Of Luca Muzzioli
Great beautyItaly the one reviewed at work in Bangkok, two years after Ankara. The advent of Julio Velasco he turned the clock back on this team by two years, to 2022, the last real year of well-deserved mazzantiana memory, with the gold at the VNL following the European gold the year before. Two years behind with two more years of experience, both technical and human.
This VNLbut above all the faces and public attitudes within the reach of those who are not inside the private dynamics of the group, lead towards the thought that 2023 was a parenthesis, a confused moment of clouding, which led to a necessary change of baton to get to this.
It was beautiful, beautiful, the Italian team that won the VNL over the weekend, collected 5 individual prizes and, above all, showed a game with rare efficiency, dispensing smiles and transmitting the idea of a positive environment.
Having said that, so as not to give report cards, I’ll just say that this Velasco seems like the one he knew in his first steps. Good at instilling confidence even in the second lines, who are then able to emerge in times of need. Good at clarifying and, specifically, making the most of what he has available.
Having won the VNL, perhaps the least conceivable result compared to an Olympic qualification which in any case the ranking left by Mazzanti already guaranteed, now this Velasco-branded Italy is a candidate to do again what these girls had made us believe in: the opportunity to fight and play for greater goals. Let’s be clear, respecting one of the rules of sport that does not translate the possibility of playing for medals into medals. There are also opponents, capable of playing with high intensity and even multiple ones because the period of long cycles of domination by a few national teams has long come to an end.
Let’s enjoy the moment and wait for Paris 2024.
FIVB & VOLLEYBALL WORLD, BUT WHO IS IN CHARGE?
In all this, the greatest competition to volleyball comes from volleyball itself…
In the day of the women’s Volleyball Nations League finalswith the Italian jubilation, the Polish one which joyfully celebrated third place, but also the satisfaction of Japan which nevertheless arrived on the podium of the tournament for the first time in history, on the day in which a world federation can celebrate a full building and have it immortalized catwalk of its top management in the awards ceremony, everything goes wrong because on the same day the FIVB itself schedules the last preliminary round of the same men’s event. A concomitance which means that the spotlights projected on the women’s podium in the afternoon must immediately be moved to chase the last phase of Olympic qualification, in which only yesterday the victory was decided qualified twelfth (Serbia)the ranking of ranking which defines the brackets for the Olympic draw and, last but not least, the scoreboard Final Eight of VNL of Lodz.
This is the FIVB, the world Federvolley lavish with self-celebrations, but careless in not ruining the celebration of its own teams, of its own following masses. Italy, Poland, Japan, Brazil: eyes on Bangkok, eyes on Ljubljana and Manila…
This is volleyball, a sport managed in a way that is anything but effective because it is volleyball itself that takes away space and attention from volleyball.
It didn’t help a great manager to schedule the women’s finals on Saturday and leave the men’s epilogue on Sunday…
For years we have been asking ourselves why the quality of the world summit is not equal to the quality of the athletes, technicians, etc. We still haven’t found an answer, but, yesterday too, confirmations.
FIVB, Volleyball World… whoever is in charge, needs a wake-up call.
