This time we present you the second team of the FIVB ranking. Russia is one of those team that can both win with everybody and loose with some low ranking country.
They are always one of the favorites of all great championships, but seldom they managed to handle those expectations. In 2007 Russia was the host of European Championships. They made it to the final, but they stayed silver, as Spain made a huge surprise and win the trophy. After that, in 2008, Russians won the bronze medal of Olympics in China, but it was not enough neither to them, nor to their national federation. In consequence, Vladimir Alekno was fired and replaced by Italian coach, Daniele Bagnoli.
As it turned out, this way was not really fortunate. After a big failure in Italy 2010 (5th place), Russian Federation decided that Alekno was a good choice after all. This coach got back to work with Russians and he did a great job by winning World League and the World Cup in 2011. Obviously, they were main candidates to the gold of World League 2012 as well. It went otherwise. Russia couldn’t find their power in this last edition. They barely won with Serbia or Japan and they lost with Cubans. They didn’t have a chance to defend their previous year title, because in Sofia they were not even there to participate Final Six. It did not seem like Alekno “let go” World League in order to focus on Olympics – it looks like Russian just couldn’t do it. Finally they ended up on the 8th position in ranking. It definitely means some troubles, but some time has passed since than, so now the Russian volleyball is really a mystery. Alekno took care of his players and their “rhythm of playing” and he organized two sparrings with Iran – both of them finished with Russian victory (3:2, 3:1).
Regardless of the various problems that we had during this season, our goal is still the same. We are nor afraid of Brazil and they know that. We took our time to prepare for London. Our first rival is Germany, so we are focused on them for now – said Vladimir Alekno.
Russian coach made an interesting decision about his Olympic squad. He took two liberos (Alexey Obmochaev and Alexander Sokolov) and only one spiker – Maxim Mikhaylov from Zenit Kazan. This unusual choice and poor World League make Russia probably the most mysterious team of Olympic Games. As always, we can safely expect them to be on the podium, but what colour would be their medal? We will find out soon.
Soon we will deliver you a short presentation of the Polish team.
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