Posted by I have recently posted about the 1992 and 2004 Brazilian Olympic Gold Medal winning sideout offences. While I was on a role, I thought I would add the 2004 Italian team to the ‘series’.
The starting lineup was: setter Valerio Vermiglio (#5) with opposite Andrea Sartoretti (#7), middles Luigi Mastrangelo (#1) and Alessandro Fei (#14), receiver Samuele Papi (#6) and libero Damiano Pippi (#12). The second receiver position was taken by Matej Cernic (#18) and Andrea Giani (#13).
The distribution could not be more standard.
– Quite a bit of first tempo in almost all rotations, more than 40% distribution in 4 rotations
– First tempo is mostly 1 / a quick, with some 7 / b quick plus 2 / c quick in P6.
– Opposite hits few balls in P1 and P2.
– Very few pipes, and in comparison to Brazil, with good reason.
– Weakest rotations are P6 and P2. Best rotations are P5 and P4.
For the tournament their sideout ranked third behind Brazil and Argentina, at 67.4%. To put that into some kind of perspective the tournament average was 65.5% and Brazil had the best sideout offence at 73.1%! Brazil’s figure includes the match they lost on purpose, so in reality they were incredible.
Tagged Volleyball History, 2004 Olympic Volleyball, Matches From History
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