Interview with coach Andrea Anastasi
In an interview released by dallarivolley.com, the coach of Poland’s men’s team shares his thoughts on living in Poland, Italian League and Osmany Juantorena’s future with the Italian national team.
Life as Poland’s coach…
“I have lived and am living a privileged life, because being a national coach is the top: with Poland I have the best conditions to do my job. The Polish championship continues to grow, economically and technically, and has excellent television coverage. I live in Poland ten days a month and I watch the games, meet managers, work in the Federation.”
Regrets on leaving Italia…
“Regrets for leaving Italy? Not many to be honest. I follow the championship, but I am excited to be able to try experiences abroad.”
Italian League…
“Who will win the championship? I think Trento and Macerata have something more than the other temas, but the playoffs usually give great surprises.”
Osmany Juantorena…
“Juantorena in the national team? I am convinced that Osmany is now the best player in the world and that would be an incredible purchase for Italy. Obviously I do not know if he will play: but if this should happen, the national team would make a huge leap in quality.”
credits: volleywood.net
(please don’t remove the credits! )
Kubiak Won’t Forgive…
Poland’s Michal Kubiak is not one happy camper after a humiliating experience a couple of weeks ago with the home fans of his own club team Jastrzębski Wegiel.
After the 3rd match of the bronze medal round in the Polish League, Wegiel won and Kubiak was awarded as the MVP of the match. Surprisingly, fans didn’t agree and started booing him. They wanted Dutch player Rob Bontje to get the award more than Michal.
Of course, Kubiak was embarrassed and has vowed that he won’t forgive them for what they did.
Click here to watch the video interview on Youtube – which is not available in most countries.
Here’s the transcript:
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Zenit Kazan Hires Lukasz Zygadlo
After playing for Fakel, the 2012 World League champion from Poland will now play for another Russian club team, Zenit Kazan.
Lukasz reportedly signed a 2 year contract to replace Italian setter Valerio Vermiglio.
“Coach Alekno was not too happy with Vermiglio this season. Despite winning a bronze medal at the Champions League and the Russian League, the results for this season did not meet nor exceed the expectations of Kazan’s management. Therefore, Alekno decided to start looking for a new setter and he found Zygadlo.” says the source.
Other foreign players joining Kazan for the 2013/2014 season are Matt Anderon (confirmed) and David Lee (unofficial) from Team USA.
Kazan has renewed the contracts of middle blocker Volkov and star player Maxim Mikhaylov. Kazan is also in the process of signing up former national team libero Alexey Verbov.
2012 Olympic champion Yuri Berezhko has left the team to play for Krasnodar.
With all these changes for next season, we hope it will all work out for Coach Alekno & Team.
credits: volleywood.net (please don’t remove the credits!)
Bulgaria 2013 Men’s Roster
Still no Matey Kaziyski but the 2013 roster still looks very promising!
Since last week, some Bulgarian players have joined the first training camp of the year in Sofia.
Noticeably missing are Boyan Yordanov (who is reportedly exhausted from a long season). Nikolay Nikolov, Teodor Todorov, Metodi Ananiev and Kostadin Gadzhanov are recovering from injuries and no confirmation if they’d be able to compete this year. Veteran player Vladimir Nikolov has retired from the international scene but currently works as the team manager.
Star setter Andrey Zhekov’s return to the team is still up in the air since he has not played for almost a year after boycotting the team due to internal conflict.
The Bratoev siblings will resume training in the coming weeks.
The following players currently at camp:
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USA 2013 Men’s Roster
Matt Anderson is the new hottest team captain!
With a new coach, John Speraw, and a new Olympic cycle comes a new set of players to represent the Red, White and Blue.
As expected, the world famous veterans of the team Reid Priddy and Clay Stanley are not on the roster and same with 2012 Olympians Donald Suxho and opposite hitter David McKienzie.
From what we know, Clay is getting married in July and will take the season off. No word yet on when he will join the team.
Sean Rooney is reportedly switching to beach volleyball.
Anywayys, here’s preliminary roster for the 2013 World League.
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Why Juantorena Won’t Play For Italy…
Since he became an Italian citizen, there has been numerous speculations that he’d eventually play for Italy.
Sadly, it’s far from happening anytime soon.
First of all, a few Italian players, ie Dragan Travica and Ivan Zaytsev (and even his girlfriend), have been very vocal that they DO NOT want Juantorena on the team. Coach Berruto has also said less about the issue and on Osmany’s future with the national team.
Let’s face it, Juantorena’s presence on the team will for sure make a difference BUT will crush the egos of some of the current players. He is one of the world’s best outside hitters whose presence in international volleyball was cut short due to Cuba’s policy which limits their players from playing professional volleyball and making more money abroad.
This policy is the ultimate reason why Cuba has lost its glorious days in international volleyball.
A few days ago, Trentino’s Diego Mosna was asked on Osmany’s future with the Italian national team.
Diego said:
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Stokr & Havelkova Win Awards
from volleywood.net:
Congratulations to these 2!
They represent their country in the elite world of volleyball!
From cev.lu:
Jan Stokr and Helena Havelkova were awarded as the best Czech Volleyball players of the 2012/2013 season in a special gala ceremony held on Saturday night at the City Theatre in Brno.
Stokr completed another memorable season with the likes of TRENTINO Diatec by winning the FIVB Club World Championship in Doha, Qatar, this past October as well as Italy’s national league only one week ago at the end of a dramatic Championship series with Copra Elior PIACENZA. Stokr’s transfer to Russia’s Dinamo KRASNODAR was announced only some hours after the last match of Italy’s Serie A1 for this year.
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Bartosz Kurek: Russia is a pessimistic and grey country
“All that glitters is not gold”. Russian Superleague is perceived as the best volleyball league in the world as far as the sport level, but also due to financial criteria. However, the local reality is not so colorful as it might seem. Take a look an exclusive interview with Bartosz Kurek.
Your stay in Russia was …?
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