He’s heard it many times Mameli’s anthem, standing on the podium and with his hand on his heart. In the nineties Julio Velasco was the man who changed the history of men’s volleyball. Yesterday, in Bangkok, he showed a smile of satisfaction for the first big bet won.
The women’s national team, in pieces last year, had just lifted the 2024 Nations League trophy and, with the victory in the final over Japan, had returned to first place in the world rankings: «I bet on women’s volleyball – says the coach — adapting the features of the game and I have to say that this amazing group of girls made it easy.”
Starting with Paola Egonu, named best player of the tournament and making a decisive comeback after the summer of 2023 spent on the sidelines: «From an individual point of view, she did very well, as I am Sylla, Orro, Degradi and Bosetti have grown a lot. Because in team play, where everyone knows what they have to do, it is individuality that makes the difference.”
This is the bet won by triumvirate Julio Velasco-Massimo Barbolini-Lorenzo Bernardi (a concentration of titles on the bench which represents a unicum in world sport) who, with their charisma, they clearly defined the roles of each: players are not all the same, but there are no privileges for anyone when there is work to do. Egonu returned smiling and devastating to the pitch, the team got the message and started rowing in the same direction and took the trophy. With his gaze turned to Paris.
The rules of engagement were clear from the first moment, with a clear communication strategy that was never open to interpretation. After last year’s controversy over the possibility of having Paola Egonu and Kate Antropova play together and the controversy over the management of a pair of top-level opposing players, Velasco has closed every possibility: Egonu as starter, Antropova fundamental as a substitute, no chance of seeing them together and no more speculation on the topic. Amen. Empowered by this and aware that the coach would have had no problem backtracking and making drastic choices if he deemed them functional for the good of the team, Egonu made herself available to her teammates and never held back in training. Few distractions and the recognition of Velasco’s charisma to which the blue star immediately entrusted himself completely.
The management dynamics of the group have also changed. Every week they changed the couples in the rooms, because everyone had to stay with everyoneand learn to accept yourself for strengths and weaknesses. Velasco took each of the players outside of their comfort zone to bring out the sense of belonging to the group and the ability to recover in moments of difficulty.
And then some game dynamics changed. Because, as underlined by the technician himself, Egonu would be nothing if the whole blue car didn’t run at the same speed. And so, if until last year Egonu attacked half of the balls of the whole team, in this Nations League he attacked on average a third. For her, fewer balls means a more varied and unpredictable gamefewer reference points on the opponent’s wall and greater clarity of the Italian when the points became decisive and the errors more serious.
And then all the girls who returned to play at the level of the 2018 World Cup grew up (when this very young Italy showed herself to the world of volleyball in all her immature and cheeky talent). Even without the injured Pietrini (who will also miss the Olympics), Sylla, Bosetti and Degradi gave solidity and balance to the Italian game; Danesi and Fahr, with Lubian ready to take over, have raised the level of the wall to such an extent as to make Italy the maximum expression of this fundamental at an international level; Orro has grown on a tactical level; De Gennaro confirmed herself as the best interpreter of her rolemaking last year’s failure to call inexplicable.
Order has therefore been rediscovered, Velasco, Barbolini and Bernardi (with the help of another legend of women’s volleyball, Manuela Leggeri, and Juan Manuel Cichello) they freed all the girls from pressure and superstructures and put them in a position to perform at their best. Also making the president of Federvolley Giuseppe Manfredi proud who had bet on this unique level staff, even at the cost of making some enemies among the women’s A1 series clubs: «A huge thank you goes to our girls, as well as to coach Velasco and to everyone its staff who have done a fantastic job in recent months. We started with the goal of Olympic qualification and, instead, we achieved much more: triumph in the Nations League and first place in the world rankings. We all know that the big goal of the year is the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and this VNL has given us the certainty that we are on the right path to get there in the best conditions.”
Now, a week of well-deserved rest and then another week of gathering on the Romagna Riviera, where the girls will also have the opportunity to surround themselves with relatives, friends and boyfriends. A kind of holiday retreat, after which you will change gear. From then on it will be there only Paris 2024 in the minds of the entire blue group.
