copravolley

How do you see our chances now? With this B squad, is it realistic to: reach the final? Medal? Gold is probably out of our reach?

If we won against Germany with our B- squad, so in our A- team probabaly we can win gold?

UkraineThey like baseball here?

I'm in 99% certain, that the MVP will be Leon or Kurek. Unless a miracle happens and Michielletto, if Italy can win. I'm worried that we'll be playing our 1/2 final later than the first and that might backfire in the bronze medal match against the Czech Republic/Bul. I'm afraid that after another loss to Poland, we might fall mentally (and it doesn't really matter whether we lose 0-3 or after a tough fight 2-3).

A win against Germany with this weak squad will be a big surprise?

No, I don`t watch baseball never in my life, so I definitely won't do it for money now

Bulgaria finished in the top 4 of the World Championships for the first time since 2006. In that time they lost to Poland 1-3 and it was a very similar match against the Czech Republic's at now (Poland was much weaker team in 2006 and the match was very open, if I remember good), later they won bronze after beat Serbia and Montenegro. Now they have another great chance to reach the final. One of these two teams will probably take silver, but the other will be probably at 4 places, so the fight will be fierce. I just hope Nikolov Jr. and company will make a bigger success in NT team than his father and Matej Kazyiski almost 20 years ago.

1-0 for Italy, who is watching?

He was close in Paris... Unfortunately, we lack dominant figures in this sport, like Poland does in women's event. Zurloni will probably never dominate and you're right about that.

Zurloni hasn't won anything since the 2023 World Championship gold... And it still continues

In such conditions, you need to be strong from heat 1 and then choose the best lanes later, like our M4X. It is clearly visible that lanes 4-6 are the best and in every final the favorites will choose them. I remember in London 2012 OG was similar.

I didn't want to write before run, but missing a gold in the M4X for us, would be a huge disappointment for me and we got it Without the Netherlands, we are a the first force, but we have to take into account with their strong comeback in next years. Besides that, our men`s 8 run wery well and they confidently advanced to the final with a big chance of a medal here. Unfortunately, the rest of the team performed poorly – especially W2, which was in poor form here and 4th place in the final is a bad result for me – especially considering our time loss to podium. Despite everything, I was hoping for more finals for us, but the most important thing is our first gold medal since 2018 at the World Championships in Olympic events

It was enough to win 1 set... Well, but you have the VNL bronze medal, so the season is not completely lost for you.

I wonder if Kosice is happy?

W2 è stata una grande delusione per me: fin dalla prima heat, non è riuscito a mantenere la distanza dopo 1500 metro. Il podio era ancora lontano e Francia e Stati Uniti erano equipaggi completamente nuove... Considerando la sua forma ai Campionati Europei, l'argento era facilmente raggiungibile...

Sulla carta eravamo i favoriti e abbastanza sicuro abbiamo vinto l`oro. Bravi. Ma era un obbligo. Un grande gara per l'otto maschile, che oggi è arrivato secondo in semifinale ed è passare in finale. Purtroppo, W2- si è piazzato solo quarto, con un distacco enorme dal podio. Sono sembrati fatica fin dall'inizio, qui. Per ora, una medaglia d'oro ci salva nostro Mondiale, ma spero ancora in una medaglia per 8, non importa quale. Inoltre, solo tre finali: speravo in di più... Ma un oro è meglio di quattro o cinque finali e finire fuori dal podio, come W2-.

There was a medal in 2023- bronze in World Champ., but that was a "incident of work". This discipline isn't developing at all in Italy for many years and we only maintain our position at the wide top because it's a niche sport. We have no vision for this sport. There are countries like the USA, the Netherlands, and Australia that prioritize physical forces, while others like Spain and Greece focus on technique. We have nothing. We are weak physically and technically average. We have had almost no junior medals for years, while countries like Greece and Spain win something practically every year. I don't see good that happening today. We need to do the same groundwork here as we did in women's volleyball about 10 years ago: it started with junior medals at every World Championship and European Championship and then it started to translate into senior success, but it took almost 10 years for gold medals to emerge. So far, I don't see that happening in water polo.

The minimum goal for Italy was a top 8 in this squad?

Va bene, ma la mancanza di oro per gli M4X sarà un fallimento: sono l'unico equipaggio delle finale olimpiche di Parigi con una formazione invariata, e il resto dei concorrenti o non gareggiano (Paesi Bassi) o hanno solo 1 o 2 componenti dell'anno scorso (Regno Unito e Polonia). Penso che sarai d'accordo con me, vero?

Remember Euro in softball, it's hard for me to take the Czech Republic seriously... I don't associate this country with baseball or softball at all, even if they've recently become popular there. Germany has always been worse than us, right?

Is Germany much stronger than France? From what I understand, the Netherlands and the UK are the best here on paper?

Hanno ottenuto la corsia numero 1 perché sono arrivati solo terzi nel turno di qualificazione e sono passati avanti con il migliore tempi... Se fossero stati forti, sarebbero arrivati primi o secondi e avrebbero avuto una corsia migliore in semifinale. Questo equipaggio è semplicemente debole e, sfortunatamente, sta succedendo la stessa cosa del ciclo precedente (mancanza di stabilità e cambiamenti costanti nella composizione). Probabilmente avremo solo due finali qui (M4x e W2-), e se questo non si tradurrà in due medaglie, incluso un oro nel M4x, sarà un Campionato del Mondo da dimenticare per me, perché sarà peggiore anche degli anni precedenti. Non vedo il senso di schierare due 8, che non hanno alcuna possibilità di vincere una medaglia, e invece non creare due: M4 e W4 più forti?

Qualche previsione per il canottaggio di domani, perché vedo che nessuno è interessato a questi Campionati del mondo? Io spero in un almeno un oro, perché a parte questi due equipaggi i finale di domani, non facciamo una bella figura nel questi Mondiali... M4- nessuna possibilità di raggiungere la finale: dal 2021 non siamo riusciti a creare una squadra stabile: a Parigi siamo riusciti a conquistare il 4° posto in extremis e ora ripartiamo da zero e perdiamo contro Lituania e Romania Tuttavia, avevo maggiori speranze per il nostro nuovo staff tecnico...

for: 0-2 to 2-2...

In 2004, women's volleyball could have won a medal – if I remember good we lost a 3-2 to Cuba in the quarterfinals. We were also the actually World Champions in 2004 and we have just became this title in this year. I still believe women's water polo is such a niche sport that we could still be a powerhouse, for example, since Greece and Spain they are. In my opinion, federnuoto focuses more on swimming, diving, etc., than on women's water polo, which is a shame. We could certainly be better than Greece- the actually World Champions, or the Netherlands- the bronze medalist in OG. In 2004 we also won silver medal in men`s basketball