I don't think Giannelli and Colaci are here. The MBs are pretty much the starters.
Yes, I just noticed after looking at the box score (I didn't watch this match).
I said that because of what Blengini said in the presentation press conference: We want to develop them for the Olympic Games and make the composition of the team stronger. They will be getting a different experience here compared to the usual matches Italy play. I want the young players to experience playing alongside the likes of Massimo Colaci and Simone Giannelli in an event like this.”
Italy is here with almost B team. Only their setter and libero are the starters.
Some other teams are also here with weakened squads: Russia, Canada, Argentina. Poland will play the first few matches with substitutes as well before the starters arrive from France.
I think only Brazil, Iran and USA are here with almost best team. They are missing only one starter player each.
Both Brazil and Poland were already teams with great attackers, so I don't think that throwing these cubans in would make such a gigantic difference in their systems (of course, they are great but so are Kurek, Kubiak, Lucarelli, Douglas, etc).
I think a much bigger impact would be seen if you gave León/Leal to a mid level team like Germany, Canada or Argentina.
Just saying... Cuba won the NORCECA men's championship. They defeated the A team of Canada and the B team of USA. They even had visa problems to enter Canada and because of that they only played with 9 players!
Roberlandy Simón returned to the team for this competition. Hopefully we will see a few more returns soon. Really promising in perspective for the olympic qualifier.
it´s not like volleyball have/had some noticeable competition in this but maybe football is still number 1 among summer olympic team sports (the males one I mean obviously)
I'm just going by the most recent performance. Men's football 14th at euro 2016, women's volleyball here 12th. Obviously in ranking football is better (31st) but only because FIVB is garbage and doesn't even count continental ch.
Something that has caught my eye is that Serbia hasn't participated in this category since their title in 2011. Also no participation in u21 since 2013.
I remember your field hockey team was supposed to take part last year in FIH Open Series in Poland, but eventually didn't come to Gniezno. And I remember writing to your association's refereeing committee's chairman when I was preparing dictionary for my MA degree.
Hungary has field hockey teams: they finished 6th in women's euro division III and 1st in men's division IV recently.
They also have men's rugby sevens team, they finished last in the european olympic qualifier.
I don't think so. It's true that there are only 6 points of distance, but Argentina has 50 points from the 2015 WC, Canada 30. For Argentina to overtake Canada, you need ARG in top 4 or ARG 5th and CAN 9th, which is possible but imo not that likely.
Yeah, it's not likely in theory but it could just take one or more european powerhouses sending a B team to change everything (or even Canada themselves, I've no clue what they will do).
I understand the points being made - but this shows a tremendous lack of judgement and ignorance, especially considering one of the players doing the gesture, Facundo Conte, PLAYED IN CHINA PROFESSIONALLY FOR 2 years. Is that not sufficient enough contact with another culture to understand that such a gesture is wrong? And if he did understand the connotations of the gesture, he damn sure should be able to explain to his teammates that its not cool, and lead by example. The only thing I can surmise is that he's either a willfully ignorant idiot, a blatant racist, or both.
At best he learned 2 or 3 words in chinese during his stay (he said himself that he communicated mostly by signs since no one speaks english other than in tourist areas), so I doubt he had the opportunity to talk deeply with any teammate about something like racism.
Considering the current FIVB ranking, if Iran, Canada, France/Serbia, Egypt and Chile (?) qualify, the groups would be something like:
A) Japan, Italy, Poland, Argentina, Iran, Chile
B) Brazil, USA, Russia, Canada, France/Serbia, Egypt
I don't think the ranking will change much after the World Cup, maybe we could have Russia instead of Italy or Poland.
Imo the worst scenario from this point of view is the one in which both Bulgaria/Germany/Slovenia and Cuba manage to qualify, we would have:
A) Japan, Italy, Poland, Iran, Egypt, Chile
B) Brazil , USA , Russia, Argentina, Bulgaria, Cuba
Canada and Argentina have a distance of only 6 points, clearly that would be the most likely change after the World cup. So clearly I hope either we finish below them at that competition or that they fail to qualify for OG pool B is always be the worst at OG, both men and women.
Italy is doing really great in team sports so far, but i am not really sure about their chances in the remaining team sports? As far as i know their chances in handball, basketball, hockey and rugby aren't great.
They are already out in everything except men's basketball and women's hockey. I think they would have some chance in basketball if they were to host the final qualification tournament. In hockey their chance is like 10% I'd say.
Meh, that sounds like a lame excuse. How hard is it for people to just not be ignorant fucking assholes.
It's not an excuse. I was just giving an explanation of what they were probably thinking. You are from a multi-cultural, multi-racial country so these things are very ingrained into your education. These guys on the other hand likely don't even think they did a racist gesture, to them it was just a celebration. Also, I think you overstimate how well-informed some people are towards these sensitive issues. Not everyone is well educated about it. The three players who did the gestures are not particularly smart guys, must I add.
even lost to Tunisia.
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but maybe football is still number 1 among summer olympic team sports (the males one I mean obviously)
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Posted
Not 100% sure. If Iran finish this world cup 9th place, you'll lose 20 points and France can overtake that place in the ranking.
If that happens and Canada and France also qualify, then Iran goes to group B.
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