Fabio Menta

MELBET
LET'S DOUBLE IT!

PLDT over Akari and Sokor over Japan.
We try double our money.
Good luck! 💶💵💶💵

MELBET
TRAVELLING AROUND

2 Asia and 1 Oceania predictions for today.
Gotta trust me on the Oceania, though.
Nobody knows that volleyball! 😁

First, we have seen Thailand getting distracted after 1 and a half easy sets and bringing in the subs to finish a predictable 3-0.

Today, especially after Indonesia upset to a very young Vietnam, we imagine more determination in front of the home crowd and a 3-0.

After Australia, at men's level, Wallis and Futuna is one of the most solid teams in Oceania. Enough to win against a very physical but not too technical New Caledonia.

Last but not least, South Korea is dominating the East Asia Championship with a total sweep. While an experimental China has struggled at times.
We imagine Sokor 3-0.

Good luck to all! 💵💶💵💶

STUPID VOLLEYBALL
CAPTION

"Bash as much as you want, you stupid haters, but 20 blocks & 57 aces are a very good performance!"

🤦

NOW AT THE ACADEMY ...

NATIONAL TEAM 2026
PLANNING JIA (Post 4055)

So ... what must we do when we build a National Team?

Ideally, the Coach goes to a database and brings on the players with the best fundamentals.
Ideally, they are all honored to wear the tricolor and show up in shape to start working.
Ideally, they all give their 100% without the stress of what's around.

Ideally ... but never happening in The Philippines.

So, again ... we do not work in ideal situations and we must deal with that.
I am sure Delos Santos, De Brito and even Minowa could have done better if the ideal conditions were built and maintained.

Though, even in the reality of Philippine Volleyball, errors in concept are constantly made.
People (all included) severely judge every single performance. Every game, most expect wins and progresses are not even noticed.
And changes are made. Killing the continuity of a project. Going back to square 1.
A masochistic attitude that hurt those who apply it and everyone else around.

There is a word that seems not to exist in the dictionary of local volleyball : Planning.

Planning, differently from Programming, means to assess a current situation, build a common vision, ensure that the steps from "here to there" are realistically interpretered and, only at then, decide a target.

Planning involves Time.

I have read for a while and almost everywhere that PNVF Plan is to do as well as possible at the 2029 Women's World Championship. A plan that worked quite well for the Men's, we must remember.

What has the Federation done, in that occasion?
They selected an International Coach with a fine pedigree, a World Champion one. They listened to his needs and gave him a blank sheet of paper in which he wrote whatever he felt was necessary in order to simply do well. Do the best a team could.

He added some players. He cut some players. He used ways and methodology that his experience suggested for the particular case of a National Team that had never had great results.

Excellent job, PNVF! Excellent job, Coach! Excellent job, Players!

And the Women's?
Aw, that's always trouble, in Manila.

That's where the private and public interest is. That's where the sponsors are. That's where the Fans influence the choices. That's where it takes a Plan that looks at people and things objectively.
That's where The Philippines always got lost.

You need to be a little heartless, to make that plan. Or, let's say, simply intelligent.
There are no special names, no beauty queens, no media stars in a long term plan. There is simply a date : 2029.

In fact, if you plan to do well in 2029, you need to build your foundations in 2026. Interpreter the future now and give time to the architect to build a beautiful Palace. Time. It takes Time.

If we all accept that Planning comes before Programming, which basically is : what time do we do weights tomorrow ... we need to make different considerations. Painful ones, if necessary.

It doesn't matter anymore, for example, who the best today is but who could be the best in 2029.
The journey that starts today must only look at the finishing line, not at the partial passages.

And here the trouble starts.
In the light of a proper planning we cannot not consider the age of the players, and not simply the height.

The best setter in the Country, Jia Morado De Guzman, will be age 35 and height 5'7" when the Tournament kicks off.
The Coach must consider today if it's feasible to go to a World Championship with a 35 year old not tall player. Now! Not after the 4th place in the next 2 SEA Games.

Because the next setters, the young and tall ones you should identify today need time to analitically work in order to look effective, at World level, in 2029.

It is not in discussion as I read everywhere if Jia today is good or not good. That is not the point.
It's Jia in 4 years that counts.
It's Coronel and Tolentino in 4 years that count.
It's Cayuna and Lamina, if you will.

Planning means : "gimme today what I need tomorrow and gimme time to develop it".

We are, again, doing it wrong. We are, again, sailing at sight. No "equipment" (planning) to see what's behind the many islands on the way to 2029.
That means it is very possible that you will get there without any consistent progress made, once you have repeated what it never worked in the last 11 years of activities.

Correct me if I am wrong.
The Philippines hasn't won a SEA Games medal in 21 years. The best that happened was to grab a couple of medals basically when the other nations showed up with experimental line ups.

And we can easily assume that it is not realistic to see this Team grab a Silver or a Gold medal in the next years considering what Thailand and Vietnam have done, do today and will surely do tomorrow to stay at current level & FIVB ranking.

So ... to be practical : aren't we wasting time with players, even good ones and loved ones, if Time is not on their side?
Once again, we declare a target and immediately look at the 1st step like it was the important one. So, we rely on names, on occasional saviors, not on development plans.

The actual Philippine NT doesn't have to finish 3rd in a meaningless tournament, no ... it has to start playing good volleyball. Simply that : good volleyball. We haven't seen that in a very long time. It is time, if we plan, to work on lines correlations, on interpersonal relations, on zones, defensive and offensive options, back court efficiency and very aggressive serve. For example.
All things missing in this NT like the others.

It is fundamental not to lose focus.
We're going to a World Event in 2029, for God's sake. Why care about Indonesia today?
Let's look for good Volleyball first ... and see how I donesia will eventually fall.

ON JIA :

Jia, for what she has done in career and for her excellent hands technique, is untouchable. Period!
Criticizing Jia, like criticizing Alyssa or Myla, only means you have no fu***ng idea of how volleyball is played.

At this level, of course. Within the physical and experience limits of a geographical area that never produced World Medals or Olympic qualifications.

Still, technique, intelligence, personality ... no, you can't criticize Jia, or Aly and Myla.
You're being blasphemous!

A couple of weeks ago I was talking over lunch to a very important manager, and Jia came up in the conversation.

"Jia has changed", I said.
The Manager smiled.
"She's not fast anymore".
The Manager nodded.
"Japan ruined her!"
The Manager laughed.

I read so many shallow considerations. Jia versus Indonesia ... Jia versus Vietnam ...
At times, many times, I wonder how many see Volleyball, how many watch it and how many observe it. Forget analyzing it.

Jia ... contrary to all your concepts, dated and out of focus, is today playing Japanese Volleyball.
Yes, that's how Japanese play.
Sato and Ishikawa, Ishikawa and Sato, a bit of Wada and once every 3 rotations 1 Shimamura.

In 2016, when Foton played NEC Red Rockets, in the after game, I asked Coach Yamada where he got his tactical knowledge, having observed that 65% of the attacks came from zone 4, 15% from backcourt, 15% from zone 2 mostly when Sarina Koga passed in that zone ... and the two middles were just "pieces of furniture", standing there only to block.
"Italy", he said.

Since 2016, Brazilians were in Japan.
Since, Ferhat Akbaş went as tactical coordinator first and head coach second. Since, Japan played just like Italy and Brazil, Türkiye and USA.

That's what Jia does now. Nothing more, nothing less.

Jia has changed. Matured. No more balls are forced for the middles like in the Ateneo era. She distributes according to zone of reception.

Someone told me that during one of my matches, she was the TV analyst. And after a timeout, the commentator asked : "Jia, what have you learned in Japan that you did not know before?"
She answered : "What Coach Fabio just said : the pass doesn't always have to be perfect, pushed to the net in the hands of the setter. At times, you know you are gonna play high ball and want the pass a bit short. Before, I used to get upset if the ball was not in my hands."

I learnt it in Italy 25 years ago. She learnt in Japan a year ago. We, Italians and Japanese, play the same volleyball now. There are no more national characteristics in this globalized world.
While you still talk about "Japanese system".

I keep reading technical posts that talk about last week's games but smell like 2006. Japan has changed. Jia has changed.

Jia is ahead of a movement that is stuck in time, actually, with the middles attacking behind the neck balls set from the 3 meters line and "catching and pushing" to get called a fault now.
God only know how much I insisted with Ytang and Bansil to stop doing that and just spike using wrist and possibly strength.

Jia will not give you that ball anymore, on short passes. She will activate the wingers, like you should.

The issue with Jia is not Jia.
It's Philippine Volleyball.
The Women's game, you might have noticed in the last VNL, is everyday more and more similar to the Men's game. High ball in 4. Vertical combinations middle / player 6, qwatro for the opposites. Rarely a super, a pushed ball.

And here is where the issue is. We do not have a single OH able to deal with high balls. Not one.
There lies, for example, the continuous failure of Choco Mucho. There, it is where 5'7" spikers get blocked by 5'10" opposites or 6'1" middles.
It's not Jia. It's the rest.

Belen is an excellent spiker. Aggressive, intelligent, very technical but 5'7". On high ball, I'm sure you have noticed, she mostly goes for block out rather than hard spikes.
And, trust me, you can't win medals on block outs.

Short players, average jump and high ball. No back court. Inefficient serving. There you go ... if you ever want to know how you lost the last 21 years of medals.

Leave Jia alone. Her only fault, if we really want to Plan 2029, is her age. The rest is almost perfect.

PHILIPPINE NATIONAL TEAM
I READ ... I READ EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE AND ... (Post 4054)

.. I read the same fans' complaints since 2016, or the same "intitials" or "nicknames" defending their friends and accusing their enemies ...

11 years after supension, and being suspended again, Philippine Volleyball is still the same Risiko Table of always.

Complaints:
They should select this one and not that one, and after the loss : yes, but we need to train more.

They should change coach, local is better; no, wait, foreigner is better, and then, after the loss: yes, but the players shouldn't refuse the selection and the calendars should be different.

They need a system, like Japan!!! ... and then, after the Japanese loss : yes, but the players should be taller.

Never ending story!

May I say that in all I have read in 10 years on the internet there is no "structure", realistic objective defined? May I add that in all that has been done in 10 years there was no "structure", realistic effort according to confirmed Reality?

May I finally state that the present situation has even less structure than the one in 2019 and 2021 when all Philippines, later with the help of FIVB, was pushing on the same side to be victorious, not a very common case in Manila?

May I remind you that after those great efforts in money, time, travels to prepare and crowds to push the greatest legends of this century we heard the same complaints? ... we should have more time, we need another coach ... we should change the system, like Japan ... and then, again : yes, but we should select tall players ...

10 years of lazy, somehow shallow and mostly untrue observations made by all parties involved, without distinction of position (managers, players, coaches, fans) and volleyball culture (filipinos or foreigners) to justify the continuous failures.

I have been approached, I would say, several times by Federations or Managers, Coaches or Players.
And I strongly believe that, given the geo politics in Manila, to make the strogest possible team is not difficult. It's impossible!

All parties gave, sooner or later, a selfish agenda.
And to see the best setters with the best middles, with the best opposites, with the best outsides and the best liberos all together is only a dream.

But also that ... when this was possible, in 2017 and 2019, and later in 2021, the final result did not change by a bit.

So ...
Let see IF Philippine Volleyball can honestly aim at anything higher than a sad 4th place in South East Asia or we are still just dreaming.

The complaints are money, time, coaches, players. All! Nothing is right according to the netizens.
Let's start from an important political point: in a "regular" top country, the order of importance is very simple.

- Federation
- Coach
- Players
- Fans

The Federation has a vision. They select a coach that can make, hopefully, that vision reality. The coach selects abd trains players according to his likes, skills and common vision. The Players are all honored to be selected, represent the Flag. The Fans watch and judge after the game.
In a regular Country, they all thank the sponsor for allowing the process.

In The Philippines, instead :

- Federation
- Fans
- Players
- Sponsor
- Coach

Pretty messed up, if I may.

Everyone has a saying on the roster before the coach. Everyome pushes to have or NOT have a own player in the team.
Everyone judges before the effort, complaints the same complaints ... and nobody ever sits down to see what went wrong last time and do actually something different to avoid doing wrong again.

And, after a Filipino, Brazilian or Japanese loss, complaints. The same.

MONEY : Philippine Volleyball is by far the richest movement in 75% of the Asian Continent. And the only one amongst the richest that never wins an important medal in an important tournament.

Worth to remember that only China, Japan and South Korea offer higher salaries than The Philippines. Worth to mention that a Pro Club in The Philippines costs 15 to 30% more than a medium level Club in Italy, imports included there and not included yet here.
Worth to mention that "that figure" is at times superior to 70 millions per Team.

Worth mentioning that that money has never been allocated to development, equipment, technology and infrastructures. Just players, rentals and trips.
At Club level and, sadly, at Federation level.

Japan, China and South Korea, but also Thailand, Vietnam & Kazakhstan all have a modern Federal Training Center with courts, gyms, pools, offices and futuristic gadgets used to run the programs.
Coaches guaranteed national and international studies, through this process, have built KYK, Zhu Ting, Sarina Koga and Plumjit Thinkaow. Thanh Thùy and Sana Anarkulova.

In The Philippines, to create a next Valdez or Aby Maraño, you hope that a high school in Marikina or Batangas or Davao or Bacolod invest some of its own money on a young good coach that will never have Federation's guidance for Level 1, 2 or 3, that watches by choice local & international volleyball to transfer knowledge to her/his players.

What are the odds that The Philippines can reach the same results even using the same amount of money?

Local or foreign coaches, in this process, have no A.I. software, no machinery, no specific equipment for volleyball and for recovery in the weights room, or court or in Video Analysis Room.

Without going too deep but still putting things in perspective ... all the equipment I just mentioned costs about 4 salaries of a top player.
Investing in methodology and knowledge does not interest anyone ... because you can't see it.
Because in Manila, it is considered a by-product, not the source of greatness.

TIME

How long do you really need?
Because Jia and Alyssa and others were in the NT U23 that played in Malysia in 2015, 11 years ago.
Aby and friends met for 10 year and went to Japan, to Brazil, to games and tournaments for up to even 1 and a half month, with local or foreign coaches.

Watching the last games, like those ones in 2017, for example, do you feel we've added knowledge? Do you feel we have ever analyzed errors, cut and changed the dead branches? Created databases of skills and potentials of the old, the present and the future ones? Do we really know who is who?
Does the NT Coach knows what Eya Laure gave in reception compared to Gandler or Belen in the last 2 years?
These are not lazy questions ... because the coaches of Thailand, Japan or Vietnam perfectly know it. Not only about Sasipapron, Sato & Thanh Thùy, but also Laure, Gandler and Belen.

Do you understand, now, what structure means?

More ... have we opened NT to Alyssa Solomon when she was 16? Have we ever consider that after the Maraño era (up to 2022) it was Ytang the only exceptional slide in the country?
Have we "raised" that talent when it was time?
Is it normal, to you, that a 4-time Best Middle gets to NT only at age 24, almost half career gone?

Do you think local stars get to NT too late and without proper information to win internationally?

Always without going too deep but putting things in perspective : ThanhThùy entered Vietnam NT at age 17 and becomes Captain at age 20.

And no ... it is not The Filipino.

Alex, Manny, Idilyn, Carlos, EJ. and even Wesley So ... taken one by one and when they leave the country to train Filipino are amazing. They can dominate.

In group, though, when Politics kicks in and you have to be friend of a friend to get a chance, and when the most beautiful finds a job before the ugliest one ... then, we all see what happens : the time, the coach, the system, the player ...

And speaking about System.
You have a fixation on wanting to be Japanese when Japan, winning nothing at top level, chooses a European Coach. Weird!

And you want to become Japanese admiring the culture of pain and sacrifice of the Japanese, while you mostly share with me the Spanish attitude of lack of discipline and sense of guilt.
Bawi next time ... it's the wrap up of all failures.
Never a trial. Never a culprit. Never a meritocratic approach in hiring and firing.

I remember a famous setter, no names, in a famous team, no names, saying : Coach, it's a beautiful day! Why sweat in a gym when we can go get ice cream?
And I remember the post with the pics of so many top players having ice cream at training time.

I remember the mountains of Fried Chicken at Jollybee posted on Facebook, and the pizza and cheescakes on court before, after and even during training. I remember those returning to training camp after a league break 4.5 kg heavier. Never a reprimand. Never a fine. Never even a simple call to responsibility, professionalism.

Who knows how many fried chickens and cheese cakes has Sarina Koga eaten in the last 10 years of her career.

And while you wanna be Japanese, and hired a Japanese Coach that has always olayed high ball in 4 for Ivy Lacsina ... and still complain that we should get tall players or it is impossible to win ... I have a few questions you might want to answer:

Did you consider that Setter Seki has the same height as Jia?
That Yoshino Sato is as tall as Molina or Canino?
That Mayu Ishikawa is shorter than Valdez and Wada is a dwarf next to Solomon?
Or even that Japan never had in its whole history a middle as tall as Palomata or Santiago?

Where is, really, the difference between you and your role model? A deep analysis in the Office and with the coaches is due asap.
How can The Philippines beat Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, never mind Italy, Brazil and USA?

Millions of words, the same words, are written after every loss and still nobody has the feeling that the real point has been constantly missed?

How did Italy Women's, close to ridiculous in 1975, got to be the best team in the World in only 25 years and The Philippines, in 25 years, went from dominating South East Asia to ... back to # 65?

Anybody at the top wishes to answer?
It would be important. For the Country.

Tomorrow :
"Planning before Programming", and "the Truth on Jia".

STUPID VOLLEYBALL
NO NEED FOR CAPTION

..

PHILIPPINE VOLLEYBALL 2026
IL GATTOPARDO (Post 4047)

.. "if we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change" ...

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa wrote one of the masterpieces of Italian Literature in 1958 to state the facts of political connections & complications that aimed at keeping the Power in power and the Reforms a dream.

For Volleyball lovers, this sounds familiar. Off the court and on court.

We've seen it for 10 years, 2015 to 2025, since Philippine Volleyball was lifted a ban for various mishandling of "everyday's life" to when it got banned again.

We have seen it this week, with a National Team of "leftovers", once some of the good ones, Cayuna, Canino, Provido just to say a few, said "yes but no, thank you!".

We've seen it this week, when a Coach that never won anything was given the quite hard task to win something ... without changing anything.

We've seen it with the selection of this National Team Coach. Few years ago, and then later again, a friend of a friend ... today a relative of a friend.

No merit. No CV. No long term (or at least medium term) project presented.

No meetings on Methodolgy of work. No studies on what was wrong to now make it right.

Just a call. "Would you take a disaster and make it a role model for the entire South East Asia?

Let's change so nothing will change.

Players that failed since 2015, and then 2017, and then 2019, and then 2021 ... still there.

Playing system that failed since 2015, and then 2017, and then 2019, and then 2021 ... still there.

Details?

Still a centric defense that transitions to defensive triangle that did not work, does not work and will not work leaving all 4 corners of the court exposed opponents' line attacks or long trajectories.

Still no vertical combinations.

Quick in front and Pipe, for example. Or Slide and Gamma, for another example. Or Bquick and Plus, for a new example. All stuff that people who watch TV (VNL) know very well.

Still no attacks from backcourt whatsover, if not that rare tip above the block on pipe that drops in center court and fools higher level players used to hard attacks from zone 6 (Thailand and Vietnam).

A NOTE : Problem is that even a quite lower level Indonesia controls the tempo of the tricolor team.

Still players with 11% in attack in the 1st set that stay on court in the 2nd set, who knows why, while Gandler enters, scores 3 consecutive points, and goes back on bench like she never proved herself.

And to think that this Team has "top" players like Belen, smart and brave. Solomon, who, if she only played the "right set" would be unstoppable even for SEA Goddess Thanh Thùy.

But the system ... middles that always jump late, revealing that the ball is going to 4.
No combinations that can be defined credible to help Belen in her aggressive quest.
No interpersonal correlations in attack phase and closeness in defense, no corners ever protected.

Zone 1 and liberos always exposed in "half way" positions that leave the tip behind the block and the long trajectories free to roam the filipino court like wild mustangs in the american prairies.

Hadn't we seen all this a couple of years ago at Akari? Hadn't we seen these exact schemes at NT under other coaches, Foreigners or Locals? Hadn't we finished fourth and fourth and fourth and fourth and fourth and fourth again again with the same brave 1st set lost at extra points and a quick crumbling into pieces in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th?

Are we changing everything to change nothing once again?

Author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa published "Il Gattopardo" in 1958, when Italy had just come out of a devastating war and started rebuilding, even in volleyball, a better world.

The Philippines, still busy in internal wars, are still writing that book ... and everything is changing to change nothing.

.. faithfully signed ...

A Philippine and a Volleyball Lover.

VNL MEN'S 2026
WE ARE ALL DREAMERS (Post 4046)

.. so, the Men's prediction was posted 2 days before the 1st week of Finals, when Women's were about to get on court to choose their Champions.

There's no magic in guessing the winners for 7 games in a row. Not at Men's level.

Women's is more difficult. Because the game is slower. Because the emotions are higher. Because the options are not limited, like in Men's.
Because height makes a huge difference.

Sad to say for the fans but to see Japan beating 3 or 4 tall teams in a row you have to pray at least in 17 languages.

Nishida is Nishida. And he is amazing. But not when it counts and on the other side everyone is 6 inches taller. Not when the setter's distribution counts on him and forgets the middles.
Too much work against too many towers.

Today's Men's volleyball is, again, highest ball in 4 or 2, highest jump and top strength. That, for Japan, is not an advantage. Hideomi Fukatsu still pushes supers in zone 4.

Fast. It gives you an advantage is the opposing middle blocker is slow. But if he is 2.17 (7'1") like Lemański, the hands will always be there.

Japan, sorry, can't make it to a Final, unless everyone else has serious roaster's issue.
Fans can only dream.

As Italian Fans dreamt of going to Final without Michieletto, 2.11 (6'11) ... and no reception, and a poor sideout efficiency ... and also not an excellent break point stability.

Not the best season for Gianelli. Not amazing middles and still a new Zaytsev and Juantorena to find somewhere.
Italians too were dreaming.

Slovenia, we said it. An Opposite that makes as many mistakes as points. A too short setter, like Japan. A great I.Q. like Urnaut getting old. And a lot of pressure on the defense that complicated the break point phase.
Only dreams.

Forget Brazil. I had anticipated the crisis 4 years ago. And still a lot of problems to solve.

Not very difficult, then, to guess the USA and Poland fighting for Gold.
And Poland winning, somehow, at the end of a hard battle. And so it happened.

Karch Kiraly has done an amazing job. But the team lacks, probably, a bench. Since Matt Anderson went in 2, the USA are slaves of Hanes' up and downs. Horrible 1st set, magnificent 3rd set and ... a bit absent when it counted.

Though having the best setter of the League, Micah Christenson, the US have some limits in the number and continuity of the spikers. Too many errors. Too small, as said, chances to bring on court experienced players that change the game. Like Semeniuk changed it for Poland. With Leon, foggy in 4 and amzing in 2.

And you know it ... when a Team can rest a player like Leon for a set and bring him in on the other side of the court ... who can beat you?
Only, maybe, bad luck.

Today, we know that Grbic is the best coach in the world (men's and women's included) and Poland is, we can say it, unbeatable.

Well, not today ... this page explained it 16 days ago. Because there were no real options to what we have seen.

PHILIPPINE CENSUS 2026
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