Sergey Grankin

Sergey Grankin

Name:

Sergey Grankin

Nationality:

Russian

Birth Place:

Kislovodsk

Birth Date:

01-01-1985

Height:

195 cm.

Weight:

90 .

Sergey Grankin, Alexey Kuleshov Pictures & Photos

Russia's Sergey Grankin, 6, Alexey Kuleshov,18, and Yury Berezhko, 10, try to stop a spike from Serbia's Ivan Miljkovic, during the Final Round of the 2009 FIVB World League Volleyball match, in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, July 24, 2009. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic

Sergey Grankin

Sergey Grankin (#6) and team mates celebrate a point in the Bronze Medal volleyball match between Russia and Italy held at the Capital Indoor Stadium during Day 16 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 24, 2008 in Beijing, China. 

SERBIA  (4° POOL B)

The Serbians seem relaxed despite two victories and three defeats. N. Grbic said that their only concern is the level of their own performances. Serbians aren’t playing as good as they did in Rio de Janeiro a few weeks ago during the World league Finals. They will encounter a squad, USA, that technically speaking is similar. I think that the US team has more probabilities to reach the semifinals because it is playing more steadily than Serbia.

However, I know pretty well I. Miljkovic - the Serbian diagonal hitter - who is a wonderful player able to change alone the destiny of a match, thus the match could be more balanced than expected.

U.S.A. (1° POOL A) 

Three excellent players: the setter Ball, the diagonal hitter Stanley and the wing hitter Priddy. Two standard middle the blockers, Millar and Lee, and Salmon and Lambourne, two hardworking players, totally committed to digging and passing. All of them joined by a common strong will, able to support the unavoidable ups and downs of any match. This is the basic portrait of the amazing North American team. They make simple Volleyball focusing only on “the good Volleyball playing, nothing else”.
It seems easy but this is the secret to succeed in Volleyball.

ITALY  (2° POOL A)

The Italian team got the second place in Pool A tough Anastasi had to deal with many injures: Fei (sprained ankle), Mastrangelo and Corsano (knee problem). The Italian coach in the five matches started with many different lined up and I don’t know if it was a choice or a necessity.
The best Italian performance so far was against Bulgaria and the worst against USA and China.
Given that Italy “could be” a good team in attacking and blocking, to try to win against Poland they need to play with a totally different defense attitude.
By the way, since the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, Italy was always considered one of the favorite teams to win the gold medal. Here, many reporters are repeating that this condition is a big advantage because the Italians can play without any pressure. Being a former player I can assure that those kind of matters interest journalists much more than players.

BULGARIA  (3° POOL A)

The Bulgarians had to manage the thorny situation of their captain Konstantinov, who missed the first four matches due to his return to Sofia to test some weird values. Reassured by the results, which excluded the assumptions of any illegal substance, he flew back to Beijing to play the last match (not decisive) of the Preliminary Round. His team-mates have already achieved the qualification to the quarter final but they had to deal with many problems in reception because Konstantinov is their best receiver. The missing of consistent passers and the consequent drop in general efficiency, was the biggest issue of Martin Stoev, the Bulgarian coach.
Now, the team is complete but they could pay for the few matches played together.
Yesterday I described Cuban Women players as “historically unpredictable”. Well, this definition suits perfectly to Bulgarian Men’s team too.

CHINA  (4° POOL A)

I cannot explain why Chinese players are skilled enough in individually but they don’t succeed in playing good as a team. They are endowed of a discrete technique but during the game they make a lot of simple errors.
In the sport we use two terms to describe different phases of the training: analytical and global. The analytical drills aimed to improve the individual abilities while global exercises help to combine together those skills.
Chinese are asymmetric: too analytical and less global.


BRASILE  (1° POOL B)

The Brazilian team is fighting hard because they want to close this cycle with the second Olympic gold medal. Hugh Mc Cutcheon, the US team coach, after the US team victory in the 2007 World Cup defined Brazilian as players “not that better to explain their longest winning streak. The Brazilians worked harder than any other team, thus they deserve a special esteem”.

Now they are trying to deal with Giba’s injury and though their performances aren’t the best ever, they got the first place in the Pool B. They have lost the distinguishing rapidity and smoothness in attack and Gustavo, one of the best blockers in the world, is less efficient than usual. However their willpower is the strongest and I consider Brazil the favorite to win the gold.


RUSSIA  (2° POOL B)

The Russian team was performing well. Grankin, the Russian setter, succeeded in the quick set, which has been considered his weakest point. The correlation with both the middle blockers, Volkov and Kuleshov, was much better than usual. Moreover, the atypical enthusiasm displayed by all the Russian players in the previous matches seemed the proof of their new attitude.
Today Russian players partially wasted what they achieved in the last days.
From the beginning, Poltavskiy replaced Mikhaylov as opposite and, after the first set won easily, they played following their old patterns (no quick attack and weak defense) losing confidence.
After today’s defeat against Poland, I wonder who will be the starting players in the next crucial match against Bulgaria: Poltavskiy or Mikhaylov?
Will Grankin succeed in playing quickly?
Will the Russians recover the confidence they had?
These issues would have been useless if the Russians had played as they did in the last matches.

“The speedy train hard to stop” we have seen so far, is slowing suddenly down.  


POLONIA  (3° POOL B)

I think that Poles have dreamed to be in this conditions. They worked hard to peak at the Olympic Games and since the victory in the first tricky match against Germany they played consistently. Only once (in the match against Brazil, after the first set lost 30-28), they gave up. Lozano, their coach, wants a determined and resolute team. He’s looking for a team able to overcome the tough moments during the game. The Polish players are talented but sometimes they suffered the lack of results.
In the Preliminary Round Wlazly and Winiarski were excellent in sharing their confidence with the other team mates. Poland is a team which can perform well in all the fundamentals, relying on a good mix of psychical strength and technical skills.
The quarter finals are always the most complicated match in all the tournament because the defeat in this phase is a kind of failure. That’s why the pressure is really heavy.

 BEIJING, China: Russia's Sergey Grankin sets up the ball for a team mate as they play Bulgaria in the men's quarterfinals volleyball match at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Russia's Sergey Grankin sets up the ball for a team mate as they play Bulgaria in the men's quarterfinals volleyball match at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 20, 2008.