Germany books OG ticket

[sIsam]

Germany defeated Turkey 3-0 (22-25, 16-25, 7-25 and it was really 25-7 it is NOT a typo ) to win the OG Qualifier in Baku and book one of the 12 spots for the 2004 Olympics.

For the second time Turkey totally choked in a final and allowed Germany to totally dominate. Congrats to the German players who definitely deserved this after the very gutsy wins vs Russia and Italy.

Hope to see TUrkey in the Olympics in 2008!

[foreignball]

sisam6 said:

For the second time Turkey totally choked in a final and allowed Germany to totally dominate. Congrats to the German players who definitely deserved this after the very gutsy wins vs Russia and Italy.
quote]

Sorry, Sisam6, it would have been interesting to have a new face in Athens…<br>Germans never give up no matter who and where they play, what is the score and so on. Like machines, like robots. I still remember a WC men’s final match that took place many years ago. We were leading them 2-0 and 13-5 in the 3rd (side out game). They made an unbelievable comeback by pulling out this game and later the whole match. So as some people said it’s boring

BTW CEV page says World Qualification Tournaments to be held in Spain, Portugal and Japan in May. Any details – how participants will be determined, anybody who has already qualified?

[sIsam]

only tourney left for women is in japan and only two teams are to go from europe. andre meyer said today after the final that it is VERY likely that Italy and Russia as the highest ranked non-qualified European teams will go.

It'd have been nice to go but I can't say that Germany does not deserve to be there. They certainly do (esp after pulling off that win versus Italy yesterday).

I guess we will shoot for a spot in the 2008 Olympics. By then we should have enough experience not to choke on such occasions.

Now it's back to club scene for our players. Eczacibasi (team of 6 natl team players) starts their CL campaign in a couple of weeks and Vakif-Gunes (team of 3 players including demir) continues in Top Teams. Yesilyurt (team of our lone non-eczaci and non-vakif starter) continues their quest in CEV Cup. We will see how this natl team experience will reflect on these campaigns.

[foreignball]

sisam6 said:

only tourney left for women is in japan and only two teams are to go from europe. andre meyer said today after the final that it is VERY likely that Italy and Russia as the highest ranked non-qualified European teams will go.
quote]

I missed to clarify I was talking about MEN qualifiers in Spain, Portugal and Japan!

[sIsam]

Ooops misunderstanding. I'm not sure about the men's process... I've the documentation at work. will check monday and post then...

[sIsam]

for remaining men's qualifiers, each tournament will have minimum of 8 teams. the one in japan counts as the asian qualifier again so two teams go from that tourney, one being the highest ranked asian team.

I've not been able to find who goes to each tourney but I'd expect it will be the highest ranked non-qualified countries from each continent. Expect a minimum of 3 asian countries for the one in japan...

[foreignball]

“The three men's World Olympic Qualification tournaments will consist of eight teams playing in Japan (May 22-30), in what will also be the Asian Continental Olympic Qualification tournament, with the hosts entertaining four Asian teams - Korea, China, Iran, Australia - plus three additional non-Asian teams.
Four more teams will play in Spain (May 28-30) and another four in Portugal (May 21-23) with the organizers being joined by three teams each.
The nine sides to compete in Japan, Spain or Portugal - France, Poland, the Netherlands, Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei - have qualified as the highest ranked non-qualified teams as per the FIVB World Rankings, but their destination will be determined by a Drawing of Lots ceremony held in Japan in late February.” as per FIVB.

So FIVB World Ranking will be used not as an absolute factor but for continental purposes since: Cuba - 18th, Egypt – 24th, Kazakhstan – 24th and Chinese Taipei – 31st. For more info -
www.fivb.org/EN/Volleyball/Rankings/Rank_men.asp