Italvolley now knows how to win, even when playing badly

The record stands at: three golds, two silvers and three bronzes. This is the record of the women’s national volleyball team at the European Championships. Today in Istanbul (6:00 pm), the Azzurre will face Poland with yet another final up for grabs in a squad that lacks nothing (please, do not mention the 'treble' – it makes even the coach driver anxious) but which is – this, yes, this always – hungry to reach the very top. The other semi-finalists are Serbia and Turkey, and there’s set to be plenty of excitement on the other side of the draw too. The Azzurre arrive at this historic moment after a quarter-final victory following a comeback, a match in which they struggled at the net and lacked clarity in their set-up. But today, no one will remember the match in which the Olympic and World Champions secured their place in the Final Four in Istanbul (for the record, a 3–1 win against Sweden). This was because even the 43 points scored by Isabelle Haak – the hugely talented opposite who has won league titles time and again with Conegliano and who played like a goddess against Italy – were not enough, on their own, to stop the Azzurre from cherishing the dream of a third consecutive medal. Volleyball remains, and will always remain, a team sport. And if Julio Velasco teaches us that “you have to know how to play badly”, the girls have certainly learnt their lesson. So, see you tonight in Istanbul against Stefano Lavarini’s Poland. From this moment on, yes, anything can happen.

“Didn’t you enjoy watching a closely fought match more?” Miriam Sylla will say at the end of the match against Sweden. She is always a reliable presence; first with her block against Haak at 23–22 in the fourth set, and then with the final point, she silenced all doubts. Her comment is clearly a provocation. But not entirely so. Because the spiker goes on to say: “It’s not always a walk in the park, you know; there are matches like these… and then I feel like saying that if you don’t win through suffering, if you don’t believe it could happen to you too, you shouldn’t even take part in tournaments.” The message is clear: we’re not from another planet; everyone has their off days. However, the unforgivable mistake would be not to learn from them. As we prepare to watch the clash with Poland—a match the Azzurre have every chance of winning (though putting that into practice is clearly another matter entirely)—let us take stock of this national team, which, on a night when it struggled more than expected, found in Paola Egonu the perfect leader in a time of need. But her strategic insights will be needed above all today, when the team will be playing for a medal. “Whereas before I used to shut myself off after a mistake or a spell where we weren’t clicking,” says the Azzurre’s opposite hitter – who has undeniably matured, partly thanks to her role as captain in Milan – “now I look to my team-mates and we’re all in this together, especially in moments of tension and nervousness.”

There is much of the new Italy in these words; out of necessity, the team has reverted to fielding Kate Antropova in position 4, just as they did in the early part of the summer. This was before Velasco brought the matter to a close with: “The experiment is over.” He then changed his mind when one of the four spikers – Loveth Omoruyi, not a first-choice player but the most powerful in attack – picked up an injury. Thus, the player who might have seemed like a reserve (at the Olympics the starters were Sylla and Bosetti, and at the World Championships Sylla and Nervini, with a few appearances by Giovannini) became so crucial to the team’s balance that coach Julio suddenly asked Antropova to return to attacking and receiving at the same time. Just like in the film "I cento passi", where they counted and walked. Well, Ekaterina – known as Kate – did just that. She spiked and received at the same time. And she did it brilliantly. Match after match, her points became absolutely crucial to the team’s success. Points in attack and points on serve. And so she and Egonu found themselves sharing the same space for the first time. No longer one supporting the other, but both playing together. Now the obstacle is Poland, who, as Velasco points out, “play with two opposites, so we’ll have to be very careful”. But the Azzurre – who lacked “clarity, not patience” against Sweden, as Velasco further analyses, before pointing out with his characteristic candour that it wasn’t Orro’s best match – are now too close to the finish line to let go. Middle blocker Sarah Fahr sums it up perfectly: “We’re fired up, we’re ready; we made you suffer and we suffered too in the last match, but we’ve reached the final of this European Championship and now we’ll follow our instincts, because we know how to play volleyball and we know what we have to do”. In front of the Turkish crowd – who next season will see Sylla, Orro and Antropova playing for three different teams in the capital – Italy will try to do just as in that film: they’ll move, set and spike as one. Because they know how to do it.