CCB

Don't underestimate the teams of Czech Republic (who won against Germany at the ECh) and especially Ukraine. I think all the teams in this group will have to play at a good level to beat these teams. Will be a close battle, but in the end I predict and to win the quotas. In the other groups: B: and , but watch out for C: and

Good results in the preliminary round for our 10 desired Olympic boats. Only the Men Eight expected more. The Dutch federation did everything possible for a gold medal for the Men's Eight, but we were just over 2 seconds behind GB today. Sometimes it seems as if the Men's Eight is the only thing that counts in the Netherlands, because we accidentally won Olympic gold in 1996. I'm very happy with every boat that qualifies for the Olympics and even happier with every medal.

Dominican Republic won the NORCECA Championships and also gained a lot of points for their 3-2 win against USA. Netherlands and Dominican Republic both have 286 points now.

A bronze medal for the Dutch team with a 3-0 victory over Italy. How on earth is that possible?

Well, I think you're new star Ekatarina Antropova plays good enough to beat Turkey.

What happened with Bulgarian volleyball? They are playing for a home crowd and two sets down against ... Spain

Best performance of in this tournament. Semifinal against Serbia will be very, very hard. Let's try to win a set at least.

Thanks for uploading this video. Very nice to watch!

Nice final, but the video referee was a complete disaster. And Leo Hinrichs from player of the tournament. Although he is a very good player, I was a bit surprised.

My mistake, I completely missed that the NORCECA championships will be held next week.

Losing a set against Hungary was needless, but Ukraine plays on a very acceptable level. So losing a set against Ukraine is not that bad. Good luck against Germany, they miss their key player, so it should be a clear Polish victory.

Yes it is. Nevertheless, Kenia is the best women's team in Africa. About the ridiculous qualification format: It is unfair that the results of the European Championships are counting for the ranking, and most other continental tournaments aren't. For teams like Germany, Belgium and Netherlands every match counts towards the top 10 in the rankings. While in other tournaments like the Pan American Cup, Asian Championships and so on the better teams can play with their B-team. Like Canada, Dominican Republic, USA, Brazil ... I expect those teams fresh at the start of the OG-qualifier. Some European countries will arrive tired and injured. For example: Germany's star Hannah Ohrtmann, Belgium's star Britt Herbots and Dutch revelation Nova Marring are already injured now. Hopefully this three top players can compete in the OG-qualifier. Not to mention the VNL of next year, which results are counting for Olympic qualification too. A lot of the topteams will play with their B-choice, like Serbia, Italy, China normally do. Not all the teams will play against each other. So you're lucky when you play against teams that play with their B-choice. It really makes me angry already.

First round matches: - - - - - - - - Don't know what happened exactly, but Italy, Netherlands and Serbia should easily qualify for the semis. Meanwhile 4 top countries Turkey, Belgium, Germany and Poland will fight for the last spot. Very unbalanced draw. From Dutch point of view: nice that we have an easy route (although Bulgaria has a chance to win against us), but we played awful in the qualifying round. So we not really deserve to be in the Final Four, we just had a lucky draw. I watched matches from Poland and Belgium this week, they play on a better level at the moment. Big surprise of the qualifying round was the level of Ukraïne, Czech Republic and France. The first two are capable of some surprises at he OG qualifier in september.

Our coach is apparently not impressed by Belgium. I'm not surprised at all. He always is a little arrogant. Belgium is so good because they found the right way to play against the Netherlands. It is certainly not attractive. I like the way of playing of Germany and Argentina much more.

No surprise, and will play the final on Saturday. The two best teams of Europe for sure. Final will be a though battle, last times Netherlands scored 'only' 1 or 2 goals against Belgium. The Belgian team becomes better and better.

Netherlands is playing against right now. One of our best players, Nova Marring, injured her ankle. Looks like her European Championships and Olympic qualifier is over . A big problem for our team, as we don't have many good attackers left.

And eventually our girls somehow won the fourth set coming from 18:23 behind. A 3-1 victory against a surprisingly strong French team. Tomorrow .

France is playing very well. Fourth set coming up. I'm prepared for a 3-2 loss. That would be typical for this Dutch team.

Ah, annual indeed. Thanks for your explanation.

But Netherlands, Germany and so on also participated in the VNL and now playing their continental tournament, where all the results count for the WRL.

Well, Netherlands is struggling against France. But wow, the French volleyball team has improved a lot. Cisquel and Cazaute with hammer services. And a very strong defense so far. Nice to see the French team in next year's VNL. That's where they belong.

Do you know why the (poor) results of Canada from 6th-21st August doesn't count for the World Ranking? I see Canada played against Mexico, Peru, USA, Argentina, Colombia and so on. Results of Puerto Rico, Mexico and other lower ranked teams are counting for the World Ranking. But for Canada, USA, Dominican Republic they don't.

Belgian women's team in improving very quickly. Netherlands was a bit better today, but I expect a - in the final again. Maybe Belgium shows us then what they are really worth.

No bronze for Vetter. Let her throw with things and she 's fine, but running - especially an 800 - is a hell. I predict Hall/KJT and Vidts, Weissenberg or Oosterwegel for bronze.

What a memorable evening for the Netherlands. Everything went according to plan today: both hockey teams won and gold in windsurfing ... but then we didn't know that finishing on an athletics track is suddenly very difficult for us. Hopefully next year we will get some revenge with Olympic medals on the 10k and the 4x400 mixed. Oh, and thanks for the fun jokes in this thread. That keeps us going this evening