Women's Softball WBSC European Championship 2025

[phelps 8,278]

2 minutes ago, copravolley said:

Here, it seems like: ITA, NED, and GBR are on the same level and the details decide to wins/losses. The rest of the teams are at least two levels lower, which is why I'm still shocked by our loss to Spain, who lost to France today...

are not on the same level, they only rely on their star pitcher Corrick

once she makes a mistake/gets tired, they have no chance against teams like and that have much deeper rosters (despite not having a player like Corrick in the circle)

 

[copravolley 498]

3 minutes ago, phelps said:

are not on the same level, they only rely on their star pitcher Corrick

once she makes a mistake/gets tired, they have no chance against teams like and that have much deeper rosters (despite not having a player like Corrick in the circle)

 

They lost 0-1 to Ned and are now demolishing the Czech Republic, which was supposed to be very strong here...

 

I'm half-Polish and half-Italian, and unfortunately, I see similar negative things in these two nations – for example, relaxing off in weaker matches, like here against Spain. This then leads to problems in the future and tends to backfire. Only a few outstanding individuals, like Velasco in volleyball, are able to eradicate these flaws from our way of thinking, which almost always haunt us.

[phelps 8,278]

4 minutes ago, copravolley said:

With our win against Esp, all three teams would have the same record: 4-1. And now we have to win or we'll be 3-2 and out.

with GBR losing only 1-0 to NED and ITA winnig just 2-1 against NED, even a 3-way tie most likely wouldn't be enough for us

we just have to beat GBR, that is the game to win since the beginning

everything else is just a setup for that

 

7 minutes ago, copravolley said:

What can our defeat to Spain be compared to in another sport? For example, the women's volleyball defeat to Belgium/Germany?

there's no comparison because of the nature of the sport, where every small team can always win against a supposed stronger opponent once the pitching performance is favourable to them

baseball/softball is not like football, basketball, hockey or any other sport where the hierarchy is almost written in stone

[copravolley 498]

3 minutes ago, phelps said:

with GBR losing only 1-0 to NED and ITA winnig just 2-1 against NED, even a 3-way tie most likely wouldn't be enough for us

we just have to beat GBR, that is the game to win since the beginning

everything else is just a setup for that

 

there's no comparison because of the nature of the sport, where every small team can always win against a supposed stronger opponent once the pitching performance is favourable to them

baseball/softball is not like football, basketball, hockey or any other sport where the hierarchy is almost written in stone

In football, however, sensations are much more eexist than in volleyball. Don't exaggerate. In football, someone scores a goal in the 20th minute and he puts the bus in his half of court. In volleyball, you always have to score those 75 points and that is more difficult.

[copravolley 498]

UK- Czech Rep. 9-0... Wow. This Czech are very weak.

[phelps 8,278]

2 minutes ago, copravolley said:

UK- Czech Rep. 9-0... Wow. This Czech are very weak.

they are not playing well on defense, but however they're not as good as the top 3 teams in any case

and against Corrick you just can't afford any mistake, 'cause she won't give you many chances to score

[copravolley 498]

2 minutes ago, phelps said:

they are not playing well on defense, but however they're not as good as the top 3 teams in any case

and against Corrick you just can't afford any mistake, 'cause she won't give you many chances to score

Italy never had someone like Carrick? Haven't there been attempts to naturalize someone of Italian descent, for example, in USA?

Edited September 11 by copravolley

[phelps 8,278]

yes, Italy has often had very good pitchers, for instance Susanna Bugliarello (she's an American born Italian) in late '90's/ early 2000's or more recently Greta Cecchetti (born and raised here), who retired from the NT after Tokyo 2020 (she's the current pitching coach of our NT)

right now, the best we have is the Chicago-born Christina Toniolo, meanwhile Julianne Verni (also American born) is a 20-year young newcomer...hopefully she's our next pitching leader, but right now she's too young and she needs to make experience

who knows if we can find another good pitcher in North America?

maybe...

or maybe we can find another Cecchetti...so far, Lacatena was the most promising Italian born pitcher, but she hasn't developed into an international top tier player yet, she's good, but not that great

 

said that, Corrick would probably make the team also with USA and Japan, there are not many pitchers like her in the whole world

[copravolley 498]

Every result other than the big final will be a disappointment here, let's be honest, but of course, the most important thing will be the Olympic qualifying in the coming years: how many European teams will be competing in LA? 1 or 2? 

Edited September 11 by copravolley

[phelps 8,278]

46 minutes ago, copravolley said:

Every result other than the big final will be a disappointment here, let's be honest, but of course, the most important thing will be the Olympic qualifying in the coming years: how many European teams will be competing in LA? 1 or 2? 

I think only 1, but it depends on how the qualification criteria are set