Champions League 2008/2009

All and i repeat, ALL my congratulations for Czestochowa. they play a perfect match, and they totally deserve to qualify for the quarterfinals.
in the first or second post i've written on this forum, i said that this year we weren't the same of the last season, that we were worse...and i was right.
all our injuries are not an excuse, cause the players i've seen wednesday were "dead", their eyes were not the ones of the lions, they seemed to me weak, they seemed another team.
i've never seen players of my team getting blocked so many times, can't able to defend a SINGLE ball, and making all those errors..never
i really miss the team of last year...when all players fighted and fighted again over every ball, every point of the set, playing a spectular volleyball that made many fans love my Copra...
i hope of course to have Bravo, Zlatanov and Marshall at their top condition for the playoffs but it won't change many things, if we will make a miracle we can reach the final, and then loose 3-0 versus Trento or Macerata or Cuneo.
Congratulations again for Azs, and also for Czestochowa supporters, great atmosphere

Does anyone know exactly which hall in Prague will host the Final Four of the men's tournament? Is there a website for the event somewhere and is it possible to buy tickets online? 10x to those who can give me some information 'cause I am considering a trip in the spring for the final stage of the tournament

Quote from YavorD

Does anyone know exactly which hall in Prague will host the Final Four of the men's tournament? Is there a website for the event somewhere and is it possible to buy tickets online? 10x to those who can give me some information 'cause I am considering a trip in the spring for the final stage of the tournament

http://www.cvf.cz
here you can find infoamrtion about final four ,there's a link to the site where u can buy tickets
O2 arena will host F4
lucky you i would love to see final four live

Quote

http://www.cvf.cz
here you can find infoamrtion about final four ,there's a link to the site where u can buy tickets
O2 arena will host F4
lucky you i would love to see final four live

Thanks a lot for the link! I am still considering the option to go to Prague, we will see I just wanted to know where to get more info about the venue...

Skra BEŁCHATÓW-Iskra ODINTSOVO 3:2 (25-27, 25-15, 25-23, 23-25, 17-15)
What a hard and difficult game I feel almost as tired as players. The result could have been better (who knows, if the referee hadn't made a stupid mistake in the end of the first set...). Now Iskra will be favorite at home, but - win is a win and everything is still open. Great atmosphere in the hall - as always. Antiga and Wlazły - big respect. But it is something wrong in the team, when exhausted Wlazły is replaced by Jakub Jarosz in the most important moment of the game. It shouldn't be like that...

Quote from Konrad

Skra BEŁCHATÓW-Iskra ODINTSOVO 3:2 (25-27, 25-15, 25-23, 23-25, 17-15)

ehh i should be 3-1 it's not good result before rematch in Russia-now Iskra has advantage . SKra have to win 3 sets in Russia to advance and it won;t be easy . POlish teams usually get their asses kicked in Russia so Odincovo will most likely advance to final four i just hope Shoeps won't play like that next week outstanding performance
and SKra have 2 hard games at the weekend in polish cup so they can be pretty tired

What happened to Wlazly at the last moment? Did he cramp or get a strain? He carries the whole team!

i support Skra with all my strength! i really hope to see them in Prague even if now it seems very difficult.
anyway they're really doing an amazing Champions League and nothing will deny this

Quote from andrea

What happened to Wlazly at the last moment? Did he cramp or get a strain? He carries the whole team!

He was given an opportunity to rest. The doctors wanted to avoid his "famous" cramps, I believe.

AZS Częstochowa was able to play only one good set against Itas Trentino and lost 3-1. Deserved win by Italian champion. Interesting team: AZS started to play much worse after Kaziysky and Della Longa got injured
Well... Częstochowa was great in this year CHL and it seems that is over. Hard luck. We will have unless two Poles in the final tournament. I mean Winiarski and Żygadło

VfB Friedrichshafen - Iraklis Thessaloniki : 0-3 (21-25, 25-27, 18-25)

This is fantastic!! We are 1 set away from Prague!!
Really great game. Especially the second set. My team was 4 or 5 points behind, but we fought back and eventually won the set. That was the key of the game. After that, VfB Friedrichshafen's morale was very low and we won the third set easily. Our block worked perfectly even thought Smaragdis and Konstantinov were injured. Tischer and Nilsson were very good tonight after a long time!! Keep up the good work guys, you 've made us proud tonight!!

Great games tonight! First, Trentino won deservedly despite the two injuries they faced during the game. Winiarski and Riad made the difference and eliminated AZS! I expected Czestochowa to make it to the tie-break after Kaziyski went out but, surprisingly, they started making a lot of mistakes. Amazing block by the Italian champions! Only a miracle could prevent them from flying to Prague in April!

What I saw from Iraklis was not a surpise. There are two undefeated teams in this year's tournament and with the status of being one of them, Iraklis once again proved that they know how to reach Final Four stages (they have done it quite often in the past several years already). I said some time ago that this team can beat anyone when they want to, but I am still wondering what is going on with their performance in the Greek championship... Anyway, this is their night, more than a convincing victory, I don't think VfB can fight back in Thessaloniki with a 0-3... Congrats to Iraklis! I was expecting more from Friedrichshafen since they play very well at home in general, but obviously not this year (they have only one home victory in this year's IECL against Skra). This time Iraklis was simply better!

I guess we will see Itas Trentino - Lube Macerata in a semifinal in Prague... I simply don't see how Zenit can surprise the Italians in Russia. It was easily predictable that Zenit will not defend their title this year... Let's face it - with Korneev/Bovduy/Shpilev being the only options for position 4, it is impossible! Moreover, Ball and Stanley cannot be in the same Olympic form for two consecutive years

I think there is only one question before the return games - who will face Iraklis in the other semifinal in April

Quote from Shadow

VfB Friedrichshafen - Iraklis Thessaloniki : 0-3 (21-25, 25-27, 18-25)

Congratulations! That what should Skra made against VfB. And Polish team didn't even won a set against Germans...

Quote from Shadow

VfB Friedrichshafen - Iraklis Thessaloniki : 0-3 (21-25, 25-27, 18-25)

i was sure of this result.
because Friedrichshafen is not the same team of the pasts years and because Iraklis has a lot of experience in this cup having participate to more than one final four.
now i'm very curious about how many greek fans will move to Prague..it will be a show for sure
Shadow will you be there? (i know you're not qualified yet but it seems impossible to me that the germans can win 4 sets in Thessaloniki...)
Macerata is my favourite team to win the trophy...they played very very good but still not perfect, and they could easily beat Kazan(another team which is worse than last year but still have great champions).
Of course i will support Macerata in the eventual semifinal versus Trentino and then in the eventual final.

Quote from Copra Piacenza

now i'm very curious about how many greek fans will move to Prague..it will be a show for sure
Shadow will you be there? (i know you're not qualified yet but it seems impossible to me that the germans can win 4 sets in Thessaloniki...)

Yes, we’re not qualified yet but as you say it’s impossible not to win 1 set at home.
And yes, I will be in Prague, I can’t miss it. I am searching for air tickets and hotels at the moment. I will be there along with 4,000 of our fans. There is great anticipation among our fans and some people say that maybe the crowd will be even bigger than it was in Rome 3 years ago (by the way, the trip to Rome was excellent beside the fact we lost the cup). I hope this time we will win even though I know my team is the outsider.

Quote

I hope this time we will win even though I know my team is the outsider.

I don't know who will consider an undefeated yet team an outsider Iraklis have been really convincing so far!

Quote from Shadow

4,000 of our fans.

great. you're just great.
i always have had a big respect for greek fans and you confirm every time to be if not the best supporters in europe at least among the best.
i will watch your match only to see the show of your supporters.
how nostalgic i become when you say you're looking for the air tickets...last year more or less in these days i was in your situation...

Quote from YavorD

I don't know who will consider an undefeated yet team an outsider Iraklis have been really convincing so far!

Yes, we are undefeated in IECL but we are very inconsistent in Greek league. We can beat everyone and we lose by everyone. We have many injuries as well. Smaragdis won’t play until the final 4 because his knee injury got worse after the game against VfB. Konstantinov has problems with his shoulder again. He will play on Wednesday and afterwards he will rest until the final 4, too. Denison Conceicao is out as well. I don’t know when he will be back. If we solve all this problems on time and the squad is fully fit in one month from now, I would be more optimistic. At the moment I prefer to keep my expectations in a low level and hope that my team will surprise me in a pleasant way once more.

Quote from Copra Piacenza

great. you're just great.
i always have had a big respect for greek fans and you confirm every time to be if not the best supporters in europe at least among the best.
i will watch your match only to see the show of your supporters.

Thank you, I’m glad you like our supporters. I am sure we will give a good show in Prague.