copravolley

For you, which Italy was the best in the 21st century? The 2004 team or the 2015 team? The results speak for this first, but there was no NBA player there, while the latter team had great potential on paper.

Italy failed in the first quarter against Slovenia, because they could have won otherwise. It was similar in match Italy- Spain. But you need a good coach, not Pozzecco

Germany will easy win against Slovenia?

Who will win: Greece or Turkey?

This is clearly the Turkish government's policy, as it happens in various sports disciplines: individuals and teams. They buy these athletes, as Qatar and Bahrain once did.

11-1... For me Norway play now the best football in Europe, togheter with Spain. The rest of the greats are struggling, but of course in 1 year they will be ready: Germany, France, England etc. Meanwhile, Italy will watch the another World Cup on TV...

For me, we're obviously unlucky:it was terrible to face Norway – a team with great potential, stars, and such good momentum + a first match against them in Oslo, which basically set this group. I would even prefer to play with Croatia, whose best years are behind them and are slowly going down. The same goes for Sweden – on paper thet have a good team, but they don't have the same momentum as Norway. On the other hand, if we don't make it to the World Cup for the third time in a row (I give it a over 60% chance for today), we will only have ourselves to blame. You can't be unlucky three times in a row: Sweden, Switzerland/Macedonia and now Norway/someone potentially in the playoffs phase. We are simply weak; we don't have any individual stars in forward from time of youg Balotelli (over 10 years ago), we don't even have a strong defense, we have nothing. But we have Gattuso, who is more like Pozzecco was in basketball. Nothing will come of it. This would require a specialist like Velasco and even that is unclear whether it would change anything for the better. Ranieri could have gone on, but he didn't want to... Apparently, he knew the risk of failure was too great and didn't want to risk his reputation. I'm afraid no good manager would go for it at this point, especially since the money are small but the pressure is to big.

Norway- Moldova 6-0... So, it`s over for us. Unfortunately, we're weaker than Norway right now, just as we were weaker than Switzerland in 2021. Norway has two or three individual stars, but even as a team, they're better than us, they don't lost many goals and they are 100% committed. So, for the third time in a row, we're in the playoffs, and I don't give us much of a chance: these will be 2 single matches to 2 another team (probably 1 away) and we could lose to anyone from the Czech Republic to Poland, Slovakia, or even Serbia. Especially away. Failing to qualify for the World Cup for three straight time a row, would be so terrible it's hard to imagine. But what can you do if we're worse than Norway and Switzerland? We're not in a group with England or France...

But is our form good enough for the Netherlands and the UK? A bronze medal is the absolute minimum here and all the fun will be with Ned and the UK.

Ok, but if Juantorena played for Ita, another player from Cuba or another country outside Italy couldn't play there at the same time, if he played for another National Team earlier. And now Turkey is trying to circumvent this and turn their National Team into a second club, bringing in whoever they want for money. It's similar in other sports: there was news recently that they acquired several Olympic and World Championship medalists from Jamaica in Athletics with a view to 2028. Erdogan pays and expects medals

I remember. Many people were watching that match on the beach on their smartphones and laptops

Marco Fantasia said during the ITA-Cuba match that Turkey is trying to bring the 16-year-old girls from Cuba to their country and Cuba is trying to block it, but without the help of the FIVB and other countries it will be difficult because Turkey has a lot of money and influence in the volleyball community.

You have a information about OG 2024 final: Italy- USA? How people watched that games? It was also early in day- sunday: 14/15 CET?

I don`t think so... They had Barbara Jelic- Ruzic, who was born in former Yugoslavia- they strong leader in attack at that time. They may have naturalized someone, but certainly not the entire team. In the 1990s, the coach of Russia was Nikolaj Karpol, who was controversial and kicked out many good players from the team, who later played in other countries: Turkiye, Croatia, France, etc. In my opinion, if it's determined that Antropova, for example, hasn't played in any Russian National Team (junior/senior), Italy could still naturalize another one player and allow them to play together in the same squad. This has been the case until now, but there have been some changes to the regulations. I'm not sure, but more and more people are saying that Türkiye is planning further transfers from Eastern Europe and Cuba.

Unfortunately, Luchetta and this second man are weak and are clowning too much in vision... Secondly, that success was unexpected and with the girls all of experts, journalists etc. has saying for several months that they had a sure gold medal.

I've given you two other names and we will keep an eye on this situation. There are some sources in Italy, who talk, that if Turkey does the same again, other strong countries will form a coalition to oppose it: Italy, Poland, Brazil, etc. Time will tell, what happens next.

Men`s final in volleyball World Champ 2022 wasn`t in Rai Uno? Or Rai Due? I don`t remember.

Ok, so why is it so important that they show the World Championship final on Sunday on Rai Uno? Many people tweeted that this is important for women's volleyball in Italy.

Just like waterpolo?

2-0 for Italy but I see only on live-ticker.

Maybe, I watch tv only on internet for many years.

Jack, Carutasu + there are further expansion plans, which I wrote about.

I don't know the rules, but I was also a bit surprised by the relaxed attitude of my Italian colleagues about yestarday defeat... However, it turns out that the defeat against Esp complicates things considerably for us and we have to win against the Czech Republic today... And I remind you that any place outside the top 3 here will be a failure for us and equaling the worst result in the 21st century.

But Raisport vs Rai Uno/Rai Due, it`s a different things. On Raisport are broadcasts many niche sports that don't make it onto terrestrial TV (although of course now, in the age of the Internet, terrestrial television is no longer as important as it was 20-30 years ago).

I'm surprised by our success in such unpopular sports as baseball, softball and even water polo, considering that only calcio is popular in the media and, recently, tennis exist here because of Sinner. Even volleyball has a weak position, considering our great successes on last 30 years. Broadcasting softball on public television, not during the Olympics, would be a momentous event in Italy :P