After 2014 - U19 European Championship - Women

The competition ended a bit different than as expected. First surprise was the failure of Poland's qualification to finals. Then, the silver medalist of this generation Italy's very bad performance, which might be understandable in the absence of their two best players, Malinov and Bonifacio. Turkey is the only team which remains the same ranking they had in youth ECh. They had won the match against Serbia at Balkan Championship 1 week ago but couldn't repeat that performance yesterday  However, Serbia improved their performance with rising star Boskoviç. Greece improved their ranking from 5th to 4th. They miss Stranzali a lot. if she was there, they might win over Slovenia. Slovenia is the one which made the biggest improvement (from 6th place to 2nd). Germany was the another team who couldn't reach to finals although they were 7th in youth ECh. Russia has increase their ranking from 8th to 7th whereas Bulgaria also made a big improvement by reaching 5th position although I was expecting from them to reach semis. Czech Republic and Belgium were also other teams which improve their ranking compared to their place in youth ECh.

All in all, I really like this 96-97 generation, there are plenty of interesting players which I am curious about their transition to senior level. To me, the most promising players in each position are;

Setters: Eva Mori, Arelya Karasoy, Ofelia Malinov, Irına Kemmsies, Paulina Badyga

Opposite: Tijana Boskoviç, Nika Markoviç, Pelin Aroğuz, Anthi Vasilantonaki, Karolina Goliat, Malwina Smarzek, Anna Nicoletti

Middle-blockers: Maja Aleksic, Ela Pintar, Hande Baladin, Eva Lakoma, Anastasia Barchuk, Sarah Cools, Sara Bonifacio, Juliet Lohuis, Kornelia Moskwa, Wiebke Silge

Offensive OHs: Bojana Milenkoviç, Lana Scuka, Mislina Kılıç, Olga Stranzali, Gergana Dimitrova, Michaela Mlejnkova, Angelina Sperskaite, Dominika Strumilo, Anastasia Guerra, Magdalena Damaske

Defensive OHs: Sara Lozo, Anita Sobocan, Ada Germen, Alexandra Psoma, Miroslava Paskova, Veronika Hradzirova, Tatiana Iurinskaia, Celine van Gestel, Sofia D'odorico, Helene Cazaute

Liberos: Milena Dimic, Maja Pahor, Zhana Todorova, Janieke Popma, Pola Nowakowska

2014 - U19 European Championship - Women

After third round, final pool composition for U19 European Championship has been determined:

Pool 1 in Tartu (EST): Serbia (4), Greece (5), The Netherlands (9), Czech Republic (10), Bulgaria (18 ), Estonia (31)
Pool 2 in Tampere (FIN): Italy (2), Turkey (3), Slovenia (6), Russia (8 ), Belgium (14), Finland (16)

The numbers refer to team's ranking in last youth ECh, which might be an indicator for their current strength. Biggest surprise is for sure the absence of Polish team who was the champion in youth ECH and 7th in youth WCh. Also Germany (7th), France (11th) and Montenegro (12th) are other absent teams from youth championship of this generation, which means we won't see talents like setter Kemmsies and MB Silge, OHs Cazaute and Fidon. Candidates for semis are Serbia and Bulgaria from Pool I and Italy with Turkey from from Pool II. If Greek team would play real roster with Stranzali and Psoma, they would most probably will be in semis. Slovenia with their talented setter Eva Mori and Opp Nika Mirkoviç, will be underdog of Pool 2.

2014 - U20 European Championship - Men

After third round, final pool composition for U20 European Championship has been determined:

Pool I (Nitra):  Russia (1), France (6), Italy (7), Bulgaria (10), Serbia (11), Slovakia (13)

Pool II (Brno): Poland (2), Belgium (3), Turkey (5), Slovenia (9), Romania (24),  Czech Republic (25)

The numbers refer to team's ranking in last youth ECh, which might be an indicator for their strength. Biggest surprise the absence of Finnish team who was 4th in youth ECH and 11th in youth WCh. Also number 8, Austria couldn't reach the finals due to unlucky group in second round with Poland and Italy. Candidates for semis are Russia with France from Pool I and Poland with Belgium from Pool II. Also Turkey has very talented player in this generation, they  might also reach to semis if they manage to beat Belgium team.