Paola Egonu, 25, was awarded the best player of the VNL (Cheong Kam Ka/Xinhua via ZUMA Press)
It would be the first in its history, but after winning the Volleyball Nations League this seems like a good year
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The Italian women’s national volleyball team has just won the Volleyball Nations League (VNL), a tournament in which the best national teams in the world participate and which takes place every year. Italy played an almost perfect tournament, winning 10 out of 12 matches in the opening round and then losing just one set in the direct elimination phase, in which they won 3-0 in the quarter-finals against the United States, 3-0 in semi-final against Poland and 3-1 in the final against Japan; has therefore confirmed that it is one of the best teams at the moment, among the favorites to compete for a medal at the next Paris Olympics, which will begin on 27 July.
In its history, Italy’s women’s team has won three medals at the World Cup (gold in 2002, silver in 2018 and bronze in 2022) and eight at the European Championships, including gold in 2021, but has never won a medal at the Olympics, a competition in which she reached the quarterfinals at most. To try to achieve the goal, this year the federation decided to recall the Argentine Julio Velasco as coach.
Velasco is 72 years old and is considered a legend of Italian volleyball, especially for the period in which he coached the men’s national team, between 1989 and 1996. In those years, Italy of the so-called “generation of phenomena” won two World Cups, three European Championships and came second at the Atlanta Olympics (the men’s team has never won the Olympics either). In 1997 and 1998 Velasco also coached the Italy women’s team, while in the last twenty-five years he has coached several other national and club teams.
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At the beginning of this second experience with the women’s national team, Velasco found a team full of talent, but which was emerging from a somewhat confusing period and the disappointment of the 2023 European Championships, which ended in fourth place. In that tournament, coach Davide Mazzanti had often chosen not to start opposite Paola Egonu, one of the best players in the world, and at the end of the European Championships the situation had degenerated and Egonu had decided to take a break from the national team.
Velasco managed to bring serenity and enthusiasm back to a group made up of very strong players and almost all of them in the best moment of their careers. Egonu was awarded as the best player of the VNL (in the final against Japan she scored 27 points) and all her teammates seemed in excellent shape, from the setter Alessia Orro to the two spikers Myriam Sylla and Alice Degradi, up to the libero Monica De Gennaro, who despite being 37 years old has proven to still be one of the best in the world in her role.
In particular, Italy played an impeccable final phase in defense and blocking, which in volleyball is the most suitable phase of the game to measure the cohesion of a team. «The wall defense remains the predominant fundamental of Velasco’s Italy», he wrote Eurosport after the victory against Japan, enthusiastically defining it as «indisputably the best match of women’s Italvolley for several years now. Seeing Velasco’s national team play is a pleasure, because it shows infinite enjoyment in suffering together, in helping each other and in unitedly aiming for a single goal: victory.”
The highlights of Italy’s victory in the Volleyball Nations League final against Japan: it is the second time, after 2022, that Italy has won this tournament
If we consider this renewed team spirit, it is not far-fetched to include Italy among the favorites to win the Olympics, because the starting sextet includes some of the best players in the world and the reserves are also very strong. Paola Egonu’s replacement, 21-year-old Ekaterina Antropova, was one of the main protagonists of the recent Scudetto finals, and on the bench in the final against Japan there were many top-level volleyball players such as Caterina Bosetti and Marina Lubian.
Only twelve teams will participate in the Olympics, so the level will immediately be very high. We will start with a group stage: Italy is part of group C together with Turkey (which won the 2023 European Championships after eliminating Italy in the semi-final), the Netherlands and the Dominican Republic. In group A there will be France, United States, China and Serbia and in group B Brazil, Poland, Japan and Kenya. The top two in each group and the two best thirds will qualify for the quarter-finals, while the final will be on 10 August 2024.
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