What a weekend! I cannot tell you how excited I was to here that Finland had beaten Serbia on Friday night. I couldn’t watch it because it was not on TV anywhere (that I knew off) but it filled me with hope and expectation for the FIVB “match of the week” on Saturday evening.

I made sure I had finished cooking to avoid any unexpected interruptions from the fire alarm before getting myself comfortable to enjoy the action. Unfortunately the plucky Fins were unable to repeat the 3-1 win from the night before as Serbia broke my heart in cold-blooded fashion to win 3-0. It was a defeat which many expected, but I honestly was hoping for more. If you missed the game then watch it here.

This depressing feeling was quickly forgotten and I was happier than a punk in a pickle patch to find out that my new favourite team is also “match of the week” this week against Argentina! I have to be honest and say I haven’t really been following the exploits of the Argentinians recently but the team which finished 5th last season are looking solid with 3 wins in 4 and it looks like it will be another tough game for the Fins. Perhaps the only hope for Finland is for the Argentinians poor footballing exploits this week (big defeats to Nigeria and Poland) to rub off on the volleyball team or if they stuck Lionel Messi in as a middle blocker…The Argentinians will be playing for the sporting pride of the nation so a win for Finland would be a big upset.

Beach volleyball is the big topic of the week with the FIVB Beijing Grand Slam on Saturday. Beach vb is always a good alternative to indoor I find and with the summer fully in swing I think its time to get sandy. The big question is…. do I really want to wake up at 4am, yes, 4am to watch the first game? I am not even sure if I know what the world looks like at 4 in the morning. I think this will be a decision made once I know exactly who is the semi’s. I find it interesting that both the men and women are playing on the same day, but I am not complaining, because even if I don’t decide to venture into the early morning wilderness for the semi’s it still means I can enjoy my breakfast in bed while watching the bronze matches which will get me in the mood for the early evening world league match. Here is the full schedule for those of you who are also considering a 4am Saturday start….or for those of you just coming home.. http://www.laola1.tv/en/int/fivb/video/203–.html

I spend a lot of time checking out different websites and basically just surfing t’interweb and it is shame that the players and clubs are not better represented than what they are at the moment. There really is much more potential out there to improve the way the sport is covered. I have been pretty impressed by the way the Swiss teams are displaying themselves on the net. Here is one of my favourites from Sascha Heyer and Sebastian Chevallier... http://www.heyer-chevallier.ch/ . The country famous for cookoo clocks, Chäs Chüechli and “Schwytzertütsch” (Swiss German) definitely have the right idea at the moment. I will try and recommend more when they pop up. If you have any yourself then drop me a line and i’ll give them a look!

In the meantime as the Swiss say, widerluege und bis spöter! (goodbye and see you later)