Month: July 2020

“For us this is a great day, because the last time we beat them was in 2003. We were waiting for a long time for this. We will enjoy the moment, but the road is still long,” said Mauro Berruto after the match.

Italian national volleyball team is celebrating great victory over Brazil in a classy game that delighted a massive audience in Kagoshima and ended as Italy sealed it with an incredible score (22-20) at the tie-break.

Brazil took on the third-ranked Italian squad on day three of the FIVB Men’s World Cup hoping to remain undefeated. However, the triple world champions would be their own worst enemy on this day with 22 service errors, allowing a 2-1 lead escape them as Italy came back to win a thriller 3:2 (25-16, 20-25, 18-25, 25-21, 22-20). Italy’s Michal Lasko made 27 points with seven blocks. He was supported by the hard serving Ivan Zaytsev with 16 points including four aces.

Italy coach Mauro Berruto commented after the game: “Playing Brazil is always a fantastic thing. The level of the match was high and we both showed wonderful Volleyball on court.  We have an important two points here, and I hope maybe we’re breaking through a wall we had when playing the best team in the world. We have to stay focused on our ultimate goal, which is the ticket to London”.

Russia and Poland are hence the sole teams with an impeccable record after three rounds. Team of V. Alekno downed team USA in straight sets while the bronze medalists from the 2011 CEV European Championship seized a match full of ups and downs with the Argentinean side being sidelined by many unforced errors in the so-called “money time” of set 3 and 4.

source: FIVB

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Last time we informed about another injury of Sebastian Swiderski. Therefore Zaksa found a new player,  Jiri Popelka.

 

Actually, Jiri Popelka has his experience with both Polish League and Zaksa Kedzierzyn. He was a part of this team in 2003/2004 season and he was a spiker. The president of Zaksa, Kazimierz Pietrzyk, said a few nice words about his new player. “In 2003 we didn’t go very far, but Popelka was playing quite well. There were games in which he scored even 30 points.”

Now, Jiri Popelka is going to play as a receiver. He is 34 years old and 204 cm high. After he left Poland he gained more experience in Russia, Turkey, France, Italy and Germany. Jiri Popelka also plays in the national team of Czech Republic

“Last time he spent in Dubai, but something went wrong and he canceled his contract. We were negotiating with some other players, but finally we made a deal with Jiri” – Kazimierz Pietrzyk said.

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Osmany Juantorena will definitely leave Trento, confirmed president of Italian champions Diego Mosna. Rumors says he will come to Kazan (Russian wealthy club).

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Osmany Juantorena is the key player of Trentino and with him the team is almost invincible… BUT there is a huge offer from Kazan – 1 000 000 EUR for the player and 1 000 000 EUR for the Italian club. Trento lost its main sponzor, and 1M EUR is not small amount. Also for Osmany the offer is more than he receive in Trento. Let´s see if the rumors are true…

 

New player in the team of Radostin Stoychev should be Italian national team player Ivan Zaytsev, currently playing in Roma.

Regular season is over in Turkey, let´s start the postseason thrill! No, wait.. Turkish men´s teams long for something way simplier – a mere information when and where will the playoffs take place!

 

Turkish Volleyball Disorganization Federation is well-known for their loose deadlines and last-minute decisions, but this CHAOS has been brought up to a completely new level this year.

 

Unlike other national federations, playoff schedules have not been announced neither at the beginning of the regular season, nor at its end and still officialy remain a „secret“. Regular season finished last weekend and teams are still waiting, having no clues how to prepare their training plans for the most important part of the season.

And that is the best way for keeping the match pace! While other national competitions are already in semis or even finals, Turkish teams will probably have to sit next 2 weeks and then start the playoffs in form of a tournament which is going to take place in a neutral city which has not been announced yet as well.

 

The biggest stars can not play in finals

What is even more frustrating, the preliminary date of men´s playoffs (March 16-25th) collides with training camps for FIVB Olympic qualifications! Teams like Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Arkas will have to send their players to their national team camps (Riviera, Miljkovic, Agamez, Bravo, Hansen, Duff, Perrin) and Arkas and Fenerbahce will even have to play their possible final matches without their head coaches Glenn Hoag and Daniel Castellani…

Furthermore, even after this point teams won´t be allowed to change their initial 12-players rosters…

What a frustrating way of wasting clubs´ most expensive players!

 

New system of play-offs

This year, Turkish Volleyball Federation has introduced a new system into both men´s and women´s playoffs: first 8 teams of the regular season will be divided into two groups of 4 teams (1st team-4th-5th-8th and 2nd-3rd-6th-7th). Winners of the first two positions in groups will play semifinals against the other group winners.

Men´s playoffs:

Group 1: Halkbank, Maliye Milli Piyango, Galatasaray, Torul

Group 2: Fenerbahce, Arkas, IBB, Sivas 4 Eylül

Men´s playoffs will take place PROBABLY in Canakkale on April 17-25th.

Women´s playoffs: 

Group 1: Fenerbahce, Galatasaray, TED Kolejiler, Yesilyurt

Group 2: Eczacibasi, Vakifbank, Iller Bankasi, Nilüfer Belediyesi

Women´s playoffs will take place in Ankara on April 3-12th.

 

Who has chance

In women´s playoffs each of the four BIG Turkish teams – Fenerbahce, Galatasaray, Vakifbank and Eczacibasi, though Fenerbahce remained unbeaten throughout the regular season. As there is the controversial 2+1 foreigners rule, teams can not use all their foreigners and will lose their top-strenght which has brought them for example to Champions League victory (Fenerbahce) or into the CEV cup final (Galatasaray).

And in men´s part? It seems that after injury of their first setter Arslan Eksi in March, the last years champion Fenerbahce suffered a major blow. Nevertheless, it is hard to say how the other two strong teams (Galatasaray and Arkas) will cope with absence of their important players who will have to leave for national teams after April 20th. The road is opened for IBB and mainly for Halkbank Ankara, which has won the regular season and whose club-owners are this year´s sponsors of the Turkish national team.

Coincidence?

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“…and a few people know that this victory was really suffered” – said Bulgarian coach after the win over Egypt that gave his team a ticket to this year’s Olympic Games.

 

In the atmosphere of chaos and fights between the Bulgarian coach (supported by some players) and the Bulgarian Federation the Balkan team had the last chance to get their Olympic tickets. The tournament played in Sofia, didn’t bring many surprises and in the end won the hosts, able to mobilize all the forces in front of unfavorable circumstances. 

Matey Kaziyski and his teammates dominated the tournament, winning all three matches: firstly quick victory in straight sets over Pakistan, then thrilling match with France won 3-1 and, to conclude, a 3-1 win over Egypt in front of 10,000 fans gathered in Armeec Arena. 

Big emotions accompanied Radostin Stoytchev after the match: “I want to thank my assistan coach Camillo Placì and to say that our team deserved this victory. Thank you all, the players, the headquarters and last but not least the journalists but I am afraid I will forget someone so I apologize. I don’t want to talk about the technical side of the match because the emotional one was much bigger”. 

It’s the eighth time in the history that Bulgaria will partecipate in the Olympic Games. 

The best scorers of this tournament were Earvin Ngapeth (FRA) with 48 points, Tsvetan Sokolov (BUL) – 42 and Mohamed Badawy (EGY) – 32.

Full standings:
1. Bulgaria 9
2. France 6
3. Egypt 3
4. Pakistan 0

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Photo: FIVB

For the first time in history, Poland was a participant of the final. This gold is the second Polish medal in World League.

 

The game with USA was short, but beautiful. Both teams were playing well and showed their earned their place in final. The first set was the shortest one, as Poles quickly took a lead and  despite of a great service of Clayton Stanley – they only enlarge their result. During this part Marcin Mozdzonek got a little injury. It was nothing dangerous, but Anastasi did not want to take any risk and he brought on the court another middle blocker, Grzegorz Kosok. Polish players did not slow down. Michal Ruciak entered the court as a substitute for Michal Winiarski and he scored two aces in a row. After that result could be only one.
The second set was the most exciting one. Americans didn’t give up, they played well and took a lead 8:7 and 16:14. Poles managed to make a tie 20:20 and this part finished after difficult game 26:24 for Anastasi’s team.
After a short time of American leading in the third set, Polish boys started to push harder as they wanted to finish the game. At the second TTO it was 16:10 and nothing really could stop them. Americans caught up a few points, but Poland won 25:20 and they also got the gold medal of World League for the first time in history.

Andrea Anastasi, coach of Poland:  I am really happy. It is the first gold medal for Poland in the World League and for me, as a coach, this is important.

Marcin Mozdzonek, captain of Poland:  I am happy, it is a historical moment for all of us. We won against USA – one of the best teams in the world. I hope we will continue playing this way.

Alan Knipe, coach of USA:  Poland played a very good match today. On our side, it is disappointing to lose, but a lot of good things happened to our team in the last few weeks. It is great to experience these matches and I hope to continue and build on for the Olympics.

Clayton Stanley, captain of USA:  At the beginning of this tournament, I did not think that our team would not be in this position, but our play improved. I am disappointed for losing the final match, but we will see what we did wrong and learn from our mistakes.

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Fenerbahce Istanbul, losing with Dinamo Moscow, wasted another opportunity to keep dreaming of the play-off round. PGE Skra Belchatow crashed Tomis Constanta in Romania and took a leadership in pool E.

 

Fenerbahce Istanbul – Dinamo Moscow 1 – 3 (18-25, 23-25, 25-23, 21-25)

Fenerbahce: Eksi 3, Cernic 7, Bjelica 6, Miljkovic 16, Marshall 13, Tocoglu 7, Kilic (L) and Toy, Kayhan  

Dinamo: Grankin 4, Poltavskiy 8, Shcherbinin 14, Kruglov 17, Markin 12, Krivets 11, Bargin (L) and Bezurkov 1, Afinogenov, Shchadilov

 

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Dinamo Moscow conquered Istanbul playing without two main foreign receivers- Bartosz Kurek and Peter Veres, overcoming Fenerbahce in four sets.

The home side immediately got troubles in reception against the strong Russian serves (4:9), while Pavel Kruglov dominated the game via his high attacks (11:16). Even though Ivan Miljkovic tried hard to recover his team back (14:17), Dinamo claimed the first set quite comfortably (18-25).
After having an early time-out at 2:6, the local heroes bounced back and set the pace by the first technical time-out (8:7); Fenerbahce was still up 16:13 by the second mandatory stop, Dinamo could draw level at 16 all and a furious battle unfolded before Fenerbahce made two consecutive errors to contribute the final 23-25 for Dinamo Moscow.
The hosts opened quite strong in set 3 (6:2) and Leonel Marshall added two blocks to the count (8:3); Fenerbahce did not lose composure this time (17:12) before Dinamo could claw back to -1 (24:23); this time the final rush belonged to Fenerbahce and a serving error by Alexander Markin sealed the 25-23 for the local heroes.   
Fenerbahce caught a good start also in set 4 (4:1) but Dinamo Moscow went up 12:16 by the second mandatory break; helped by their supporters, Fenerbahce fought back from 14:19 to 19 all and a few more ties followed, before Dinamo scored four in a row for the final 21-25 that sealed that 1:3 away win with Pavel Kruglov top scoring with 17 points.  

 

Tomis Constanta – PGE Skra Belchatow 0 – 3 (20-25, 19-25, 20-25)

Tomis: Gonzalez 1, Terzic 3, Laza 6, Ojansivu 12, Bojic 9, Spinu 3, Ivanov (L) and Borota 1, Stancu, Bojovic 1

PGE Skra: Woicki, Cala 9, Plinski 7, Atanasijevic 15, Winiarski 12, Kooistra 9, Zatorski (L) and Bakiewicz, Klos, Zugaj, Cupkovic 2

 

PGE Skra Belchatow beat Tomis Constanta in straight sets to claim a second victory in Pool E of the 2013 Men’s CEV Volleyball Champions League. The Poles regained a lead in the preliminary round.

Last year’s silver medalists have a perfect record of two wins and no sets lost so far in the competition. PGE Skra dictated the pace of the game in the first set all the way through (8:5, 16:9, and 21:15) before pocketing it with the score of 25-20. Things did not change much in the second section of the game with the Poles going up 8:4 and 16:11 before cruising to the final 25-19. The story of the game changed a little bit in set 3 where Tomis moved up 8:5 and 12:10 before PGE Skra flipped the charts around (12:16) and regained control of the operations to finish it off in straight sets.

Aleksandar Atanasijevic scored 15 points for the winners reaching a 72 % efficiency in attack, Michal Winiarski added 12, and Wytze Kooistra provided 9 with 100% effectiveness in spiking (8/8). Among the hosts, Olli-Pekka Ojansivu gave 12 points while Marko Bojic added 9.

 

Olympiacos was the winner of the conflict between the former and Levski Sofia by overpowering its opponent by 3-1 for the Cev Challenge Cup.

Everybody would think that would be a very hard game for both of the teams since Levski is consisted of national players of Bulgaria but Olympiacos was slightly a better team last evening. Everybody expects though that the game in Sofia will be a much different case since Levski is one of the best teams in Bulgaria and much stronger in its own court.

 

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The characteristic of the game was that two ex-Olympiacos players played for Levksi, Krasimir Gaydarski and Kristof Tsvetanov and they had to play against Boyan Yordanov (that comes from the academies of Levski), Kostas Christofidelis and Menelaos Kokkinakis.

 

As for the game itself Olympiacos seemed to have a good service and defense, and although it was pressed a lot, managed to stay focused. At the third set the role of its middle blockers was crucial and helped the team to get the set. Valentine Bratoev and Aleksandrov pressed the team of Pireaus with good services that disorganized  the Greek reception.

The Sets: 25-22, 18-25, 25-21, 25-23

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Copra Elior Piacenza won the first final battle of the 2013 CEV Challenge Cup . The Italian team held Ural Ufa down in straight sets at the away state and got closer to get the trophy. Two legends, Alessandro Fei and Hristo Zlatanov, were standing out scoring 35 points together while a leader of Ufa, Leandro Vissotto, was not able to break through the Copra’s block being stopped sevenfold.

Ural Ufa – Copra Elior Piacenza 0 – 3 (12-25, 22-25, 30-32)

Ural: Falasca 2, Abramov 9, Ashchev 6, Vissotto 12, Spiridonov 5, Kazakov 1, Verbov (L) and Panteleymonenko 4, Samoylenko 3, Alekseev 1, Zhloba, Botin

Copra: De Cecco 3, Papi 9, Holt 8, Fei 19, Zlatanov 16, Simon 5, Marra (L) and Tencati 2, Vettori, Corvetta

 

Copra Piacenza went off to a good start in the first set with difficult serves of Maxwell Holt scoring already six points in a row: a Zlatanov’s block on Vissotto, ace, successful counter attack ended up by Zlatanov, mistake of Vissotto and technical error of Falasca (0-6). Then, a coach of Ural, Frigoni, made up his mind to make a double substitution. Vissotto was changed by Zhloba while Falasca by Maxim Panteleymonenko. All these attempts was not succeed and Copra led 8-1 during the first technical time-out. Ural shaken off and rebuild the result a bit (6-12) but it was only a break in awkwardness of them. The Italians constantly moved the score up (17-15 and 10:20). Copra did show a very solid block and closed the set at 25-12 with Holt.

The early phases of the second set were much more balanced (2:2) but Samuele Papi contributed a first break for Piacenza acing for the 11:8 in favor of the guests from Italy. With Fei, Zlatanov and Holt on fire Copra Elior moved up by six points as the second technical time-out was called and though Vissotto and Abramov attempted a possible comeback for Ural (12:17), still De Cecco and Zlatanov did not let it go (13:20). Vissotto lacked quality and consistency in the final rush as he alternated good actions and easy mistakes, with Piacenza eventually going up 2:0 in sets (25-22).  

Ural Ufa got finally back their best play in set 3 going up 3:1 and 8:6 as Copra Elior struggled, for the first time since the start of the game, to display its usual quality in reception. Cuban middle blocker Robertlandy Simon was no longer that effective and therefore Copra Elior opted for Luca Tencati to start clawing back (13:12, 18:17 for Ural). The guests from Italy did eventually draw level at 22 all thereby forcing Frigoni into a time-out. A mistake by Vissotto contributed a first match ball for Piacenza (23:24), Copra Elior missed out on another couple of opportunities to finish it off and Abramov leveled the count once more at 29 all for Ufa. A block by Tencati brought Copra Elior to the front once more but it was the almost 40-year old Samuele Papi who sealed the game scoring the last couple of points for the final 32-30 and a precious 3:0 away win.

The rematch will be played on the 24th of March ,2013, in Piacenza.

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With the FIVB announcing that it will be Switzerland and Brazil who will share hosting duties of the Women’s and Men’s Club World Championships respectively over the next three years, things are clearly getting a bit of a shakeup.

 

 

Switzerland get their first ever role as hosts of the Club World Championships when they host the Women’s edition in October of 2013, while the Men’s edition will be heading to Brazil in the same month. Along with it being the first time that Switzerland getting the honour of hosting, it is the first time that FIVB have separated the two competitions across separate venues in the same year. But what are the pro’s and con’s of this decision by the International Volleyball Federation? Have they made the right choices for the good of the game? Or perhaps, have they missed the mark?

Swiss bliss?

Obviously the decision to host the women’s Club World Championship in Switzerland deserves a bit of scrutiny, and it shall get it. There was only one factor about this happening in Switzerland, and that is because it is the backyard of the FIVB, and no other reason. Let’s face it, Switzerland isn’t exactly a hotbed of top class European Volleyball action and while Zurich will no doubt put on a fantastically lavish affair in a touch of hearty self promotion, the tournament would have been better served going elsewhere. This is a big deal, the top clubs from around the world coming together for some global supremacy. There are other European nations which will carry a far greater volleyball fan base than that of Switzerland, like Italy and Turkey for example. It is taking something away from the European game a little bit by taking this Championship to Switzerland, and it could have been an opportunity to reward one of the top European nations with a money earner.

The last three editions of the Women’s Club World Championships have been held in Doha, Qatar, so at least by moving to Europe it is on the right track. However, while the expansion of the game across Europe, from the perspective of it being a good thing to advertise the game in territories which aren’t recognised as major powers, has its benefits, this could have been handled better. Turkey would have been a good bet with Vakifbank Istanbul finishing runners up in the 2012 event to Sollys Nestle from Brazil, and having rivals Fenerbahce winning it in 2010. With Istanbul heading back to this year’s championship after winning the CEV Champions League, as well as Galatasaray finishing fourth, Turkey surely make a claim to treat the Turkish fans to such a big, prestigious tournament. Even Italy would have made a better destination for the 2013 Women’s Club World Championship with Yamamay Busto Arsizio going well in the CEV Champions League this season. Rabita Baku from Azerbaijan, the 2011 Club World Championship winners and third place finishers in this season’s Champions League could have been rewarded with the tournament expanding its European roots in Azerbaijan.

Brazilian Base for Men

In stark contrast to what the FIVB is doing for the women’s edition, they have got the men’s event just right. Everyone will be looking forward to the 2016 Olympics and this is a good chance to promote the best of the world’s clubs in South America. The host city for the 2013 Men’s has yet to be announced, but it doesn’t really matter which Brazilian city, the fact that it is in Brazil is a good thing, given the strength of the club scene in the South American country. The men’s Volleyball event will run from October 15th to the 20th and the FIVB are still waiting to decide on the actual format of the event as well. Brazil, compared to Switzerland is chalk and cheese in the world of volleyball. Brazil is such a well establish hotbed for the sport that the Men’s Club World Championship is not going to have any problem filling the seats, wherever it ends up being held.

Like the women’s event, Doha, Qatar has been the home of the championship for the last four years, and every occasion since its inception in 1989 it has been won by an Italian team. So it could well be argued that Italy should really have got a shot at hosting the Championship after Trentino Betclic has won everything in sight since 2009. The point here is that there should be some reward for the the team and the nation which they represent in terms of the outright winner of the World Club Championship. If an Italian side wins the event, let Italy host the championships. It should ignite a bit of fire in the rest of the continental champions to bring the championship to their own back yard.

Switching Venues

But perhaps the biggest thing that the FIVB got wrong for this year, is the fact that if they were hell-bent on sending a championship to Brazil and another to Switzerland, why not turn it around? Here’s the reasoning. The great Brazilian women’s side Sollys Nestle are the reigning World Club Champions, so sending the women’s event there for this year would have made a lot of sense. The promotional hype surrounding the tournament in having Brazilian champions of the tournament would have invaluable to the FIVB and the growth of the event. The previous two occasions that the Women’s Club World Championship has been held in Brazil (Sao Paulo on both occasions), the home representatives won the event. Any host nation reaching the final of a tournament in any sport, always adds and extra excitement factor. So assuming that the women’s event went to Brazil, that would leave the Men’s World Club Championships to be hosted in Switzerland this year. Even that wouldn’t have been so bad, given the fact that, you know, it is right next door to Italy. Switching both of the 2013 events may have made a lot more sense than the way that the FIVB are looking to shake things up this year.

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