CEV Champions League 2018

  • Kazan's block is really something.

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

  • We may need to make experiments here. I think Shaw would be great for this game.

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

  • We may need to make experiments here. I think Shaw would be great for this game.


    We need the pipe and the middles. Their blockers got lost when De Cecco showed some variety. His setting is perfect for the opposite, but Atanasijevic is choking, while it's really poor to pos. 4...

  • The sets to Russell are just way off. :white:

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

  • Butko is more disciplined.


    We really need Shaw for this game. Probably a higher block and more chances to fix reception mistakes that should go over.

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

  • Finally a pipe. :gone:

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

  • Zenit-Kazan is unplayable. They just have 2 weak links (Volvich and Anderson), but Leon and Mikhaylov are so damn good that they could play the 2 of them...

    It is illegal for Zenit-Kazan to have leon and mikhaylov in the same team. Just imagine vakifbank has zhuting and boscovic in the same team.Anyway, in europe, other team has really no chance to fight them. :teach:

  • Shame may hate Volvich but their block is extremely difficult to penetrate along with that Samoylenko. 212 cm + 207 cm. :white:


    Italy's MBs are not as good as them. Even Podrascanin is not as good as Volvich. That tells you how hard it's been for everyone with this blockers. Add the wing blockers even Butko is tall and the frightening serve of Zenit Kazan and we have a 0-3 loss for Perugia.

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

  • Samoylenko is very good. Volvich ha no special talent to me, he's all about height.


    Atanasijevic choked once more on a break point.


    Too bad we struggled way more last year...

  • so another title for Zenit is close ?


    I think Lube is better than Perugia when they play their best team but Zenit Kazan winning the champions league is probably the most likely scenario.

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

  • Please, comments about female volleyball players don't belong here!


    Yeah, I was also surprised there is almost no discussion going on here :( Where is everybody? I used to have pages and pages to read before I could write something.


    Before I go anywhere close to the two semifinals I wanted to once again stress on the ridiculous amount of unprofessionalism surrounding volleyball. Laola1, as official online broadcaster, had streaming and sound sync issues, graphics inaccuracies quite often coming from the official TV coverage, and now Laola seemed to have hired one of the greatest non-volleyball-related imbeciles to have ever provided volleyball commentary. If you add to these notorious draw procedures we see at the beginning of each season, you would get parts of the picture regarding why volleyball isn't taken as seriously as it could have been. It's a long discussion and I have often spured it over time, I will leave it for now.


    Today we saw two great, mostly of quality but not necessarily extremely mesmerizing semifinals. Thanks to the immaculate Club WCH, I do finally consider Zenit the best team in the world in 2017-2018, before that there was always a Cruzeiro side that kind of ruined their world dominance. There was an interesting discussion about that in December here in the Club WCH thread, I couldn't believe people even questioned Cruzeiro's supremacy and explained it ignorantly only with their home factor. But that's not the point now. My point now is that even for someone like me who only acknowledged Zenit's Euro dominance until recently, it is inevitable to neglect what they have achieved this year overall, also on a global stage (I believe their success tomorrow is beyond discussion). Leonit Kazan have indeed acquired the last missing piece with the Club WCH trophy, in my opinion. Just that, really, for their game has changed little over time. However, today, only in the opening set, it seemed for a while that Leonit are beatable before Leon decided the outcome once more alone (in that set). To me, Zenit's best ever performance was that said Club WCH and I doubt we will ever see them that strong again. Because Leon is leaving after this tournament and whoever gets Leon will probably win the CL. Regardless of how close to that Club WCH performance or to perfection in general they have come, no team outside Russia has been able to even take them to a tie-break. Which doesn't speak too well about the level of their international competition and quite easily outlines the Russian league as the top league in the world right now, but that's also another discussion.