00:55:06.030 --> 00:55:12.909
numerals? No. I couldn't believe it. I can't

00:55:12.909 --> 00:55:14.449
even tell you what happened in that set because

00:55:14.449 --> 00:55:17.170
I was just watching the absolute yard sale that

00:55:17.170 --> 00:55:18.929
was happening on the Italian side, that whole

00:55:18.929 --> 00:55:21.530
set. Mass confusion. But when things like this

00:55:21.530 --> 00:55:26.809
happen, it just, like, it's so perplexing to

00:55:26.809 --> 00:55:30.429
me how volleyball players, the highest level

00:55:30.429 --> 00:55:32.969
volleyball players and coaches in the world,

00:55:33.050 --> 00:55:39.510
do, cannot figure out rotations. Okay, yeah.

00:55:39.960 --> 00:55:42.900
Real, it's really unfortunate that this person

00:55:42.900 --> 00:55:45.820
made that mistake. I mean. But like, it's not

00:55:45.820 --> 00:55:48.800
hard to figure out how you should align yourself.

00:55:49.159 --> 00:55:53.199
Look at who's beside you. Look at who's in front

00:55:53.199 --> 00:55:55.909
of you or behind you. And just like. arrange

00:55:55.909 --> 00:55:58.469
yourself volleyball players at the they don't

00:55:58.469 --> 00:56:01.769
understand they get so ingrained of how things

00:56:01.769 --> 00:56:04.030
are supposed to be that they don't even understand

00:56:04.030 --> 00:56:07.530
the absolute basics of what a rotation is they

00:56:07.530 --> 00:56:10.050
spent so much time like they receive this one

00:56:10.050 --> 00:56:12.789
ball and i was like the two left sides can't

00:56:12.789 --> 00:56:14.489
be next to each other the libero needs to be

00:56:14.489 --> 00:56:17.030
in the middle what are they doing boop called

00:56:17.030 --> 00:56:19.309
out a rotation i'm like how am i telling you

00:56:19.309 --> 00:56:23.190
what you should be doing yeah that whole situation

00:56:24.329 --> 00:56:27.670
ruined the final it was absolutely outrageous

00:56:27.670 --> 00:56:31.070
so disappointing that should have been such a

00:56:31.070 --> 00:56:34.369
good match well the first set was so good yeah

00:56:34.369 --> 00:56:36.489
and then i was like okay this is going to continue

00:56:36.489 --> 00:56:39.409
and then this error completely dismantles italy

00:56:39.409 --> 00:56:41.789
and it honestly i think it carried into the third

00:56:41.789 --> 00:56:45.909
set as well absolutely like what a waste but

00:56:45.909 --> 00:56:48.250
you have to be thinking as a as a player like

00:56:48.250 --> 00:56:52.230
if i put myself in those guys shoes I'm out there

00:56:52.230 --> 00:56:57.130
thinking we played four full weeks. We ground,

00:56:57.409 --> 00:57:02.269
like, got beat up, worked hard, all of this to

00:57:02.269 --> 00:57:05.369
get here, and you can't write six numbers on

00:57:05.369 --> 00:57:07.409
a piece of paper properly? I mean, yeah, I'd

00:57:07.409 --> 00:57:09.530
be pretty upset about it, but at the same time,

00:57:09.550 --> 00:57:14.769
you can move so early now. Like, it shouldn't

00:57:14.769 --> 00:57:17.050
have been as big of a deal as it was. I understand.

00:57:17.820 --> 00:57:19.599
when both left sides are in the front row at

00:57:19.599 --> 00:57:22.139
the same time, not ideal. When the setter and

00:57:22.139 --> 00:57:24.579
Rich Lischke are in the front row at the same

00:57:24.579 --> 00:57:28.840
time, also not great. But did it have to be that

00:57:28.840 --> 00:57:32.940
bad? I mean, probably not that bad, but Poland

00:57:32.940 --> 00:57:38.099
was playing so well. I'm not sure the result

00:57:38.099 --> 00:57:40.960
changes, but the enjoyment factor of watching

00:57:40.960 --> 00:57:44.420
the match would have been much higher. We have

00:57:44.420 --> 00:57:47.920
to give Poland props. I'm going to say... Super

00:57:47.920 --> 00:57:51.400
sub for me, and I've always loved this guy, Semenyuk.

00:57:52.340 --> 00:57:56.679
Match MVP. He's so good, and every time he comes

00:57:56.679 --> 00:58:00.119
in, he makes a difference. He also is very good

00:58:00.119 --> 00:58:03.360
at understanding the flow of the game, and so

00:58:03.360 --> 00:58:06.639
if it's time to keep a servant, he keeps the

00:58:06.639 --> 00:58:10.420
servant. If it's time to go for it, he will go

00:58:10.420 --> 00:58:13.300
for it, but you can just tell that he has such

00:58:13.300 --> 00:58:18.929
a high intelligence Both volleyball, but emotionally

00:58:18.929 --> 00:58:22.309
too. Yeah, I really like him. I think he stepped

00:58:22.309 --> 00:58:25.489
up huge coming in for Fernal, who was injured.

00:58:25.849 --> 00:58:29.710
I think he starts on a ton of teams. Oh, he's

00:58:29.710 --> 00:58:33.309
great on his pro team. Leon, we already said,

00:58:33.369 --> 00:58:37.269
outstanding. Yeah, I mean. Unstoppable. And his

00:58:37.269 --> 00:58:38.929
serving, I don't think he even missed hardly

00:58:38.929 --> 00:58:41.289
any serves either. He needed to show up for the

00:58:41.289 --> 00:58:44.269
final, and he showed up. I mean, it's as easy

00:58:44.269 --> 00:58:45.929
as that. I appreciated his post -game interview,

00:58:46.070 --> 00:58:48.530
too, though. Yeah. He acknowledged that he did

00:58:48.530 --> 00:58:51.550
not play well in the quarter in the semi, and

00:58:51.550 --> 00:58:53.809
he's like, you know what? My teammates were really

00:58:53.809 --> 00:58:57.269
supportive. They kept, like, standing by me.

00:58:57.309 --> 00:59:00.050
I knew I wasn't playing my best. And then we

00:59:00.050 --> 00:59:03.030
were missing a really big player, and so I told

00:59:03.030 --> 00:59:05.309
them, like, I'm going to try my best. And I just

00:59:05.309 --> 00:59:08.079
thought it was, like, really great. I will say

00:59:08.079 --> 00:59:11.420
the garbage sound bites might start to be my

00:59:11.420 --> 00:59:13.179
favorite thing in volleyball. He might be my

00:59:13.179 --> 00:59:17.400
favorite coach. I'm not going to lie. He is outstanding.

00:59:18.460 --> 00:59:20.320
They're like, oh, wow, you're wearing the hat.

00:59:20.400 --> 00:59:22.460
He's like, I don't look good in hats. I'm only

00:59:22.460 --> 00:59:27.320
wearing this for the picture. But even after

00:59:27.320 --> 00:59:30.000
they do those coach interviews between the second

00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:32.019
and the third set. So the second set was when

00:59:32.019 --> 00:59:34.860
Italy was on fire and there was an absolute yard

00:59:34.860 --> 00:59:38.340
sale happening. And they come and they're talking

00:59:38.340 --> 00:59:41.179
to Gervich. And he's like, yeah, Leon finally

00:59:41.179 --> 00:59:43.880
showed up. He's playing really well. It would

00:59:43.880 --> 00:59:46.739
be nice if Sasek, you know, decided to join us

00:59:46.739 --> 00:59:49.800
and maybe he doesn't have to be great, but maybe

00:59:49.800 --> 00:59:54.739
just show up. Maybe just like help a little bit.

00:59:55.179 --> 00:59:59.280
I'm like, you're hammering these guys. Sasek

00:59:59.280 --> 01:00:02.380
has literally gotten you to this point. He's

01:00:02.380 --> 01:00:07.820
been so good. Gurbic just, he says it how it

01:00:07.820 --> 01:00:10.519
is and nothing he says is incorrect, but his

01:00:10.519 --> 01:00:13.320
delivery is just priceless. And there's a reason

01:00:13.320 --> 01:00:17.619
that he was so good. And I think that the way

01:00:17.619 --> 01:00:21.880
he speaks in the TV timeouts is probably the

01:00:21.880 --> 01:00:24.940
way he speaks exactly to his players. And it

01:00:24.940 --> 01:00:28.639
just creates this environment of expectation.

01:00:29.579 --> 01:00:32.199
I'm going to push you. It's not going to be fun.

01:00:32.420 --> 01:00:34.119
Here are the expectations. Here's what you're

01:00:34.119 --> 01:00:38.300
capable of. And we can win. I'm a huge fan. I

01:00:38.300 --> 01:00:40.900
was a little worried about Poland watching them

01:00:40.900 --> 01:00:43.320
play in week three. They had their big boys in

01:00:43.320 --> 01:00:46.260
week three. They did not look good to me. So

01:00:46.260 --> 01:00:51.579
I was a little concerned. But dang, they found

01:00:51.579 --> 01:00:54.219
a way. They stepped up. Different guys stepped

01:00:54.219 --> 01:00:57.699
up in different ways based on the need of the

01:00:57.699 --> 01:01:03.389
team. And, yeah, they were dominant. Given how

01:01:03.389 --> 01:01:05.969
week three went, I was like, no, it's not going

01:01:05.969 --> 01:01:09.070
to happen. But they turned things around. Well,

01:01:09.110 --> 01:01:10.909
them and Brazil kind of flip -flopped. Because

01:01:10.909 --> 01:01:13.110
I thought Brazil played really well in week three

01:01:13.110 --> 01:01:16.050
and then not so well in the final, like you said

01:01:16.050 --> 01:01:18.329
about Poland. So it was interesting. But I think

01:01:18.329 --> 01:01:23.710
Worlds is going to be a ton of fun. I can't wait

01:01:23.710 --> 01:01:27.349
to see that volleyball because I think. I think

01:01:27.349 --> 01:01:28.949
there's going to be some grudge matches that

01:01:28.949 --> 01:01:31.250
happens, and the level of volleyball here was

01:01:31.250 --> 01:01:34.329
really high. I think Worlds is going to be a

01:01:34.329 --> 01:01:36.789
ton of fun. Huge congrats to Poland. They have

01:01:36.789 --> 01:01:41.070
been consistent VNL performers since the tournament

01:01:41.070 --> 01:01:44.869
started in 2018. The VNL men's has been dominated

01:01:44.869 --> 01:01:49.090
by Poland, France, and USA, I would say, for

01:01:49.090 --> 01:01:51.349
the most part. Although USA's never won, I don't

01:01:51.349 --> 01:01:54.079
think. They generally medal, but I don't think

01:01:54.079 --> 01:01:55.900
they won. Yeah, but dominated, like, the podium.

01:01:55.960 --> 01:01:59.519
Yeah, yeah, fair, fair. So Italy got their first

01:01:59.519 --> 01:02:03.380
medal, and Brazil got their second. So, yeah,

01:02:03.480 --> 01:02:06.320
it was a very interesting week of volleyball.

01:02:06.500 --> 01:02:10.639
But, again, Poland earned it. They were dominant,

01:02:10.719 --> 01:02:13.079
and honestly, they were just really fun to watch.

01:02:13.800 --> 01:02:17.380
I'll be curious to see if the Italian coaching

01:02:17.380 --> 01:02:20.500
staff is different for Worlds. All right, let's

01:02:20.500 --> 01:02:23.880
get into some listener questions. We are going

01:02:23.880 --> 01:02:27.760
to focus mostly on the men's questions we've

01:02:27.760 --> 01:02:31.780
received. And because we have a bit of a slower

01:02:31.780 --> 01:02:36.699
couple weeks coming up, we will throw in a bunch

01:02:36.699 --> 01:02:38.619
of our women's ones because we got a ton of women's

01:02:38.619 --> 01:02:41.619
questions from our last episode. But question

01:02:41.619 --> 01:02:44.940
one, is Mikio Leto the best player in the world

01:02:44.940 --> 01:02:47.300
currently? If not, where do you rank him and

01:02:47.300 --> 01:02:51.699
who is number one? I mean, I think there's probably

01:02:51.699 --> 01:02:55.260
a couple players who you could argue for. I would

01:02:55.260 --> 01:02:59.900
say he is probably pretty close. If you ask me

01:02:59.900 --> 01:03:02.960
that, then people that pop into my mind would

01:03:02.960 --> 01:03:06.219
be Mikuleto, Fornal. Is Engapeth still playing?

01:03:06.480 --> 01:03:08.840
Yeah, it's tough. We don't know who's coming

01:03:08.840 --> 01:03:13.079
back. There was discussion during the tournament

01:03:13.079 --> 01:03:16.159
this week about Fornal is the best player in

01:03:16.159 --> 01:03:19.650
the world. I personally am a Micheletto fan.

01:03:19.929 --> 01:03:26.650
I think his size kind of sets him apart. He's

01:03:26.650 --> 01:03:30.469
a six rotation player. He's not a liability.

01:03:31.329 --> 01:03:35.429
I think in anything, especially because of his

01:03:35.429 --> 01:03:37.650
size, you see a lot of bigger players like struggle

01:03:37.650 --> 01:03:40.269
with the ball control aspect. I personally am

01:03:40.269 --> 01:03:42.590
a fan. So I would probably put him at number

01:03:42.590 --> 01:03:46.690
one. I think that that's a fair. statement. I

01:03:46.690 --> 01:03:49.210
think if you asked me, are you going to take

01:03:49.210 --> 01:03:51.530
Micheletto or Fornal to build a team around,

01:03:51.769 --> 01:03:53.750
if I was running a pro team, I would probably

01:03:53.750 --> 01:03:56.630
choose Micheletto at this point. Question two,

01:03:56.929 --> 01:04:01.670
why did the U .S. shuffle coaches? I know the

01:04:01.670 --> 01:04:04.210
men's team from the Olympics was getting a little

01:04:04.210 --> 01:04:07.590
old, so I'm assuming that's a factor, but silver

01:04:07.590 --> 01:04:11.570
and bronze were solid results at the Olympics,

01:04:11.610 --> 01:04:14.849
so we've heard some rumors. Well, okay, so Spraw,

01:04:14.949 --> 01:04:17.170
who was on the men's side, ended up getting promoted

01:04:17.170 --> 01:04:21.510
to CEO of USA Volleyball. So whether he just

01:04:21.510 --> 01:04:24.309
didn't want to travel as much anymore or it was

01:04:24.309 --> 01:04:25.949
just too good of an opportunity. I think he does

01:04:25.949 --> 01:04:30.230
have young daughters. So I can't speak to why

01:04:30.230 --> 01:04:33.949
he took the CEO position over coaching other

01:04:33.949 --> 01:04:38.170
than maybe travel. Or money. Yeah, that too.

01:04:38.650 --> 01:04:42.960
So, I mean, that opened up a spot. on the men's

01:04:42.960 --> 01:04:48.440
side. I don't know this for sure. I think that,

01:04:48.480 --> 01:04:51.800
you know, we saw a lot of U .S. women decide

01:04:51.800 --> 01:04:54.300
not to come back and play for the national team

01:04:54.300 --> 01:04:57.000
for this round. We don't know who's coming back

01:04:57.000 --> 01:05:01.099
for Worlds. And probably there's a couple factors

01:05:01.099 --> 01:05:04.239
here. I don't know if Karch wanted to start over.

01:05:04.880 --> 01:05:07.139
On the women's side, after doing that, you're

01:05:07.139 --> 01:05:09.900
kind of going back to ground zero. I don't know

01:05:09.900 --> 01:05:12.559
if he always wanted to coach men, and when that

01:05:12.559 --> 01:05:16.079
position opened, he wanted to take it. I do know,

01:05:16.239 --> 01:05:19.539
so I think that Karch and Gerbich, for example,

01:05:19.679 --> 01:05:22.719
are probably cut from the same cloth in terms

01:05:22.719 --> 01:05:26.840
of creating an atmosphere, having very high expectations,

01:05:27.079 --> 01:05:30.039
being very hard on their players. I believe Karch

01:05:30.039 --> 01:05:31.679
was with the women's program for two cycles.

01:05:31.800 --> 01:05:34.630
Is that accurate? I think since 2012, maybe.

01:05:35.110 --> 01:05:38.349
And I just wonder if, you know, being in that

01:05:38.349 --> 01:05:41.530
environment for so long, the program needed a

01:05:41.530 --> 01:05:45.289
change or, you know, they needed somebody else

01:05:45.289 --> 01:05:47.550
to come in with the young female players. I'm

01:05:47.550 --> 01:05:50.929
not sure. I've heard rumors, but they're not

01:05:50.929 --> 01:05:54.949
substantiated. Yeah. And it might be as simple

01:05:54.949 --> 01:05:56.190
as... I've heard that the women were ready for

01:05:56.190 --> 01:06:00.510
a change. Yeah. Again, it's... To play for somebody

01:06:00.510 --> 01:06:02.250
like that, I think Bernardo, and you can speak

01:06:02.250 --> 01:06:05.269
to this, is of the same cloth. Every contact

01:06:05.269 --> 01:06:08.469
is expected to be perfect. Every time you show

01:06:08.469 --> 01:06:11.429
up at the gym, it's 100%. And that can be really

01:06:11.429 --> 01:06:15.090
hard. And so whether it was the women wanting

01:06:15.090 --> 01:06:17.250
a change or Karch wanting to coach men in that

01:06:17.250 --> 01:06:20.449
position being open, who knows? My question's

01:06:20.449 --> 01:06:22.989
about whether more national teams should take

01:06:22.989 --> 01:06:26.969
the VNL more seriously than they do. Obviously,

01:06:26.989 --> 01:06:30.199
the sample size is pretty small, but The U .S.

01:06:30.260 --> 01:06:34.559
women won all three VNLs prior to Tokyo. And

01:06:34.559 --> 01:06:37.420
then prior to Paris, Italy won two out of the

01:06:37.420 --> 01:06:41.199
three. So the eventual gold medalist on the women's

01:06:41.199 --> 01:06:43.420
side at the last two Olympics did very well in

01:06:43.420 --> 01:06:48.039
the preceding VNLs. Do you think Sullivan -era

01:06:48.039 --> 01:06:50.760
USA may be doing itself a disservice by treating

01:06:50.760 --> 01:06:53.860
the VNL as a way to evaluate players rather than

01:06:53.860 --> 01:06:56.340
Italy, who's treating it as an important event

01:06:56.340 --> 01:06:58.920
on the calendar? I don't think those two things

01:06:58.920 --> 01:07:02.260
are necessarily causal. So you think it's coincidental?

01:07:03.019 --> 01:07:05.300
I mean, I think when you're a good team, you

01:07:05.300 --> 01:07:09.980
win things. But I don't think that winning VNL

01:07:09.980 --> 01:07:12.880
means you're going to win the Olympics. If you

01:07:12.880 --> 01:07:14.760
win a tournament right before the Olympics, does

01:07:14.760 --> 01:07:16.500
that put you in a good headspace to go? I would

01:07:16.500 --> 01:07:18.579
say maybe the VNL right before the Olympics,

01:07:18.760 --> 01:07:22.110
you kind of want to be peaking. But even if the

01:07:22.110 --> 01:07:25.449
U .S. wanted to win this VNL, it was never going

01:07:25.449 --> 01:07:27.329
to happen. They're not good enough right now.

01:07:27.329 --> 01:07:30.510
No, well, like, maybe if their top players came

01:07:30.510 --> 01:07:32.329
back. Well. I don't think they were going to

01:07:32.329 --> 01:07:34.449
win anyway. Yeah. I think Italy or Brazil were

01:07:34.449 --> 01:07:35.929
going to win, no matter who the U .S. brought.

01:07:36.590 --> 01:07:38.929
But, again, I think that that was the players'

01:07:39.010 --> 01:07:42.429
choice, not the coaches'. Yeah, fair. So, again.

01:07:43.420 --> 01:07:46.079
I think it would be you want to be playing your

01:07:46.079 --> 01:07:48.300
best volleyball going into the Olympics. What

01:07:48.300 --> 01:07:52.400
happens in this V &L is irrelevant, in my opinion,

01:07:52.440 --> 01:07:56.039
to the 2028 LA Olympics. We just like to talk

01:07:56.039 --> 01:07:58.960
about it like it is. Yeah, but again, you have

01:07:58.960 --> 01:08:01.900
the best teams winning these tournaments. Let's

01:08:01.900 --> 01:08:05.159
talk about the 2028 V &L and see if there's a

01:08:05.159 --> 01:08:07.780
correlation there. But I don't think that teams

01:08:07.780 --> 01:08:10.639
don't take it seriously. They're just on different

01:08:10.639 --> 01:08:14.070
rebuild schedules. Question four, can you provide

01:08:14.070 --> 01:08:15.929
your feedback and perspective on the overall

01:08:15.929 --> 01:08:19.729
U .S. men's team strategy and performance this

01:08:19.729 --> 01:08:23.189
VNL? Well, I think you had three of your top

01:08:23.189 --> 01:08:26.270
players choose not to play this VNL. I think

01:08:26.270 --> 01:08:28.729
from a load management standpoint, as most of

01:08:28.729 --> 01:08:31.250
them played in Japan and probably hit a ton of

01:08:31.250 --> 01:08:35.109
balls. Whoa. We had a lot of straight -up retirement,

01:08:35.270 --> 01:08:37.689
too. Yeah, but who's potentially available? We

01:08:37.689 --> 01:08:40.109
heard Anderson is going to play in LA. Well,

01:08:40.109 --> 01:08:43.949
Anderson wasn't in Japan this past year. I think

01:08:43.949 --> 01:08:45.909
he just took a break. I think Micah Christensen

01:08:45.909 --> 01:08:50.550
took a break. I think some of the players legit

01:08:50.550 --> 01:08:56.050
were done. Okay, so we think that potentially...

01:08:56.050 --> 01:08:58.529
DeFalco for sure took a break. Yeah, so DeFalco

01:08:58.529 --> 01:09:02.069
potentially is available. Taylor Avril. Taylor

01:09:02.069 --> 01:09:06.470
Averill, Anderson, Micah Christensen. So, I mean,

01:09:06.489 --> 01:09:08.430
you have four players there. And if you're going

01:09:08.430 --> 01:09:11.590
to take a break, this is the year to do it. And

01:09:11.590 --> 01:09:13.729
you saw France do it with some of their players.

01:09:13.890 --> 01:09:15.890
There were definitely teams whose top players

01:09:15.890 --> 01:09:18.369
were like, listen, if we're gearing up for another

01:09:18.369 --> 01:09:21.310
Olympic run, I'm going to take this year off,

01:09:21.430 --> 01:09:25.470
which is totally fine. So they do have holes

01:09:25.470 --> 01:09:31.300
to fill. Yes. But I think they made sure. to

01:09:31.300 --> 01:09:36.319
have some Olympians present. Like Micah Ma 'a

01:09:36.319 --> 01:09:40.159
was setting. Where typically Micah Christensen

01:09:40.159 --> 01:09:44.140
would, is Ma 'a as good as him? No, but he's

01:09:44.140 --> 01:09:48.060
not a brand new setter. He has experience. We

01:09:48.060 --> 01:09:50.579
had Jendrik, who played in the Olympics. We had

01:09:50.579 --> 01:09:55.159
Shoji and Nsing, who was the alternate. So they

01:09:55.159 --> 01:09:58.119
had a decent foundation, but I think this VNL

01:09:58.119 --> 01:10:03.289
was about... like finding replacements for those

01:10:03.289 --> 01:10:05.430
players who are for sure not coming back yeah

01:10:05.430 --> 01:10:09.189
and the difference to me between the men's strategy

01:10:09.189 --> 01:10:12.689
and the women's strategy was I like to call them

01:10:12.689 --> 01:10:16.770
the skilled positions but you had competent liberos

01:10:16.770 --> 01:10:20.590
and setters on the men's side and that can stabilize

01:10:20.590 --> 01:10:24.069
a team right we talked about I mean they did

01:10:24.069 --> 01:10:26.569
give Andrew Rowan a chance yeah they did who

01:10:26.569 --> 01:10:30.930
was is not He's very inexperienced. But you always

01:10:30.930 --> 01:10:34.189
had that option. You put Shoji in to pass. It

01:10:34.189 --> 01:10:36.449
makes life easier for the other two outside hitters,

01:10:36.529 --> 01:10:38.550
right? You have a setter who can deliver consistent

01:10:38.550 --> 01:10:41.529
tempo. Your hitters have some time to figure

01:10:41.529 --> 01:10:43.489
it out. And I think sometimes that's where the

01:10:43.489 --> 01:10:46.029
women's side struggled more, even though they

01:10:46.029 --> 01:10:50.199
had a better result, is you lacked... any kind

01:10:50.199 --> 01:10:52.420
of consistency because you had players coming

01:10:52.420 --> 01:10:55.779
in and out so i actually liked the way the u

01:10:55.779 --> 01:10:58.020
.s men approached that and you got a chance to

01:10:58.020 --> 01:11:00.000
see some of these other players who are going

01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:04.840
to be needed for 2028 get a chance in a let's

01:11:04.840 --> 01:11:08.340
call it a contained environment yeah because

01:11:08.340 --> 01:11:11.359
i would say like you saw the wheels fall off

01:11:11.359 --> 01:11:13.920
and you saw the inexperience really show on the

01:11:13.920 --> 01:11:18.800
women's side in those as you say skilled positions

01:11:18.800 --> 01:11:24.979
i honestly felt like what like watching i felt

01:11:24.979 --> 01:11:28.340
like the men performed better than the women

01:11:28.340 --> 01:11:33.439
did i agree albeit with a worse result watching

01:11:33.439 --> 01:11:36.000
them i felt like the women were more out of their

01:11:36.000 --> 01:11:39.840
depth than the men and i felt that the young

01:11:39.840 --> 01:11:44.279
inexperienced athletes on the men's side like

01:11:44.279 --> 01:11:47.689
cooper robinson i'm thinking of in particular.

01:11:47.850 --> 01:11:51.890
I was impressed by him overall. Did really well.

01:11:52.050 --> 01:11:54.890
Yeah. So I like that they had some stability

01:11:54.890 --> 01:12:00.409
in those key positions and that allowed the inexperienced

01:12:00.409 --> 01:12:03.270
athletes to kind of like take a deep breath and

01:12:03.270 --> 01:12:06.170
not feel like they had to do so much. I also

01:12:06.170 --> 01:12:07.909
think it speaks to the parity of the men and

01:12:07.909 --> 01:12:10.789
the women's side. Right. You didn't really have

01:12:10.789 --> 01:12:13.510
many gimme games on the men's side and that happens

01:12:13.510 --> 01:12:16.319
on the women's side. Question five. I am currently

01:12:16.319 --> 01:12:18.840
watching the China -Brazil and the Italy -Cuba

01:12:18.840 --> 01:12:21.640
matches, and it seems like the rallies are way

01:12:21.640 --> 01:12:25.659
longer, more chaotic, and fun than most men's

01:12:25.659 --> 01:12:28.479
games all tournament. Kind of alluding to the

01:12:28.479 --> 01:12:31.500
fact that they were closer to the women's style

01:12:31.500 --> 01:12:35.239
rallies. Was this accurate, and if so, why? Was

01:12:35.239 --> 01:12:39.460
it a stylistic matchup? Was it players understanding

01:12:39.460 --> 01:12:42.979
the stakes? If you look at the evolution of the

01:12:42.979 --> 01:12:46.180
men's game over the last several years, you're

01:12:46.180 --> 01:12:50.880
starting to see more rallies. Defenses are improving

01:12:50.880 --> 01:12:55.520
for sure. And you always go through different

01:12:55.520 --> 01:12:58.340
iterations of the game. For a while, you had

01:12:58.340 --> 01:13:00.000
the men who were just going back and bombing

01:13:00.000 --> 01:13:02.060
serves, and you were missing a ton, but you were

01:13:02.060 --> 01:13:04.640
trying to get teams out of system. Then it kind

01:13:04.640 --> 01:13:07.300
of changed. The offense is sped up to try and

01:13:07.300 --> 01:13:10.359
get away from the big blocks. If you miss those

01:13:10.359 --> 01:13:12.020
sets, then you're tipping, then you're looking

01:13:12.020 --> 01:13:14.460
for some of those sets over that we see. See,

01:13:14.500 --> 01:13:17.000
I think that the tipping and stuff started because

01:13:17.000 --> 01:13:21.760
the defenses have improved. Yeah, that could

01:13:21.760 --> 01:13:24.739
be the reason as well. I do think that you're

01:13:24.739 --> 01:13:29.060
starting to see the men be able to make better

01:13:29.060 --> 01:13:32.460
reads, be in better places, control those heavy

01:13:32.460 --> 01:13:34.539
swings. I think the blocking has gotten more

01:13:34.539 --> 01:13:38.909
strategic in terms of leaving. low priority options

01:13:38.909 --> 01:13:41.189
open to get solid blocks around. You're seeing

01:13:41.189 --> 01:13:44.210
teams dig off the top of the blocks pretty efficiently.

01:13:44.529 --> 01:13:46.930
And we're seeing the players continue to get

01:13:46.930 --> 01:13:50.770
bigger and bigger and bigger. So the block at

01:13:50.770 --> 01:13:55.970
the net is easier to play around. Yeah. So I

01:13:55.970 --> 01:13:58.489
do think your observation is correct that we

01:13:58.489 --> 01:14:01.930
are seeing more rallies in the men's games than

01:14:01.930 --> 01:14:05.050
we have seen previously. And it's been trending

01:14:05.050 --> 01:14:07.579
in that direction for a while. But yeah, there

01:14:07.579 --> 01:14:09.479
was a point in time where watching men's volleyball

01:14:09.479 --> 01:14:14.000
was boring. Lots of errors, you know, team swinging

01:14:14.000 --> 01:14:15.979
or players swinging as hard as they can, both

01:14:15.979 --> 01:14:18.979
from the service line and on all balls and it

01:14:18.979 --> 01:14:21.439
being a little more terminal. And that's not

01:14:21.439 --> 01:14:24.560
the case anymore. And it's way more fun to watch,

01:14:24.680 --> 01:14:29.069
quite frankly. Question six. For the men's tournament,

01:14:29.270 --> 01:14:32.449
how do you think the NCAA players looked during

01:14:32.449 --> 01:14:35.369
this year's VNL? Do you think they were able

01:14:35.369 --> 01:14:39.529
to adjust their style of play from college? So

01:14:39.529 --> 01:14:41.989
for those non -American viewers, those would

01:14:41.989 --> 01:14:45.109
be some of the college players who joined the

01:14:45.109 --> 01:14:47.310
national team for this VNL. So who were they?

01:14:47.369 --> 01:14:51.520
So you had Robinson. who's a left side. You had

01:14:51.520 --> 01:14:54.779
Rowan, who's a setter. You had Flexen, who was

01:14:54.779 --> 01:14:59.399
a right side. Left side. Yeah, hybrid. McHenry,

01:14:59.439 --> 01:15:03.079
he was pretty fresh out of college. I think we

01:15:03.079 --> 01:15:05.619
saw Cooper Robinson get better and better as

01:15:05.619 --> 01:15:08.920
the tournament went on. I saw adjustments from

01:15:08.920 --> 01:15:12.720
him, both in the angles he was searching for,

01:15:12.859 --> 01:15:17.640
the hands, how his passing kind of... evolved

01:15:17.640 --> 01:15:20.180
to the speed of the game. I was most impressed

01:15:20.180 --> 01:15:23.060
by his composure in those situations, which I

01:15:23.060 --> 01:15:26.760
think will serve him well. Rowan, I feel like,

01:15:26.779 --> 01:15:30.479
was still kind of playing a college style. I

01:15:30.479 --> 01:15:33.380
think he has potential. He was only really needed

01:15:33.380 --> 01:15:38.399
in week one when Michael Ma didn't come to Brazil,

01:15:38.579 --> 01:15:42.359
but I think that he was still a step behind.

01:15:42.579 --> 01:15:44.979
Yeah, I didn't love his decision making. The

01:15:44.979 --> 01:15:47.560
hitters are a little... different in terms of

01:15:47.560 --> 01:15:50.279
their capabilities. I thought he underset a bunch

01:15:50.279 --> 01:15:52.159
of hitters. I didn't think his decision making

01:15:52.159 --> 01:15:57.140
was amazing. It's a tough position to step into

01:15:57.140 --> 01:15:59.039
with no experience and not really knowing your

01:15:59.039 --> 01:16:02.619
hitters that well. Again, I think he has potential,

01:16:02.840 --> 01:16:06.239
but he's not ready yet. Seeing Flexen switch

01:16:06.239 --> 01:16:09.640
to the left side in college, I was a little worried,

01:16:09.760 --> 01:16:13.479
but he did better than I thought he would. Yeah,

01:16:13.500 --> 01:16:17.220
I still don't think he's it. Yeah, he's got a

01:16:17.220 --> 01:16:22.159
ways to go, but he was fine. His passing was

01:16:22.159 --> 01:16:24.619
more fine than I thought it would be because

01:16:24.619 --> 01:16:31.380
in college it was a little dicey. Yeah, I'm curious

01:16:31.380 --> 01:16:34.699
if that's a partly shoji effect, if they were

01:16:34.699 --> 01:16:38.100
able to kind of shelter him a little bit. I don't

01:16:38.100 --> 01:16:41.020
know if teams would pick on him a little more

01:16:41.020 --> 01:16:44.930
given video or a chance to see that, but... Well,

01:16:44.930 --> 01:16:48.710
yeah, he held his own, but I still think Cooper

01:16:48.710 --> 01:16:52.510
Robinson was the best of those NCAA players who

01:16:52.510 --> 01:16:54.590
came out. Okay, our last question of the day.

01:16:54.949 --> 01:16:58.229
I don't think it's fair to consider only ranking

01:16:58.229 --> 01:17:01.930
points to qualify for VNL. Teams located in less

01:17:01.930 --> 01:17:05.630
competitive regions, Africa comes to mind for

01:17:05.630 --> 01:17:09.050
me in this, won't earn as many points as teams

01:17:09.050 --> 01:17:11.329
that you would see play in Europe or Asia or

01:17:11.329 --> 01:17:14.020
something. Wouldn't it be better to have a direct

01:17:14.020 --> 01:17:16.420
competition between these teams to enter the

01:17:16.420 --> 01:17:19.819
VNL? Okay, so, I mean, I don't know all of the

01:17:19.819 --> 01:17:23.079
ins and outs of how the point system works, but

01:17:23.079 --> 01:17:28.140
I believe that some of the competitions are weighted.

01:17:28.220 --> 01:17:31.359
So, like, European Championships and the Continental

01:17:31.359 --> 01:17:34.630
Championships have the same... number of points.

01:17:34.770 --> 01:17:37.550
So whether you win like Europe champs or you

01:17:37.550 --> 01:17:39.829
win Africa champs. I don't know if that is that

01:17:39.829 --> 01:17:42.149
just a beach thing or is it an indoor thing too?

01:17:42.350 --> 01:17:45.350
I want to say it's an indoor thing as well, but

01:17:45.350 --> 01:17:48.869
I could be wrong. I know that they do the ranking

01:17:48.869 --> 01:17:52.909
based off also an algorithm in terms of every

01:17:52.909 --> 01:17:55.369
match you play, but I think you get points for

01:17:55.369 --> 01:17:59.390
also winning competitions. So again, with the

01:17:59.390 --> 01:18:02.750
ranking system, it's more about the space. in

01:18:02.750 --> 01:18:05.189
between you and your opponent if you win or lose.

01:18:05.350 --> 01:18:07.649
So it doesn't really matter. Like if the 23rd

01:18:07.649 --> 01:18:10.489
team is playing the 25th team in, let's say,

01:18:10.489 --> 01:18:14.369
Norseka, or the 7th and the 9th place team are

01:18:14.369 --> 01:18:17.189
playing, the algorithm really takes into consideration

01:18:17.189 --> 01:18:21.350
the difference in skill or points between those

01:18:21.350 --> 01:18:23.529
opponents. So you have the same opportunities

01:18:23.529 --> 01:18:28.130
to earn points even if your competition is lower.

01:18:28.760 --> 01:18:32.159
No, this person is referring to like the African

01:18:32.159 --> 01:18:35.319
teams, for example, will never play VNL because

01:18:35.319 --> 01:18:38.199
they are only playing each other. They're only

01:18:38.199 --> 01:18:41.920
playing teams rated in the whatever, you know,

01:18:41.920 --> 01:18:45.439
so they're not going to get the opportunity to

01:18:45.439 --> 01:18:48.020
earn points by playing a number 10 ranked team.

01:18:48.520 --> 01:18:50.460
I think that's what the question is alluding

01:18:50.460 --> 01:18:54.720
to. The thing is, VNL is considered an elite

01:18:54.720 --> 01:18:58.890
event. prestigious event even the fact that I

01:18:58.890 --> 01:19:02.050
think the relegation is great because we will

01:19:02.050 --> 01:19:04.170
finally start to see a little bit of variety

01:19:04.170 --> 01:19:08.369
like indoor volleyball has been you've seen the

01:19:08.369 --> 01:19:12.909
same teams for decades because it is so hard

01:19:12.909 --> 01:19:16.470
to there are so few competitions that it's so

01:19:16.470 --> 01:19:20.100
hard to break into it But at its essence, VNL

01:19:20.100 --> 01:19:22.960
is showcasing the best that the world has to

01:19:22.960 --> 01:19:25.840
offer. It's not like the Olympics. Like the Olympics

01:19:25.840 --> 01:19:28.659
is very much like let's bring the world together

01:19:28.659 --> 01:19:32.600
through sport. So that's why you see there needs

01:19:32.600 --> 01:19:35.680
to be a team from at least every continent. I

01:19:35.680 --> 01:19:39.479
understand what you're saying, but I think diluting...

01:19:40.590 --> 01:19:42.770
The level of competition, like we're not going

01:19:42.770 --> 01:19:45.810
to see those teams from the lower ranked regions

01:19:45.810 --> 01:19:48.890
qualify anyway, even if there was a direct competition,

01:19:49.149 --> 01:19:53.010
I think. Yeah. But I mean, which region other

01:19:53.010 --> 01:19:55.270
than Africa and volleyball is not a big sport

01:19:55.270 --> 01:19:58.010
in Africa isn't represented. Like you saw South

01:19:58.010 --> 01:20:00.270
Korea on the women's side make it because they

01:20:00.270 --> 01:20:03.109
have done well in the Asian championships, which

01:20:03.109 --> 01:20:07.029
would be considered a lower skilled. Well. I

01:20:07.029 --> 01:20:08.710
don't know if that's necessarily the case because

01:20:08.710 --> 01:20:10.789
relegation has never been a thing. I think up

01:20:10.789 --> 01:20:15.449
until this point, money has played a role in

01:20:15.449 --> 01:20:18.609
some of the teams qualifying. So you think that

01:20:18.609 --> 01:20:21.210
the switching of relegation from here on out

01:20:21.210 --> 01:20:24.449
will always be like a Europe team will come in?

01:20:24.630 --> 01:20:31.090
It will likely be that because the European teams

01:20:31.090 --> 01:20:33.939
will always play each other. It'll be hard for,

01:20:34.060 --> 01:20:38.800
like, unless you see massive upsets in North

01:20:38.800 --> 01:20:43.880
America, in, you know, even South America for

01:20:43.880 --> 01:20:47.460
women, you get Brazil. Like, is Argentina ever

01:20:47.460 --> 01:20:49.000
going to make an appearance? Like, it's just,

01:20:49.119 --> 01:20:53.239
it's hard. I understand what this person is saying,

01:20:53.359 --> 01:20:57.340
and it makes sense. But, like, how far down the

01:20:57.340 --> 01:21:01.010
list do we want to go? it is it's really hard

01:21:01.010 --> 01:21:03.090
to make it an indoor volleyball yeah absolutely

01:21:03.090 --> 01:21:04.869
but i don't think that that's a bad thing you

01:21:04.869 --> 01:21:08.949
want the best teams there and again some of the

01:21:08.949 --> 01:21:10.630
competition no i'm not saying that it should

01:21:10.630 --> 01:21:13.689
be easy to make it i'm just saying that's what

01:21:13.689 --> 01:21:17.090
how it is yeah i think that they're trying something

01:21:17.090 --> 01:21:19.270
new to try and be more inclusive and to make

01:21:19.270 --> 01:21:22.189
it mean something i think you need to give it

01:21:22.189 --> 01:21:25.489
a few years to see how it plays out i think it

01:21:25.489 --> 01:21:28.329
will actually be more balanced than you think

01:21:28.329 --> 01:21:30.619
it is i look at They're using something similar

01:21:30.619 --> 01:21:34.020
to chess ratings where the points you get are

01:21:34.020 --> 01:21:38.279
less about one playing 10 and more about the

01:21:38.279 --> 01:21:40.779
difference in strength based on what you can

01:21:40.779 --> 01:21:42.600
get. So I think that there will be opportunities

01:21:42.600 --> 01:21:45.880
for some of those teams in other regions if they're

01:21:45.880 --> 01:21:49.960
consistent to beat out the Europe regions. And

01:21:49.960 --> 01:21:52.020
so I think we'll have to let it play out and

01:21:52.020 --> 01:21:54.039
see how it goes. I know they've run a bunch of

01:21:54.039 --> 01:21:56.100
different models to see how things would go.

01:21:56.180 --> 01:21:59.119
And I think it's worth waiting to see how it

01:21:59.119 --> 01:22:01.319
plays out over the next couple of years. Thanks

01:22:01.319 --> 01:22:03.380
again for a great bunch of questions, everybody.

01:22:03.600 --> 01:22:06.920
We have a ton of them in the bank, so keep them

01:22:06.920 --> 01:22:09.680
coming. We're going to have some episodes coming

01:22:09.680 --> 01:22:11.739
up where we're going to need a whole bunch. So

01:22:11.739 --> 01:22:15.340
we always enjoy this part of the show. Not a

01:22:15.340 --> 01:22:17.119
lot of volleyball coming up over the next little

01:22:17.119 --> 01:22:20.699
while, but the Women's U21 World Championships

01:22:20.699 --> 01:22:23.680
are happening this week in Indonesia. Matches

01:22:23.680 --> 01:22:27.500
start on Wednesday. Those are all available on

01:22:27.500 --> 01:22:31.020
VBTV. So if you want to watch those, check it

01:22:31.020 --> 01:22:33.500
out there. That can be your volleyball fix for

01:22:33.500 --> 01:22:37.020
the week. But we do have Worlds coming up in

01:22:37.020 --> 01:22:39.159
less than a month on the women's side and a little

01:22:39.159 --> 01:22:42.220
bit more for the men's side. NCAA will be starting.

01:22:42.460 --> 01:22:46.159
Leagues will be starting soon. So a little bit

01:22:46.159 --> 01:22:49.420
of a lull. Enjoy your break. We will still be

01:22:49.420 --> 01:22:53.300
here, and we'll see you guys next week. That

01:22:53.300 --> 01:22:55.560
concludes this week's episode of Volley Talk.

01:22:55.720 --> 01:22:57.359
There's always something shaking in the volleyball

01:22:57.359 --> 01:22:59.579
world, and we hope you enjoyed this little fix.

01:22:59.899 --> 01:23:01.739
Be sure to follow the show so you don't miss

01:23:01.739 --> 01:23:04.000
any updates, and we'd be so grateful if you'd

01:23:04.000 --> 01:23:06.880
leave us a five -star review. You can also find

01:23:06.880 --> 01:23:09.720
us on Instagram at volleytalk underscore podcast.

01:23:10.750 --> 01:23:12.529
If you have a topic that you'd like us to discuss,

01:23:12.609 --> 01:23:14.869
be sure to reach out to us on Instagram or at

01:23:14.869 --> 01:23:18.470
info at sarahpavin .com. Thanks so much for joining

01:23:18.470 --> 01:23:20.430
us and we'll be back next week.