LDOG

From what I can understand from our team, during the tournament someone (I assume some FIVB officer or FEVA officer) told them otherwise. As I told before, during the match the press officer from FEVA (who has direct communication with players) was doing commentary in our tv and he spoke as if the match didn't matter beyond winning 2 sets. Then I tweeted to this guy who in turn (after getting angry with me) messaged the players and said that they were in "bewilderment" about this. If this was all fake, then they are very good actors tbh. Ps. Luciano de Cecco blocked me on Twitter because of this loooool. I can't believe a player of his status would be so touchy about some random comments on social media.

My avatar just scored two goals.

Paula Pareto got a very decent draw for tomorrow but I don't expect her to have a good result this time since Judo hasn't been her priority for the last two years. I hope next year she can try full dedication again.

[hide] Second Round September 21st - September 23rd, 2018 16 Nations, 4 Groups, the 1st Nation from each Group and 2 best 2nd placed Nations between all Groups will qualify for the Third Round Group E Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 21st 2018, h. 17:00 Netherlands 0 3 Russia September 21st 2018, h. 21:15 Italy 3 0 Finland September 22nd 2018, h. 17:00 Netherlands 3 1 Finland September 22nd 2018, h. 21:15 Russia 3 2 Italy September 23rd 2018, h. 17:00 Russia 3 0 Finland September 23rd 2018, h. 21:15 Italy 3 0 Netherlands Group F Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 21st 2018, h. 17:00 Brazil 3 0 Australia September 21st 2018, h. 20:30 Belgium 2 3 Slovenia September 22nd 2018, h. 17:00 Australia 1 3 Belgium September 22nd 2018, h. 20:30 Slovenia 1 3 Brazil September 23rd 2018, h. 17:00 Slovenia 3 0 Australia September 23rd 2018, h. 20:30 Belgium 0 3 Brazil Group G Date & Time (GMT +3) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 21st 2018, h. 17:00 United States 3 2 Canada September 21st 2018, h. 20:40 Bulgaria 1 3 Iran September 22nd 2018, h. 17:00 Iran 1 3 Canada September 22nd 2018, h. 20:40 Bulgaria 0 3 United States September 23rd 2018, h. 17:00 United States 3 1 Iran September 23rd 2018, h. 20:40 Bulgaria 2 3 Canada Group H Date & Time (GMT +3) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 21st 2018, h. 17:00 Serbia 3 2 France September 21st 2018, h. 20:40 Poland 3 0 Argentina September 22nd 2018, h. 17:00 Serbia 3 1 Argentina September 22nd 2018, h. 20:40 Poland 1 3 France September 23rd 2018, h. 17:00 France 3 0 Argentina September 23rd 2018, h. 20:40 Poland 3 1 Serbia [/hide]

This competition isn't really important, right? Congrats to Santiago anyway.

Yes, i'm in.

To be fair he is leading the prediction contest of this...

I send you a PM. It was really infuriating to watch the tv and hear this guy saying "well, we lost but it doesn't matter because it won't count and we qualified and it's all positive! lalalala". I almost punched the screen right there (yes, I have problems when I watch this sport). Anyway, one position more or less in the final ranking... it really doesn't matter, our team is very bad.

I predict we lose 3-0 to FRA & POL and 3-1 to SRB (because somehow we always get a set from them).

Lol remember how I joked that maybe our players didn't know that all results are carried to next round? Well, it seems they really didn't know! Someone had told them that it was only results against qualified teams! Even the press secretary of our federation (who also does commentary for the broadcast in our tv) didn't know, and he just realised when I tweeted him telling that (also he got angry because I called him a moron ).

Maybe organizers thought it was impossible for those teams to finish 4th in their groups

It probably was distributed like that to prevent any possibility of Italy and Bulgaria having to play matches in the other country.

Lost to Japan nobody told these idiots all the points are carried to the next round !!!????

[hide] Preliminary Round September 22nd - September 25th, 2018 16 Nations, 4 Groups, the 1st Nation from each Group will qualify for the Quarterfinals, the 2nd and the 3rd Nations from each Group will qualify for Quarterfinals Play-Offs Group A Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 22nd 2018, h. 13:30 South Korea 31 France September 22nd 2018, h. 17:30 Greece 8 Canada September 23rd 2018, h. 11:30 Canada 28 South Korea September 23rd 2018, h. 17:30 France 14 Greece September 25th 2018, h. 13:30 South Korea 15 Greece September 25th 2018, h. 20:30 Canada 5 France Group B Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 22nd 2018, h. 11:30 Australia 32 Nigeria September 22nd 2018, h. 14:00 Turkey 20 Argentina September 23rd 2018, h. 11:00 Argentina 27 Australia September 23rd 2018, h. 20:30 Nigeria 20 Turkey September 25th 2018, h. 11:30 Australia 16 Turkey September 25th 2018, h. 17:30 Argentina 4 Nigeria Group C Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 22nd 2018, h. 20:00 Japan 15 Spain September 22nd 2018, h. 20:30 Puerto Rico 31 Belgium September 23rd 2018, h. 13:30 Belgium 10 Japan September 23rd 2018, h. 20:00 Spain 32 Puerto Rico September 25th 2018, h. 11:00 Japan 12 Puerto Rico September 25th 2018, h. 20:00 Belgium 8 Spain Group D Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 22nd 2018, h. 11:00 Latvia 1 China September 22nd 2018, h. 18:00 United States 40 Senegal September 23rd 2018, h. 14:00 Senegal 17 Latvia September 23rd 2018, h. 18:00 China 25 United States September 25th 2018, h. 14:00 Senegal 16 China September 25th 2018, h. 18:00 Latvia 25 United States [/hide]

[hide] First Round September 29th - October 4th, 2018 24 Nations, 4 Groups, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Nations from each Group will qualify for the Second Round Group A Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 29th 2018, h. 13:10 Mexico 3 2 Cameroon September 29th 2018, h. 15:40 Germany 0 3 Netherlands September 29th 2018, h. 19:20 Argentina 0 3 Japan September 30th 2018, h. 13:40 Cameroon 0 3 Germany September 30th 2018, h. 16:10 Argentina 3 2 Mexico September 30th 2018, h. 19:20 Japan 0 3 Netherlands October 1st 2018, h. 13:40 Germany 3 0 Argentina October 1st 2018, h. 16:10 Netherlands 3 0 Cameroon October 1st 2018, h. 19:20 Mexico 0 3 Japan October 3rd 2018, h. 13:40 Argentina 0 3 Netherlands October 3rd 2018, h. 16:10 Mexico 0 3 Germany October 3rd 2018, h. 19:20 Japan 3 0 Cameroon October 4th 2018, h. 13:40 Netherlands 3 0 Mexico October 4th 2018, h. 16:10 Cameroon 0 3 Argentina October 4th 2018, h. 19:20 Germany 1 3 Japan Group B Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 29th 2018, h. 13:40 Bulgaria 1 3 Italy September 29th 2018, h. 16:10 Turkey 3 1 Canada September 29th 2018, h. 19:20 China 3 0 Cuba September 30th 2018, h. 13:40 Canada 0 3 Italy September 30th 2018, h. 16:10 Cuba 0 3 Bulgaria September 30th 2018, h. 19:20 Turkey 2 3 China October 2nd 2018, h. 13:40 Italy 3 0 Cuba October 2nd 2018, h. 16:10 Bulgaria 2 3 Turkey October 2nd 2018, h. 19:20 China 3 0 Canada October 3rd 2018, h. 13:40 Turkey 2 3 Italy October 3rd 2018, h. 16:10 Canada 3 0 Cuba October 3rd 2018, h. 19:20 China 3 0 Bulgaria October 4th 2018, h. 13:40 Bulgaria 3 2 Canada October 4th 2018, h. 16:10 Cuba 0 3 Turkey October 4th 2018, h. 19:20 Italy 1 3 China Group C Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 29th 2018, h. 13:40 Russia 3 0 Trinidad and Tobago September 29th 2018, h. 16:10 Azerbaijan 0 3 United States September 29th 2018, h. 19:20 South Korea 3 2 Thailand September 30th 2018, h. 13:40 United States 3 0 Trinidad and Tobago September 30th 2018, h. 16:10 Azerbaijan 3 2 South Korea September 30th 2018, h. 19:20 Thailand 0 3 Russia October 2nd 2018, h. 13:40 Russia 3 0 Azerbaijan October 2nd 2018, h. 16:10 Trinidad and Tobago 0 3 Thailand October 2nd 2018, h. 19:20 United States 3 0 South Korea October 3rd 2018, h. 13:40 Azerbaijan 3 0 Trinidad and Tobago October 3rd 2018, h. 16:10 South Korea 0 3 Russia October 3rd 2018, h. 19:20 Thailand 0 3 United States October 4th 2018, h. 13:40 Trinidad and Tobago 0 3 South Korea October 4th 2018, h. 16:10 Thailand 0 3 Azerbaijan October 4th 2018, h. 19:20 Russia 0 3 United States Group D Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 29th 2018, h. 13:40 Puerto Rico 0 3 Brazil September 29th 2018, h. 16:10 Dominican Republic 0 3 Serbia September 29th 2018, h. 19:20 Kazakhstan 3 2 Kenya September 30th 2018, h. 13:40 Brazil 3 1 Dominican Republic September 30th 2018, h. 16:10 Kazakhstan 2 3 Puerto Rico September 30th 2018, h. 19:20 Kenya 0 3 Serbia October 1st 2018, h. 13:40 Dominican Republic 3 0 Kazakhstan October 1st 2018, h. 16:10 Puerto Rico 3 0 Kenya October 1st 2018, h. 19:20 Serbia 3 1 Brazil October 3rd 2018, h. 13:40 Puerto Rico 2 3 Dominican Republic October 3rd 2018, h. 16:10 Kazakhstan 0 3 Serbia October 3rd 2018, h. 19:20 Kenya 0 3 Brazil October 4th 2018, h. 13:40 Serbia 3 0 Puerto Rico October 4th 2018, h. 16:10 Dominican Republic 3 0 Kenya October 4th 2018, h. 19:20 Brazil 3 0 Kazakhstan [/hide]

Victory over puerto rico and virtual qualification for WC. Only need one more win, but maybe not even that would be needed.

Of course, this is the worst result for me I wanted either ARG to win 3-0 or 3-1 so I would just be happy or SLO to win 3-2 because that was my prediction we have a saying for these situations: "without bread and without the cake".

Our team sucks, I hope they just lose already since even 3-2 victory is useless and we can't be more than 4th place now. Hope they lose tomorrow to Japan as well, no point playing a second round like this.

Yes, with Captain douchebag Heynen as coach you never know, but I don't think the option by being 2nd in the group is that much better: it would be USA, Bulgaria again and the 4th of group B which could also be France or Brazil. Bulgaria-Poland will be played at the same time as Canada-France, so it will be difficult for these teams to calculate while they are playing.

I imagine Dunadan must be a journalist or a huge statistics nerd watching sports 24/7 with multiple screens for all the simultaneous streams how can someone have such deep knowledge of every sport in the planet?

Fantastic, I can already see our team in that second round group with Poland, Russia and France

Argentina was losing by 8 point difference in 4th set (produced almost entirely by a single great serve turn from Zaytsev) but almost won the set even had 2 set points! Too sad for this loss and that we don't take any points from this match. It's weird to say this in sports like tennis or volleyball where you only can win by scoring a fixed amount of points, but I really think our team played great and "deserved" more. They were only beaten by very specific circumstances like two good italian serve streaks on the 2nd and 4th sets and a questionable call in the 3rd one.

Referee stole our team the 3rd set... match over now.

Italian players should really stop trying to hit everything hard and think a little more.

Sorry, why was Russia not considered favorite in this thread?