So i have been back in Sweden for just under 2 months now, and everything is back in full swing, my dislike of zlatan, my dislike of various swedish foods, and now my dislike of swedish road works. Also back is my poor attempt at speaking and understanding the swedish language although i have learnt a few new words and they are not even rude ones. Any way, the past month or so has seen us in pre-season training, and playing 9 pre-season games, including 5 in one weekend at the Hylte tournament. The highlight of the trip to Hylte was on the way back, when my american team/room mate, decided to fill up the car at the petrol station, the only problem was that he put diesel in the petrol car. Cue complete melt down on his part, and hysterics on the rest of the teams part. After what seemed 3 days of deciding what to do, we drove on and all seemed well, the car didnt blow up and we made it home, just a bit later than planned. He will never live this down.
So fast forward to yesterday afternoon and 200 days since that disappointing night in Linkoping, we where back to the scene of the diesel crime , and our opening game of the season away at localish rivals Hylte, the team that we knocked out of the play offs last season. They have had a considerable makeover in personal on the court and off it with a new coach coming across from Habo. We knew they would come out all guns blazing in the first set, we talked about before the game, but we didnt really prepare for it on the court and we lost the first set 25-21, onto the 2nd and we had settled into a bit more of a rhythm, and managed to squeeze out the 2nd 27-25, after that we controlled the game and won the next 2 sets with out much danger and a satisfying away win and 3 points to kick off the season. Now on to our home opener next weekend against Tierp who beat the defending champions Linkoping 3-0 in there opener, so it has the potential to be a good battle.
Comparing things to this point last season, I feel the team we have know is a lot more settled, even with the new guy coming in, we have had a good month to get used to each other and get into the grove. We have had some off court drama's in the run up to this season just like last season, but we havent been rattled by it and have just got on with it. The temperament of the squad is a level above last season and there is a good team spirit which makes it a pleasure to play in. That team spirit shone through last weekend when we had a kick off party with our sister club EVS, and we were victorious in the party games, including a dance from our coach that MJ would of been proud of. But know pre-season and party season are over at the main business is off and running.
I watched a lot of the FIVB world championships over the past few weeks, and overall it wasnt a great championships. The system the Italians and fivb put in place was stupid and it basically gave Italy a free pass to the semi-finals and screwed over better nations such as poland and bulgaria. As a result there where teams trying to lose on purpose so they had an easier draw. In the 2nd phase Bulgaria played there bench, so Brazil put out there bench team and used there second opposite as a setter. Bulgaria won 3-0, but got knocked out in the next phase, Brazil went all the way and won the championship. Lots of people are slagging off Brazil, but if a system this bad is put in place then it is open to be abused, and Brazil did it for the best result for themselves. It was also suggested Serbia lost a first round game on purpose and they ended up 3rd in the championship as a result. After the opening week only Russia and Cuba looked like decent teams, but russia bottled it late on, Cuba got to the final but lost to Brazil. Brazil turned it on when it mattered. For cuba this was there first major final with this generation so big game nerves played a part, but now the young guns have experienced it, they could we worth a bet for Olympic Gold in 2012, providing they hold on to this group of players.
In other news, United sort yourself out, Rooney sort your life out, and the Liverpool saga is just to stupid to comment on. Yanks should just stick to their own sport, and leave ours alone. Nice to see Price doing his Halak impression as well, could be another run to the finals hopefully.
