Middle European League 2008/2009

Innsbruck really surprised me, I was sure Bled is winning the game but I think that one of the problems Bled has, is the fact they have 2 great Setters, and since both of them play 1-2 sets in a game, it might be a bit confusing to the spikers and hurt the connection between them.

I think that what helped Innsbruck in this game was the young MB that they signed a month ago, Russel hollmes, I saw this guy couple of times this year when he played in Naranjito (PUR league) and he is a really good player, also, I think that the atmosphere is good in Innsbruck.

P.S.

Vienna really disappointed me, I think they did a big mistake when releasing Evan Patak (went to Paok instead of Armenakis who went to Cannes) because their Opposite now is not so good compared to Patak and Patak so far does a great job in Paok.

I dont agree at all!!!

Patak is IMO by far worst player ever came from USA to europe. Vienna couldn't win against anyone even in MEVZA, not to say in CL until he left. When he left they entered the series of victories, won one game in CL also and managed to get into MEVZA F4, with him left - there is no way Vienna could do it.

So, this season is disaster for them- deserved cause of poor players brought, it would be even bigger if Patak didnt left in january. hope will never make so huge mistake again. Also coach which get him here sacked, it was only solution.

Raul,

I personally think Patak is a great player but you forget something else, your team brought a much better Setter- Morales than the one you had- Kardos and Patak was playing with Kardos.

I think that Patak could have helped you a lot in the final 4, this guy is going to be the Opposite of the American national team in a few years.

could be some part of matter but on my eyes i have seen few matches in MEVZA live which Patak played on opposte and loosing 0-2. Then coach changed him and >Antunovic played his place and Vienna won 3-2. So in both matches he left such a bad impression, also on some i've watched on tv. team 100% played better without him and ofcourse it was much better also when Morales came in for Kardos.

So Kardos was only a minor fact IMO, and i cannot believe Patak is NT material for any country, not to mention USA

Maybe you are right regarding Vienna, but as far as national team goes, he was already in the 19 roster for the Olympics (at the end Gardner was choosen)

Enter this link: http://www.cbv.com.br/newcbv/c…/2008/images/stat/p5b.pdf ( it's from the America's cup) and look at the best spikers and servers.

Patak played already in the 2008 Pan American as well where USA won the gold and you can see that the young players of the US (22,23,24 old guys), a lot of them will be startes in a couple of years for the real national team.

Some of the players there are already really good like the Outside hitters Jablonsky from Bologna in A2 Italy and Matt Anderson from Hyunadi Skywalkers (Korea), the Setter Tyler Hildebrand from my team Arazim Raanana and Patak as Opposite

i would never say,when i watched first game couldnt believe who did they sign

i just wonder which way would his career advance but i'll be so surprised if he ever wear USA NT shirt

Well, time will tell about Patak.

P.S.

Maybe Patak just had a bad beginnig of season, also, just so you know, the back up for Patak in the Pan American was a guy called Matt Proper, this guy is also good, played last season in Perugia as a sub (which is still, very high level) but when he started this year in SGK (a bad team in Turkey), he was really bad and was thrown away, maybe Americans need time to adjust