Germany - VBL 1. Bundesliga 2016/17

  • Erfurt - Köpenick 3:2 (21:25 25:14 25:23 20:25 17:15)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2059.pdf
    MVP: Alison Skayhan / Anna Pogany


    Vilsbiburg - Dresden 2:3 (25:21 20:25 21:25 25:23 12:15)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2056.pdf
    MVP: Lena Stigrot / Mareen Apitz
    Narrow escape for Dresden after leading 22:18 and 23:21 in 4th set and not finishing it. Brittnee Cooper missing due to illness, Naoko Hashimoto still out with knee problems. In the parts I watched I wasn't too impressed with Lauren Plum as setter. Gina Mancuso today played her last match for Dresden, tomorrow she'll leave for Puerto Rico.


    Wiesbaden - Aachen 3:2 (25:19 25:20 17:25 19:25 15:11)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2058.pdf
    MVP: Molly McCage (8 blocks) / Nika Daalderop
    Good debut for Stoltenborg, I didn't expect Aachen to win 2 sets in Wiesbaden.


    Potsdam - VCO Berlin 3:1 (25:13 24:26 25:20 25:22)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2060.pdf
    MVP: Wiebke Silge / Juliane Noack


    Stuttgart - Schwerin 2:3 (25:15 15:25 22:25 25:20 5:15)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2055.pdf
    MVP: Michaela Mlejnkova / Jennifer Geerties
    Both teams overall played very strong, Schwerin with a blackout in 1st set and Stuttgart in 2nd and 5th. Both liberos made amazing saves and the teams in general were very well organised in block-defense. For Schwerin Brinker was invisible and Lippmann rather quiet for her standards, but Geerties played a very good match and the MBs contributed fairly well. Schwerin made 10 errors in 1st set and only 8 in the rest of the match which is a very low number :!:
    Stuttgart definitely has a problem on OPP position, neither Whitney nor van Daelen are good enough to beat Schwerin at the moment, same goes for Tomazela as MB even though she is not a "weak link".


    Tomorrow Münster-Suhl.

  • Vilsbiburg - Dresden 2:3 (25:21 20:25 21:25 25:23 12:15)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2056.pdf
    MVP: Lena Stigrot / Mareen Apitz
    Narrow escape for Dresden after leading 22:18 and 23:21 in 4th set and not finishing it. Brittnee Cooper missing due to illness, Naoko Hashimoto still out with knee problems. In the parts I watched I wasn't too impressed with Lauren Plum as setter. Gina Mancuso today played her last match for Dresden, tomorrow she'll leave for Puerto Rico.


    This match was almost unwatchable. Very sloppy play on both sides. IMHO, there are only two decent teams in the VBL 1st Division this year . . . and neither of them is in the Champions League.

  • I have watched this match with a mixture of tension, pleasure and surprise. Why did Schwerin win, despite we helped Stuttgart as good as we could in a sold-out SCHARRena (2.200 spectators)?


    1. Schwerin served way better than Stuttgart, the ace relation 5:8 in favour of Schwerin doesn't tell the whole truth: they exerted much more pressure on Stuttgarts reception then vice versa.


    2. reception was considerable better by Schwerin (compare 1.) as with Stuttgart, which was mainly due to Geerties very good reception on libero level (like Dürr and Buakaew) and some below average performance of Renata Sandor in this regard.


    3. blocking was clearly better by Schwerin, despite the unexperienced Schölzel had to play for the ill, experienced Brandt (but remember, that even Schölzel was already German national player at times), in numbers 14 block kills by the 10 times German champion, only 11 by current vice champion


    Generally speaking, the complete picture didn't came totally unexpected: opposed to last season Stuttgart doesn't play that smooth and automated like they did last two seasons, and they are not constant enough. Missing receiver, captain Kim Renkema due to her illness may have to do something especially with reception weaknesses and not sufficient smooth team working, but the always helpful Louisiane Souza-Ziegler was missing at Schwerin as well.


    Indeed Aiyana Whitney has not (yet?) fully adapted to level of first league in Germany and isn't constant enough currently, but she is a very gifted opposite - she might be better in second half of season. Of course Deborah van Daelen is not that killer you need against rather strong opponents like SSC Palmberg Schwerin, how the team is called correctly after name change one week ago.


    Altogether Stuttgart couldn't even win at home with maximum support by us fans (there was a small fan group of Schwerin present, roundabout 20 with several drums, which is more than 750 km away!), which means, if they don't improve considerably, Schwerin will take it's 11th German championship of the time of united Germany. All other teams have no realistic chance to become champion at all (means lower than 1% like Dresden or Potsdam, not to mention the others).

  • Two further observations/remarks after todays match day:


    Erfurts only second win against Köpenick let to equal match wins with Thuringia state rival Suhl, but the last have one point more currently. Only the special license using VCO Berlin is behind them, so the race against losing right to play in first league is between those Thuringia teams as expected. But due to the question, if really two teams from second leagues want a first league license, it is far from sure the last of them two has to leave first league at end of season - financial matters might be more important as often.


    Despite Potsdam lost one set against junior team VCO Berlin (even by the league called Satzdiebe/set thieves now ;) ), they took three points and leveled regarding points with Dresden, the last have just three sets less lost as Potsdam. But next match will decide order of the two: winner (regardless how) will be third, loser fourth, when Potsdam will be hosted by Dresden in the Margon hall. Because Mancuso will not be there in Dresden anymore, Potsdam has pretty good chances to win in Dresden IMHO.

  • This match was almost unwatchable. Very sloppy play on both sides. IMHO, there are only two decent teams in the VBL 1st Division this year . . . and neither of them is in the Champions League.


    I think you expect a little too much from Bundesliga now. There are four superiour leagues now in Europe alone (and world wide at least Brazil superleague is also stronger):


    1. Turkey
    2. Russia and Italy


    4. Poland


    And all of them have teams with much more money than us in Germany. Watch European cups and you will see the tendency, because German teams will be superiour to most other countries teams with some exceptions of outstanding single teams like Volero ZÜRICH from Switzerland or Agel PROSTEJOV from Czech Republic.

  • Münster - Suhl 3:1 (18:25 25:17 25:13 25:17)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2057.pdf
    MVP: Erica Wilson / Marrit Jasper (5 aces)
    Terrible match :down: Suhl won the 1st set thanks to a serving streak of Jasper from 14:14 to 22:14 but then they played the whole match without reception and Münster won pretty much just with serving and every once in a while scoring a counterattack :roll:


    Ranking:
    1 Schwerin 10 10 30:4 29
    2 Stuttgart 10 8 27:11 25
    3 Dresden 10 8 26:14 22
    4 Potsdam 10 8 26:17 22
    5 Wiesbaden 10 6 24:18 18
    6 Münster 10 6 20:21 16
    7 Vilsbiburg 9 4 16:15 13
    8 Köpenick 10 3 16:23 10
    9 Aachen 10 2 16:25 9
    10 Suhl 11 2 11:28 7
    11 Erfurt 10 2 10:27 6
    12 VCO Berlin 10 1 10:29 3


    Last round of the first half of regular season on 28 December.

  • Short remark: after Lisa Thomsen and Allianz MTV Stuttgart couldn't agree on prolongig her contract for this season, she went to university for studying and is now helping the amateur club Gladbeck Giants in section North of second league in vicinity of university in Marl as outside hitter, although receiving and field defense are what she does mostly.

  • Last round of 1st half of regular season tomorrow:


    28. Dezember 2016
    19:00 Dresden - Potsdam
    19:00 Köpenick - Stuttgart
    19:00 Schwerin - Wiesbaden
    19:30 Aachen - Vilsbiburg
    19:30 Erfurt - Münster


    All matches live on http://www.vbl.tv, Dresden-Potsdam as match of the week (3rd vs 4th) with TV production.

  • Amazing signs. Rolfzen twins will rock in Germany. :obey:


    Despite this is possible, we have to wait regarding their impact - they play for the first time in a competitive professional league without the chance of much training with the new teammates.

  • Major surprise in Schwerin: they lost against Wiesbaden, which pulled off a good match today, although they are never easy to play.


    Potsdam missed the chance to upset the rather vulnerable defending champion Dresden by missing to begin well enough and to enforce the tie-break (26 to 24 in fourth set, Potsdam had even a little advantage at the begin of 4. set crunchtime).


    All other matches ended as expected.