German NT 2015

  • Vital Heynen announced a circle of 22 players for the European Games in Baku. This squad will still be reduced down to 14 players.


    Some names are missing. Grozer, Günthör and Schwarz will probably all get a break until ECH and unfortunately, Simon Tischer will probably never be able again to play a NT tournament. So i will have to pray again for the health of Lukas Kampa. 8)


    There are some new names as well. Steinke, Pompe and Kocian are proven Bundesliga players and their nomination can be seen as reward for their good performances during the last season. Some other guys, namely Zimmermann, Hirsch, Klein and Reichert are young hopefulls and i would like to see them all playing a lot in Baku.


    Setters: Lukas Kampa (Radom/Pol), Tomas Kocian (Düren), Sebastian Kühner (BR Volleys), Jan Zimmermann (VfB Friedrichshafen)


    Opposites: Falko Steinke (SVG Lüneburg), Simon Hirsch (Sora Frusinate/ITA), Jochen Schöps (Rzeszow/POL)


    OHs: Matthias Pompe (SWD powervolleys Düren), Tom Strohbach (TV Rottenburg), Christian Fromm (Perugia/ITA)
    Denis Kaliberda (Wegiel/POL), Dirk Westphal (Radom/POL), Moritz Reichert (VfB Friedrichshafen), Björn Höhne (Maaseik/BEL)


    MBs: Georg Klein (Düren), Jaromir Zachrich (Düren), Michael Andrei (Antwerpen/BEL), Marcus Böhme (Fenerbahce Istanbul/TUR), Tim Broshog (Maaseik/Bel)


    Liberos: Leonhard Tille (VC Olympia Berlin), Phillip Trenkler (CV Mitteldeutschland), Ferdinand Tille (Belchatow/POL)

  • Tille brothers in NT?


    Yes, at least on the trainings camp. We will see, who will still be cut.
    There is even a third Tille in the pipeline. Johannes is the setter of german under19 NT.

  • I am really curious if the German team management regret the decision to withdraw from the 2015 World League. As far as it was discussed by Plamen Konstantinov in Bulgaria, FIVB changed the weight of classification points at the European Games and the World League is supposed to have a higher importance now. At least this is what was announced here. Germany sacrificed the WL and will now probably send its A squad to Baku, but maybe this weird change by FIVB, if proven right indeed, just before the start of the season might ruin Heynen's calculations even if they do, in fact, win the EG. I haven't read any official document regarding the Olympic qualification and there has been nothing in German media, so just out of curiosity.

  • I am really curious if the German team management regret the decision to withdraw from the 2015 World League. As far as it was discussed by Plamen Konstantinov in Bulgaria, FIVB changed the weight of classification points at the European Games and the World League is supposed to have a higher importance now. At least this is what was announced here. Germany sacrificed the WL and will now probably send its A squad to Baku, but maybe this weird change by FIVB, if proven right indeed, just before the start of the season might ruin Heynen's calculations even if they do, in fact, win the EG. I haven't read any official document regarding the Olympic qualification and there has been nothing in German media, so just out of curiosity.


    Well, the latest news, that Germany will host the olympic qualifiying tournament puts the whole story in a bit different perspective. More points in the ranking could mean a better seeding for the tournament but in the end this will be only a matter of luck anyway.


    There is not much depth, neither in the german squad nor in the federations budget, so investing money in hosting this tournament seems to be the better choice than sending a B squad around the globe for weeks, only for some shitty points in whatever ranking.....


    German NT did quite well last year with giving key players enough time to rest and concentrating on a serious preperation for the main tournament. I personally don't miss this World League. Maybe after Rio, with hopefully some new young players, it will make more sense to play World League again. We will see....


  • Well, the latest news, that Germany will host the olympic qualifiying tournament puts the whole story in a bit different perspective. More points in the ranking could mean a better seeding for the tournament but in the end this will be only a matter of luck anyway.


    There is not much depth, neither in the german squad nor in the federations budget, so investing money in hosting this tournament seems to be the better choice than sending a B squad around the globe for weeks, only for some shitty points in whatever ranking.....


    German NT did quite well last year with giving key players enough time to rest and concentrating on a serious preperation for the main tournament. I personally don't miss this World League. Maybe after Rio, with hopefully some new young players, it will make more sense to play World League again. We will see....

    Yes, it sounds logical indeed. But they might've decided to spend the money had they not gained the right to host these home qualifiers ;) I guess it is a lucky change of events :) But, correct me if I am wrong, Germany has hosted an Olympic qualifier the last 3 consecutive cycles (or maybe even more), so perhaps they saw that one coming as well.

  • The german team will start the preparation for ECH from 22nd August. The following 15 players are invited to the trainings camp:


    Setter: Jan Zimmermann (TG Rüsselsheim), Lukas Kampa (Radom/POL)
    OP: Jochen Schöps (Rzeszow/POL), Georg Grozer (Belgorod/RUS)
    OH: Christian Fromm, Denis Kaliberda (Perugia/ITA),Sebastian Schwarz (Danzig/POL), Tom Strohbach (TV Rottenburg), Dirk Westphal (Nantes/FRA)
    MB: Michael Andrei (Ajaccio/FRA), Marcus Böhme (NN), Tim Broshog (Maaseik/BEL), Phillip Collin (Tours/FRA)
    L: Ferdinand Tille (TSV Herrsching), Markus Steuerwald (Paris/FRA)


    From the successful WCH-team, Grozer, Schwarz and Steuerwald are back. A bit surprisingly, Phillip Collin is back as well. He was suspended for a year from any competition and high level training, for missing doping controlls.


    Another surprise is probably the absence of Sebastian Kühner. Tough call from Heynen, after Kühner had been a member of team for a while. Obviously Zimmermann convinced during training at EG. But still, the setting position seems to be the most vulnerable position in the team.


    Compared to most other teams at ECH the german team lacks match practice against good opposition and therefore Heynen scheduled a lot of trainings matches during preparation:


    11th-13th September: 3 training matches vs. Belgium
    18th+19th September: 2 matches vs. Finland
    25th-27th September: 4-nations-tournament in Ludwigsburg (Germany, France, Serbia, Slovenia)
    3rd October: Match vs. Russia in Bremen


    http://www.volleyball-verband.…oasse71qlo6t8tgb6c3ebc4a1

  • The german team started preparation for ECH last week and for the next week, Vital announced a "Week of Hell" for the team.



    :lol:
    http://www.volleyball-verband.…cpph98gr1mceacemumj37lqm4
    Besides the "normal" Volleyball programm, the team will have to adapt to certain rules:

    • get up with the sun and go to bed with the sun
    • mobile phones, Internet, TV and sweets are prohibited
    • first 3 hours of day, speaking is prohibited
    • Each player has to read a book, chosen by the staff

    At the end of the week the players will have to spend a day in the forest, where they have to fulfill certain tasks.


    Obviously, Heynen had a bit too much time during off-season, but if it helps.......

  • The "Hell week" nears its end and the players disappeared for 24hrs into the forest. I hope they will all find out......


    As weird as it sounded in the beginning it seems that this week has become a good success. Players, at least publicly, seemed positively surprised and amongst other activities, meetings with children with diabetis, afghanistan veterans and a professional boxer with a quite moved career, surely widened their horizons. Reading a book might have been a new good experience for one or another as well.


    As a nice surplus, the media was covering too, which is good achievement for volleyball in germany. Of course, Heynen himself was covering the event as well 8) : https://twitter.com/vitalheynen

  • A little update on the german team after 4-Nations-tournament from my side:


    After a difficult and rather bad start against france, the team improved day by day and the last match against Serbia was probably the best so far. Both opposites obviously are in a very good shape. It was a big pleasure to see Schöps coming in against serbia on 4th set and scoring close to 100%. And almost every attack had a different technical approach. :obey: Grozer looks well too, so this position clearly is the least problematic.


    On the other hand, I have no clue yet, what Heynen is planning for the OH position. He was rotating a lot here, even within the matches. Schwarz had a lot of problems on reception and Kaliberda doesn't seem to be physically ready yet. Surprisingly, Tom Strohbach had a lot of court time and did quite well, so an OH-duo of Fromm/Strohbach could be a realistic option.
    An "in-shape" Kaliberda of course would be deeply missed. During the last two years, germany always had their best performances when he was on court and played well. He also delivers a kind of "bad-ass" attitude which is missing in this team, especially after Max Günthörs retirement.


    The second MB position, alongside Böhme, is still open too. Even Phillip Collin still seems to be in the race. Same goes for the libero. At the moment it seems that Patrick Steuerwald has an advantage, as he played really well during the tournament.


    Overall, it looks like Heynen is preparing the team to be as versatile as possible, in order to make scouting difficult for other teams. He could pay for it with less stability on block/defence. But of course "in Heynen i trust"..... 8)

  • According to a report by "Volleyball-Magazin" (only print), the withdrawal from World League 2016 is a quite lone decision by the federations board. The team management, players and sponsors obviously were not informed prior to this decision and are quite upset. The withdrawal is reasoned by the high financial risk which goes along with hosting the european olympic qualifier and the general lack of financial resources. So obviously everything is put on the card "olympic qualification" which is a very dangerous game.

  • Vital Heynen gave an interview for Volleywood where he talks about the ECH and, amongst other things, the match fixing accusations:


    http://www.volleywood.net/voll…al-heynen-clears-the-air/


    All in all, its the same stuff that we have already heard from him and the most convincing part for me is when he says that he is protecting his players and does everything for them. All the rest should be seen in this context.


    Generally, i wished he stayed silent for some weeks....... :teach:

  • According to first diagnosis by doctors, he may be out for 3-4 months :what:

    Gold medal - World League 2013 Prediction Game
    Bronze medal - World League 2012 Prediction Game

  • Jochen Schöps will miss OQT because of his shoulder injury from falling out of an elevator in a hotel :!: :aww:

    you mean just by hitting the floor he will be out for 4 months? what a terrible chance :huh: :(

  • I join the :aww: club. I only hope that it was not his hitting shoulder.
    Now i can only hope that Grozer somehow survives in South Korea. I wonder how many swings he has to take to score 48 points in 4 sets. :white:


    It will be interesting whether Heynen will call a second opposite for Berlin, or whether Christian Fromm will serve as a backup opposite. Simon Hirsch could be an option but Heynen doesn't seem to be a big fan of him. From Bundesliga there are Falko Steinke from Lüneburg or Daniel Malescha from Herrsching but i would guess that Heynen rather calls another OH and that Fromm will be his plan B.

  • I always thought Heynen didn't give enough chances to Simon Hirsch. Alright, he had lots of physical problems in the past, but last season in A2 he did very well and so far in A1 he also plays very well, he gets far more playing time than I expected considering he is actually Nikolay Pavlov's backup...