Warm up before Tokyo
The League of Nations, held in a bubble without spectators, is a training tournament before the Olympics, where the result is not that important? Or the League of Nations is a respected, powerful competition with a solid prize pool, which teams are fighting for, not sparing my belly? True, normally, somewhere in the middle: training tournament for weighty interest.
Therefore, you should not sprinkle ashes on your head about the fifth place of our team., which could and should have turned into something more meaningful: beat Japan or Slovenia, yes, take at least the fourth set from the third line-up of Italians. Did the same 16:11 - and merged everything into one arrangement. Don't be upset about the result.. Worth - because of the game shown.
All the talk about, that now this is preparation, and then we wow, how will we add, - from the category about the grandmother, who could become a grandfather. We can add, we can subtract, but the average temperature in the hospital a month before the Olympics, we have this: we can play on equal terms with any opponent, when it turns. When it doesn't work out, we can lose to almost anyone. But it doesn't work out often. There are failures in almost every game., when recognized masters for some reason turn into a collective unconscious.
Kobzar freaked out with height and transmission speed, why Kluk suffered more noticeably than others. Klyuka himself switched modes from "for health" to "for rest", then monstrously hammering in three meters, then ironing the ball directly into the hands of the opponent. Volkov came to life on Pankov's dagger half-shoots, but hesitated on hanging balls, breaking predictably in the running direction.
Pankov could give a great game, but it also periodically wedged, as in the same fourth game with the Italians, when he tried over and over again to play through the lost Poletaev. Plus, the branded feed has practically disappeared. Poletaev played in waves, without demonstrating the enchanting reliability of better times. Volvich, acting as an experienced mentor, in the game, chronically did not have time to go to the edges and through time self-realized in the attack. Golubev took worse gamers, but in defense I was more likely to dodge balls, than trying to process them. And for what, asks, Baranov came to Rimini?
Podlesnyy with Bogdan helped with the pitch, especially Yaroslav - and looked good in the game, but spent relatively little time on the court. Ivan Yakovlev, for some reason replaced Semyshev, never showed up on the site. Musersky was, if and in the form, then it is clearly not in the optimal, what, I think, and caused the injury. And now the "Musersky factor" in the Olympic team has been transformed into the "Musersky question", due to which the composition can be pretty redrawn. Pleased with Kurkaev and Vlasov - not always, not in everything, but there was a light, and the feed flew at times.
The only great player in this team is Maxim Mikhailov. As the saying goes, no questions.
clear, that the coaching kitchen is not available to us, work of thought, internal reasons, driving mechanisms for making certain decisions. From the outside it sometimes seems, that Thomas Sammelvuo does not have operational solutions for a particular game situation - or he simply checks someone in extreme conditions to the detriment of the result. But coaching decisions, defining the game pattern is like developing game connections on the court. They should be, they should be visible, they must lead to something. Our head coach often had nothing at critical moments, and it's a little scary.
The good news is, that the potential for growth of this team is visible to the naked eye, since everyone has not played enough in Rimini and 70% from their capabilities. It is difficult to estimate the percentage of Mikhailov's opportunities, its efficiency is a separate song and our magic pollen. The rest - there is room to move. The only question is, that it's only a month before the Olympics, and the national team sometimes looks like a set of players who met only yesterday, did not have time to really train together.
To be honest - if we make our way to the prize-winners in Tokyo, it will be a miracle. But this miracle is not from the category of the exit of the Russian national football team in the playoffs of the European Championship, this is a miracle possible. Potentially, we are inferior only to the Polish national team with Leon, to Brazil (I would not focus on a dry win in Rimini). France, Italy, USA, Serbia is not weaker, but not stronger than us. On a good day, we can beat any opponent. Another thing, that such good days are painstakingly and long preparing, while we still seem to be lagging behind in this preparation.
Photo: volleyballworld.com
