Inside Volley Board

i have the same finals prediction: 3-2 Russia-China ------ revenge from the athens olympics.

for the bronze: 3-2 Brazil-Italy ----- i want mari to reach the podiums.

Quoted from "Borodakova"

In the OG 2008 are another history..
Cuba played against Brazil without Carrillo and Calderon, two pieces very important of the Cuban team.
Italy was without Simona Gioli and Del Core.
China played completly but they aren't on best state.
USA played good but they will aprimorate many things.
and Russia and Serbia are missing and will do very good championship.
Russia have the return of Estes (Artamonova) and the best spikers of the world Sokolova-Godina-Gamova and the very good middle-blockers (Alimova and Merkulova). Is a great teame strong too.
Serbia have a Nikolic-Djerisilo-Brakocevic..great spikres too.

On my opinon of my predictions the quarterfinals are:
China 3-2 Serbia
Cuba 3-2 Brazil
USA 1-3 Italy
Japan 0-3 Russia

Semifinals:
China 3-2 Italy
Cuba 2-3 Russia

Bronze Medal:
Italy 2-3 Cuba

Final:
China 2-3 Russia

In the World Cup last year, Cuba played without Calderon either and Brazil suffered a lot to beat them. The victory came only in the tie-breaker. Against Italy, the situation was pretty worse, we lost in straight sets and Lo Bianco didn't play. Besides, Del Core is already out.
Not only the US team will improve for the Olympics... all the teams will evolve both physically,technically and also in tactics. Besides, finishing 4th with a victory over a tired China (only in the tie-breaker) and another over Japan is not what I would call playing good.
As regards the favourite teams for the Olympic all of them have great spikers... Italy, Poland, China, Brazil, USA, Cuba, not only Russia and Serbia.

I don't think all these arguments you pointed out will be decisive for the OG results.

For this very reason, my predictions are pretty much different than yours...

Quarterfinals:

Brazil 3 - 0 Poland
Italy 3 - 1 USA
Russia 3 - 2 Cuba
China 3 - 0 Serbia

Semifinals:

Brazil 3 - 1 Russia
China 2 - 3 Italy

Bronze Medal Match:

China 3 - 1 Russia

Golden Medal Match:

Brazil 3 - 1 Italy

"Quarterfinals:

Brazil 3 - 0 Poland
Italy 3 - 1 USA
Russia 3 - 2 Cuba
China 3 - 0 Serbia

Semifinals:

Brazil 3 - 1 Russia
China 2 - 3 Italy

Bronze Medal Match:

China 3 - 1 Russia

Golden Medal Match:

Brazil 3 - 1 Italy "

I sooooooooooooooooooooo hope your predictions are correct!

Brazil deserves a Gold Olympic Medal.... not only for this generation, but for the last generation that was extremely talented but had to face that powerful Cuba always in the semifinals....

However, I do believe the final game might be Brazil X Russia and the Bronze Medal might be Italy X China

We'll have to wait and see! LOL! Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Semifinals:

BRA vs ITA 3-2
CHN vs RUS 2-3

I do believe the gold medal match will be RUSSIA vs BRAZIL. Brazil will win imho. Fofao sooo needs a gold medal. She is truly a legendary setter. Every setter in every country idolizes her. After Beijing, I see Fofao, Valeskinha, Estes retiring...

Quoted from "jaden22"

Semifinals:

BRA vs ITA 3-2
CHN vs RUS 2-3

I do believe the gold medal match will be RUSSIA vs BRAZIL. Brazil will win imho. Fofao sooo needs a gold medal. She is truly a legendary setter. Every setter in every country idolizes her. After Beijing, I see Fofao, Valeskinha, Estes retiring...

guys, there's an extra topic for the olympics so please post here just comments about the Grand Prix 2008.
If you want to discuss other things do it in the extra topics

I was on WGP 2008 in Wroclaw. I've got photo with Gosia Glinka from Wroclaw, so I like it very, very much!