Today off to the European Championship: the national team, which will debut on Friday against Belarus
the case
Forget Tokyo. And try to climb the continental roof. Or at least get close. The women’s volleyball European Championships begin today, an appendix to the Olympics that have just ended: until 4 September and in four different countries (Serbia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria), 24 nations will fight for a medal. Among these, of course, also Italy: came out very badly from the Olympic review with a completely unexpected elimination in the quarter-finals, Davide Mazzanti’s girls were included in group C together with Belarus (opponent of the debut, Friday at 17, 15: direct Raidue and Dazn), Croatia, Switzerland, Slovakia and Hungary. Winning one’s grouping is almost mandatory, and then launching towards an almost inevitable redemption. Maybe crossing Serbia as far forward as possible, bronze (with regret) in Tokyo behind Brazil and the United States and more than ever motivated to win the third gold in a row in the Old Continent, a feat that was only successful for Russia (and the former Soviet Union) at the turn of the 90s and 2000s, and at the dawn of the tournament, between the 40s and 70s.
Mazzanti, the blue coach, will largely re-propose the same group seen in Japan even if he will have to give up due to an injury to Caterina Bosetti, spiker in whose place Sofia D’Odorico was called. And if the other major novelty will be represented by the inclusion of Alessia Gennari to give greater solidity to the reception, it is inevitable that among the most anticipated players of the entire event there is Paola Egonu, not up to her fame in Tokyo and called to a prompt redemption: if you smile again, Italy will be able to think big. Otherwise, everything will become more difficult: better not think about it, in short. The watchword can only be “reaction”, that’s it. Also because, after the disappointment in Tokyo, it was the coach himself who stressed that he would have liked to see his players less active on social media and more on the pitch: a curry that, if taken in the right way, should allow the Italians to return to express themselves at their best level. Meanwhile, the possibility of including fourteen players instead of the twelve of the Olympics gave Mazzanti the opportunity to call five new girls with respect to the five-ring adventure: Sara Bonifacio in the center, Beatrice Parrocchiale free, the aforementioned Sofia D’Odorico and Alessia Gennari in the band, plus Sylvia Nwakalor in the role of opposite, basically Egonu’s deputy. Two years ago, in Turkey, Italy climbed to the third step of the podium: confirming itself (or improving, why not) would be equivalent to filing the Olympic flop under the heading ‘road accident’. Otherwise, much could be questioned, even if the coach’s contract was renewed a month before the Olympic expedition. –