Women's Volleyball FIVB Nations League 2024

[Josh 10,654]

What? Mitrovic is in? Um. 
 

Edit: Not that I’m against it, BUT WINZER WHY DIDN’T YOU DO THIS AGAINST NETHERLANDS WHEN JOHNSON WAS PRODUCING ERROR AFTER ERROR  

Edited June 15 by Josh
Autocorrect strikes again

[Josh 10,654]

 Bah carrying the French team right now. 

Edited June 15 by Josh

[Josh 10,654]

Bump attack from  Van Ryk at 4-3 in set 3! 

[Josh 10,654]

 sweep  to finish off their Olympic quad 

 

Great resilience from the French team in set 3, saving multiple set points. 

[mattadders 4]

Canada get the job done and sweep France 3-0. A tricky final set going 31-29. 

[Josh 10,654]

Entire team is in tears. I am too 

 

No national team volleyball for Canada until summer 2025. 
 

Edit: Talking about the women of course, the men still have week 3 of VNL, and the Olympics.  

Edited June 15 by Josh

[Josh 10,654]

Heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking. 

 

@Laraja please take good care of Brie for us in the Brazilian league. 

Edited June 15 by Josh

[Josh 10,654]

OK, last reply for now, but really wanted to get this off my chest. Feel like it came down to who had the luckier break and better schedule. 
 

Canada started off VNL just over 20 points behind the Netherlands. They fought back with wins over full strength Chinese and Japanese teams to get it into a direct head to head match with the Dutch, but unfortunately the fatigue got to them in the end. I will give props to the Dutch though, Knollema and Jasper played really well. About the “luckier break” part of it, I’m talking about the Netherlands. When Netherlands played Serbia in week 3 they had a youth team in action (none of them had any chance of making the Olympic squad), and when they played Dominican Republic in week 2, Brayelin Martinez (one of their best attacking options) didn’t see any action. But it’s partly their fault too, because this would’ve all been avoided if they hasn’t lost to Serbia’s B-team, it really hurt them in the long run. 
 

About the “better schedule” part, again I’m taking about the Netherlands. Why the hell would you schedule matches against Japan and Netherlands back-to-back? Why not put the matches against South Korea and France in between the decider?

 

Canada played from 9:30pm - 12:00am on Day 1 against Japan, 2:30pm to 4:00pm on Day 2 against Netherlands (just over a half day of rest), and 12:30pm to 2:00pm on Day 3 against France. 
 

Canada’s depth is nonexistent, a schedule like this really doesn’t help.

 

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that had there been a Qualifying Tournament instead of this bulls*** Canada would’ve qualified, but I guess we’ll never know. 
 

Edit: Will also add that the only quality win Netherlands had in all 3 weeks was the 3-0 against Canada. 

Edited June 15 by Josh

[Noorderling29 167]

First all, none of the things you mention were in our control.

 

Secondly, I watched the match on replay, so without the emotion of watching it live. My main conclusion was that we won from the bench.Kozlowski was able to bring in three new players at the end of the first set, even though the result did not even necessitate it at that moment. Also he brought in our best player Daalderop for the final few points; because of her injury she had not played a single point in the entire VNL. Also, Canada made far too many mistakes, especially in the send set.

 

Would Canada have won in a different format? Who knows: Canada won the two matches last year, but these matches were very close, with both teams dominating stretches of the match. Also, a significant number of our players are still young and inexperienced and have developed from last year.

[heywoodu 15,174]

2 hours ago, Josh said:

Why the hell would you schedule matches against Japan and Netherlands back-to-back? Why not put the matches against South Korea and France in between the decider?

I don't think it's a matter of deciding certain schedules. It's probably a matter of things that had been decided long before the race was this tight and now happened to end up this way. It could just as easily have been Netherlands - Canada in week 1 and being just as decisive, but less easy to notice because it wasn't at the end.

 

Also, to be fair: there were Olympic Qualifying Tournaments. The qualification pathway actually was pretty nicely done and well-balanced: half the spots through three OQT's and the rest through the world ranking, so countries that failed in the OQT's (like both Canada and the Netherlands, but especially also Italy and China) aren't automatically out based on one mediocre tournament. The one country that really, really threw it away is the Dominican Republic.

 

It's like if the USA in athletics would have trials for part of the spots on the team, and fill the rest up based on rankings, to increase the chance of the actual best being there (both those who peaked perfectly and those who maybe didn't, but showed that they belong there).

Edited June 15 by heywoodu