Germany - VBL 1. Bundesliga 2016/17

  • I'm happy for Wiesbaden and Dirk Groß. I hope, it helps them to gain new sponsors and keep this nice team together as much as possible. :win:


    Yes, Wiesbaden is one of the really league wide important locations for this sports (opposed to Suhl for example, to clarify priorities).

  • It does not add up that Schwerin as third plays Challenge Cup and Vilsbiburg as sixth plays CEV Cup


    As last season qualification schedule is:


    Champion qualifies directly for the group phase of the CL.


    Vice champion is eligible to participate in qualification to CL.


    DVV cup winner and third and fourth (i.e. the semi final participants not reaching championship finals) are qualified for CEV cup.


    5th of championship is qualified for CEV challenge cup. This is for now definitely SC Potsdam, because they are best league round team, which didn't make it to the semis, but was in the quarters.


    DVV cup winner is Stuttgart, would allow CEV cup participation as the semi final participation.


    For last season this was:


    Dresden -> CL group phase, they did it (and lost heavily, because of weak roster, bad luck at draw and too hard mode of the CL now for German teams).


    Stuttgart skipped CL qualification and played CEV cup, because of being too expensive, too hard for the players (more matches to expect) and lacking perspective to qualify (indeed the four strongest league teams from Turkey, Russia, Italy and Poland qualified, which is a clear hint, that this was right).


    Schwerin would have played also CEV cup, but claimed, it is more easy to win challenge cup and let the league grade down their qualification (!)


    Wiesbaden had not enough money and denied European cup participation at all, the same with Münster and Potsdam.


    So Vilsbiburg, with a more sound financial situation, let the league claim a vacant (see above, Schwerin!) CEV cup slot for them.


    This is reality, and a sad one indeed.

  • The league head explained, that (what's true) nearly always the better placed teams of the league round won their playoff rounds in the last years and that spectator numbers in the quarters were lower than in the league round and in the semifinal playoffs.


    In a meeting of all 21 professional clubs of women's and men's first league all of them voted for cancellation of the pre-playoffs. Regarding cancellation of playoff-quarters this was not that clear, but a majority of 13 voted for it, only 8 were against it. This is the reason, why they are sure, that the conference will follow this guideline.

  • First of all: due to being today a Saturday, league prolonged chance to put licences requests for first league to midnight of Monday, the 3. April.


    I sum up the known state of teams:


    For sure the 9 teams Schwerin, Stuttgart, Dresden, Wiesbaden, Potsdam, Vilsbiburg, Münster, Aachen and Suhl will request a first league license. Erfurt will place a request to stay in first league, because of too few license requests there will be at least one free spot, so they should stay in because of money and rules conforming hall (Riethsporthalle) available too, what makes 10 (Suhl is now improving it's hall Wolfsgrube to rule conforming height).


    Köpenick is once again in financial trouble, in the last decade they always survived, but often hardly, so we have to wait until Tuesday to know for sure.


    From the two second leagues in south no team will claim a first league license, the only two currently eligible to are not wanting one.


    So only Leverkusen from second league north remains a possible candidate from below for a license, but as at last time they tend to decide at the latest possible moment.


    That makes 9 to 12 professional teams, depending on some decisions not made yet. We will see, how it looks on Tuesday than.


    Finally opposed to men's league (where one tried, but didn't make it not getting enough sponsor money in time) there is no request for a wild card, which would simply add (up to two) to the other teams, not consuming regular slots.


    I think on Tuesday we should create a new thread for season 2017/2018, when we know, who wants to be member of next seasons first Bundesliga.

  • Back to current season: today the first of up to three semi playoff matches Stuttgart vs. Dresden in Stuttgart is carried out.


    Stuttgart is clear favorite, but of course Dresden doesn't want to be thrown off competition, this would cost them a lot (no chance to participate in CL any more, for example, not getting even one title this season as defending champions...). Including two special matches (supercup final, DVV cup quarters) the results this season were 3:1 in favour of Stuttgart, the last match was won by Dresden in their Margon hall.


    At home Stuttgart lost this season just twice: once against league round winner Schwerin, once against Italian second placed team Casalmaggiore (CEV cup), both only in tie-break, so chances for Dresden in Stuttgart are considered by me as really poor, because they are much weaker than Schwerin and Casalmaggiore.

  • Dresden off to a good start, but their injury curse has hit once again: Jocelynn Birks with a bad landing after an attack has to limp off the court in the middle of 1st set :S It wasn't clear if the problem was knee or ankle but she looked very uncomfortable :(


    EDIT Looks like it's nothing too serious, she's now warming up behind the court again.

  • So Schwabe is not even a starter?? Well, forget about the German NT. ololololo


    Also, Witney is 1.95, but she plays like she`s 1.70, so many easy balls during rallies but she just can`t kill it.
    And I prefer Kocar, she does better with a bad pass.


    ( This camera angle is really not that great.)

  • And we're going to tie-break :super:


    Really good match, Dresden sucks in reception and I feel very sorry for their setters, but they make up for it with amazing defense today, especially Schoot. Stuttgart had two match points but Nichol made bad decisions there.

  • Sttugart`s coach should have replaced the starter setter way earlier in the 5set, by the time he did it was too late. And replacing 2 players at the end of a tie break it is really stupid. :obey:

  • Stuttgart - Dresden 2:3 (21:25 25:20 25:20 27:29 11:15)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2523.pdf
    MVP: Micheli Tomazela / Liz McMahon


    Really enjoyable match :obey: And it's amazing how a team that is completely incapable of receiving even ONE ball perfectly in tie-break can win :whistle: Great match by McMahon with 31 pts including 7 blocks, probably her best game this season. Also K.Rolfzen did a good job. Birks returned after her injury, but in 3rd set she was treated again on bench by the physio and then didn't return. Dresden without Cooper and Johnson today ?(
    It's hard to tell why Stuttgart lost because after all they were so close to the victory in 4th set, but in the key moments they couldn't kill the ball and in the end of 5th set they got stuck in one rotation, losing 5 pts in a row from 11:10 to 11:15.

  • Stuttgart - Dresden 2:3 (21:25 25:20 25:20 27:29 11:15)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2523.pdf
    MVP: Micheli Tomazela / Liz McMahon


    Really enjoyable match :obey: And it's amazing how a team that is completely incapable of receiving even ONE ball perfectly in tie-break can win :whistle: Great match by McMahon with 30 pts including 7 blocks, probably her best game this season. Also K.Rolfzen did a good job. Birks returned after her injury, but in 3rd set she was treated again on bench by the physio and then didn't return. Dresden without Cooper and Johnson today ?(
    It's hard to tell why Stuttgart lost because after all they were so close to the victory in 4th set, but in the key moments they couldn't kill the ball and in the end of 5th set they got stuck in one rotation, losing 5 pts in a row from 11:10 to 11:15.


    As alway I checked the statistics to see, what was different of both teams. Both teams with 109 points won overall and 37% attack efficiency, not bad, but not really good either. Stuttgart had advantages in service statistics and also did less errors, but the important hint is the block statistics: 17 to 7 in favour of Dresden. That means IMHO, that Nichol, despite setting brilliantly from a technical point of view, is often too predictable, so Dresden could more often block as they could otherwise. Overall here is a weakness of Stuttgart in this season, we didn't see the past two seasons before: they are sometimes not consequent and have too long weak periods, with a little luck like Dresden had today the opponent may be able to exploit this. By the way, this is already the third home defeat in this season of Stuttgart, always in the tie-break, and last season they didn't lose any home match against another German team. This is not the fault of us spectators, because we were once again extremely loud and supportive. I think, the great team chemistry from last season has been partly lost, despite individually we have the best roster ever in Stuttgart. But of course, this is team sports, and at least in this regard Dresden was better today without any doubt.


    Anyway, despite it is difficult, Stuttgart has still a chance to win in Dresden, because they usually love those all-or-nothing matches, and with a third medal in a row already won in the league after winning supercup and DVV cup they have nothing to lose, while Dresden has the feeling, they can lose everything, especially the right to participate in the CL. I think the first set in Dresden will be extremly important in one week.

  • Tomorrow first semi (of up to three) of first of league round Schwerin and fifth Wiesbaden. Remember, that Wiesbaden won both duels in the league round in tie-break, and that Schwerin just travelled back from Bursa via Istanbul-Hamburg. But of course generally speaking Schwerin is clearly stronger than Wiesbaden and has home advantage as always in these playoffs, i.e. starts at home.