"Seleção" literally wiped the floor with our team, defeating them 3-0 in just about 75 minutes of play.
The women's national volleyball team played a nightmarish and disastrous third match of the third and final tournament of the Nations League, losing in a particularly humiliating manner to one of the best world powers - Brazil. The match in Hong Kong cannot be remembered for anything, nor should it be, as such results have an extremely negative impact on any team's confidence. In short, our opponent had a pleasant training session with us.
Our Italian coach Lorenzo Micelli made four changes to the squad that played yesterday against Thailand. His chosen players for today's match were: Margarita Guncheva, Iva Dudova, Elena Becheva, captain Miroslava Paskova, Alexandra Saykova, Maria Krivoshiyska, and libero Zhana Todorova.
Bulgaria scored the first point in the match after an ace by Margarita Guncheva. The game was point for point until 6:6, after which Brazil started to build a lead. Our coach Lorenzo Micelli took a timeout, but it didn't help - the Brazilians continued to increase their advantage, destroying our team's reception. After 17:9 for the opponent, Maria Yordanova came in to replace captain Miroslava Paskova. This also had almost no impact on our team, which simply played out this nightmarish set after a 25:11, Brazil deservedly led the score 1:0 in sets.
The second set continued under the total domination of the Olympic silver medalists from Tokyo, who quickly took a 3:0 lead. Lorenzo Micelli called a timeout, which yielded a temporary result. We narrowed the deficit to 5:3 thanks to Mikaela Stoyanova. However, this was all that was positive for us in this set. Gradually, Brazil opened up a gap at 10:3, during which time Emileta Racheva also entered the game. "Seleção" subsequently increased their lead to 10 points at 16:6, doing whatever they wanted with our team. In these minutes, Iva Dudova also entered the game, but she, unfortunately, could do nothing to stop our free fall in this set either. Substitute Petya Barakova managed to outplay the experienced middle blocker Thaisa Menezes at the net for 10:22. This was the last good thing on the court for the second set, which ended with exactly the same score as the first - another 25:11 for Brazil and 2:0 sets.
For the start of the third set, the positive-playing Petya Barakova and Emileta Racheva remained on the court, joined by the blonde sharp hitter Merelin Nikolova, as well as the second libero Mila Pashkuleva. The third set was even until 6:6, with our players putting up serious resistance against their famous South American opponent. As in the previous two sets, the good start for Bulgaria was immediately neutralized. This time, Brazil did not manage to break away so quickly and decisively, but still maintained a 2-point difference in the following minutes. Lorenzo Micelli called a timeout for our team at 14:10 for the opponent. Only the inspired attacking play of Merelin Nikolova kept us in the game in the set. Our coach also took his second timeout quickly - at 16:10 for Brazil. Another unsubstantiated decision by the Italian followed - he took out his best player Merelin Nikolova to bring in the hesitant Iva Dudova. This rotation was apparently intended to confuse the opponent, but nothing of the sort happened - "Seleção" continued to dominate the court with confidence. Individual successful moments kept us in the set longer, but Brazil calmly reached five match points at 24:19. Bulgaria neutralized the first three, which forced the Brazilian coach to take a second timeout in the set - something that was definitely surprising. Brazil's coach also requested a video replay for the next point, which proved unsuccessful - Bulgaria was already breathing down their opponent's neck at 23:24. Brazil managed to close the match on their last opportunity after a successful attack from zone 4 - 25:23 and 3:0 sets. This set was the only positive thing from today, but this should not deceive us - "Seleção" had obviously lost concentration, and we took advantage due to our luck.
The complete helplessness of our coaching staff, led by the Italian Lorenzo Micelli, was evident. Neither the timeouts nor the numerous substitutions yielded any positive results. As some commentators noted earlier, today's match was a test for our team. This "exam" definitely cannot be classified as "successful" in any way - we were, unfortunately, completely shattered by one of the top teams in the world. The only bright spots, once again, were the left-handed opposite hitters Merelin Nikolova and Mikaela Stoyanova.
The removal of our best players at key moments of the matches, when they are precisely the ones supporting our team with their play, remains a huge mystery. Micelli's experiments seem justified only by the comfort that there are no relegated teams from the League this year. But with constant "in and out" of volleyball players, a team cannot adjust itself.
For fans, such matches should be forgotten more quickly, as there are many lessons, but also many warning signs.
The fourth and final match for our "lionesses" in the Nations League is tomorrow, June 15, again at 08:30 against the team from the Dominican Republic. We can only hope for something at least slightly better in terms of play, as it can hardly be worse after today's match.
