So….I can't cover beach and World League in the same weekend. It's that simple. If next week were anything but the beach world championships, I'd swear it off and cover World League, but knowing that it is worlds, that just wouldn't sit well with me.
I'll be able to write up select matches this week, but next week, unless I get a little help, there will be no direct coverage yet again. It's a shame, but there's just no way around it.
But, let's get recapped on week 4. This was a fairly light week, as mentioned in last week's rundown post. Only six of a possible nine fixtures were in action. And things got a bit cheeky in a few of them.
The two fixtures played in Group A were Poland at France and Argentina at Bulgaria. Both were said to have unconscionably poor officiating. Team USA (who weren't action this week) outside hitter Paul Lotman tweeted the following in regards to Bulgaria's second win over Argentina:
@FIVBWorIdLeague @FIVBVolleyball Thats what you call #homecooking, one of the worst refereed matches I've seen in a long time. #shameful
— Paul Lotman (@PaulLotman) June 23, 2013
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I can't really address Lotman's comments myself because, as mentioned, I didn't see the match myself. Of course the FIVB recap of the match says nothing about officiating, nor would I expect it to. But I wouldn't expect somebody like Paul Lotman to use such strong words without truly meaning them.
As far as the minor minutiae of the facts and figures of the match, Bulgaria's winning margin was (17-25, 25-19, 25-21, 31-29). Tsvetan Sokolov led all scorers with 21 kills, while Bruno Romanutti led the Argentinians with 16. This was after a first-night (25-18, 25-21, 25-16) sweep. Sokolov was even more dominant in this match, notching 17 kills (heck of a total for 3 sets) while no one else on either side of the net reached double digits.
The two wins put the Bulgarians at 4-0, tied with Brazil for tops in Group A. Which means they control their own destiny. They do still have to face the Brazilians, but so too do the third-ranked Americans. In order to advance, the Americans will have to take both from the Bulgarians next week and do no worse than equal to their performance against Brazil. At this point, the odds favour Bulgaria.
Because goodness have Poland fallen flat on their faces. I'm taken to understand that there were also refereeing irregularities in this series. The French team won two sweeps, (25-23, 21-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-11) the first night and (25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 21-15, 15-13) the second. Certainly those linescores suggest matches that were close enough to have officiating play a role. The losses leave Poland without a win in this tournament, and it's now really unlikely that they'll move on to the medal round and be able to defend their championship. They're actually dead-last in the group and it's not inconceivable that they could still be there at the end of the preliminary round.
All six Group B teams were in action this past week. The big fixture was Italy at Russia, likely to decide which team would get first place in the group and which second. There's still a little volleyball yet to be played, but they've, quite expectedly, separated themselves from the pack. The first night between the two this week favoured the visiting Italians, by a count of (26-24, 28-30, 25-20, 25-17). Both teams used remarkably few subs in this match, with the Russians using only 3 in the whole match and the Italians two. Ivan Zaytsev led an excellent Italian attack in this match, with 24 kills as one of three Italians in double figures. Alexey Spiridonov led the Russians who, seemingly without Maxim Mikhaylov for this tournament, also played this weekend without Dmitriy Muserskiy. Hopefully for their sake that's just termporary.
But they came back on night two of the double shot. Both teams still barely used their benches in Russia's (25-23, 25-23, 26-28, 23-25, 15-12) squeaker. The same two players led the scoring for their respective sides. The results put Italy on top of the group, with a two-point cushion over the Russians. They'll also hold any two-way tiebreaker with the Russians, since their head-to-head loss was in 5 sets and the Russians' loss was in 4. That seems a bass-ackwards way of looking at it, but it is the rule.
In Germany, the homestanding Deutschlanders took a surprisingly non-competitive matche against Cuba the first night. It was a (25-18, 25-19, 25-16) relative drubbing. The match took only 79 minutes. I knew Cuba were in trouble lacking Wilfredo Leon and Yoandri Diaz, but I had no idea it would be this acute. I figured they'd still match up competitively with the Germans, and they were more competitive on night two, but still lost (25-23, 25-22, 24-26, 25-23). Denys Kaliberda led the scoring both nights for the Germans, and has for each of their matches in the tournament. Germany won't move on to the medal round, but they're aces (pardon the joke) compared to Cuba, who are winless in six matches having won only three sets. Ouch.
Cuba are in last because the Iranians made history last week, winning a (25-20, 24-26, 23-25, 25-22, 15-12) marathon over Serbia. Iran put up an amazing 20 total team blocks in this match, with Mohammad Mousavi nearly putting up as many (8) as the entire Serbian team did (9). You don't put up 20 blocks by accident. That's legitimacy right there, and with the scuffles of Cuba, Poland, and the who-really-knows status of Japan and Korea, they may well avoid having to play the qualifiers for next year's World League. Iran head coach Julio Velasco called the win "a glory for us."
Iran's win came on night 2 of the double shot — Serbia won night one in another five-setter, (26-24, 25-23, 17-25, 14-25, 18-16). Blocking was again strong in this one, with the Iranians putting up 15. The Serbians were nearly the equal, which may have been the difference, as they had 14. Serbia now lie in third place in the group but it's hard to see them advancing. Strictly speaking, they do still control their own destiny, since they still have the Italians at home, but they'll have to win both of those matches and both in 4 sets or less in order to leapfrog them without help. Simply put, that's not going to happen.
The only Group C fixture last week was Portugal at the Netherlands. On night one, Portugal confirmed that they're no one's doormats anymore. A (25-21, 19-25, 23-25, 28-26, 15-13) was their third of the tournament, which is more than their entire past history in the World League. They're gonna avoid the 2014 qualifiers, which surprises me, but hey, good for them. Alex Ferreira had a spectacular match, with 17 kills, 5 blocks, and 2 service aces. The Dutch team swept on night two, (36-34, 25-23, 25-22), but that's okay. No one really expected Portugal to do anything in this tourney, so a split (their third running in fact) is fine.
It'll either be the Dutch or the Canadians to move on from Group C. The Dutch are up a point right now, as both teams are 4-2 and one of the Dutch team's losses was in 5 sets while Canada's were both in four. Still two fixtures left for each side.
Next week's fixtures
Group A:
France @ Brazil
Argentina @ Poland
Bulgaria @ USA
Group B:
Iran @ Italy
Russia @ Cuba
Germany @ Serbia
Group C:
Canada @ Finland
Netherlands @ Korea
Japan @ Portugal
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