Germany - VBL 1. Bundesliga 2017/2018

  • Schedule for the weekend, all matches live on http://www.vbl.tv


    Sa, 16.12.17 17:30 Dresden - Suhl
    Sa, 16.12.17 19:00 Potsdam - Erfurt
    Sa, 16.12.17 19:00 Wiesbaden - Schwerin
    Sa, 16.12.17 19:30 Stuttgart - Vilsbiburg
    So, 17.12.17 14:30 Münster - Aachen


    Münster-Aachen aka the West derby should be the most interesting match, a win for Münster would keep them close to the top 3 teams and some points ahead of Aachen and Wiesbaden behind them (unless Wiesbaden will surprise Schwerin).


  • This article I also read, but it is not really helpful. General issues with comparability of such numbers are:


    1. is this first league team only (obviously not) budget?


    2. Münster is one of four clubs, which still drives a federal academy, wich also consumes money: how much?


    3. many clubs have debt, and they have to pay for it (how much depends strongly, when they were made): how much is this from total?


    I hope the business year is bounded in summer, not at year change, which corresponds to the seasons of volleyball (teams). Otherwise the interpretation becomes even more difficult.


    There are just two useful numbers in this article:


    the sum of salaries of the players they pay and the sum including the paid staff of all salaries.


    Due to this sum, Münster should be higher than 700.000 Euro regarding budget, but they were demanded by the league to cut the sum of payments in light of their high debt. So a more realistic approach might be 800.000 Euro budget now, because I guess their hall is relatively cheap and they don't take part in European cups (which drives costs a lot).

  • Major surprise in Wiesbaden, which stuns Schwerin in four - main reason was, Wiesbaden served better and Schwerin produced far too many mistakes. Opposed to that Stuttgart and Dresden had easy wins in three sets against Vilsbiburg respective Suhl. Regarding Vilsbiburg: their reception is very vulnerable indeed, for our strong servers of Stuttgart it was an easy task to do major damage of them therefore.


  • This article I also read, but it is not really helpful. General issues with comparability of such numbers are:


    1. is this first league team only (obviously not) budget?


    It should be the budget for the whole club. But isn't it the same for the numbers of the other clubs, especially Schwerin, Dresden, Stuttgart?


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    2. Münster is one of four clubs, which still drives a federal academy, wich also consumes money: how much?


    I don't know how much, maybe 30k to 50k Euro? It is now the first year the federal academy is "outsorced" to VCO Münster.
    But it is the same for Schwerin, Dresden and Stuttgart, isn't it?


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    3. many clubs have debt, and they have to pay for it (how much depends strongly, when they were made): how much is this from total?


    As far as I know the actual debts of USC are all to sponsor LVM, without interests.


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    I hope the business year is bounded in summer, not at year change, which corresponds to the seasons of volleyball (teams).


    Yes it is.


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    There are just two useful numbers in this article: the sum of salaries of the players they pay and the sum including the paid staff of all salaries.


    There are more costs than just paying team and staff that all teams shoud have to pay. Travelling, insurances, hall, cars, costs for DVL and referees, energy, floor, advertisings, etc.
    Isn't this also included when other teams speak about their costs???


  • For the mentioned reasons you find often considerable differences from different sources. In Stuttgart the difference regarding second team, federal academy, academy team to first league alone is about 200.000 Euro for example. This and more makes comparisons so difficult. IMHO the league, which is checking the economic relations of the teams anyway should simply publish those budgets on an equal base, otherwise we will guess often, how it is in detail.

  • Dresden - Suhl 3:0 (25:20 25:23 25:22)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/2040.pdf
    MVP: Madi Bugg / Krista DeGeest


    Potsdam - Erfurt 3:0 (25:18 25:12 25:19)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/2036.pdf
    MVP: Lisa Gründing (85% att) / Emily Thater


    Wiesbaden - Schwerin 3:1 (25:21 25:20 23:25 25:22) :white:
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/2038.pdf
    MVP: Karolina Bednarova / Lauren Barfield


    Stuttgart - Vilsbiburg 3:0 (25:14 25:16 25:14) :what:
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/2037.pdf
    MVP: Deborah van Daelen / Lena Stigrot


    At first sight the loss of Schwerin against Wiesbaden looks like a major surprise but IMO it isn't. Schwerin always has trouble against Wiesbaden, and right now they are training for the Cup semifinal on Wednesday against Dresden which is going to be their most important match of the season so far, so today's match probably was not on top of their priority list. Dresden had the luck to play against Suhl and could use their bench players, I'm sure their starters are also preparing for Wednesday.
    Speaking of Wednesday, I'm not sure if Stuttgart's current results will do them a favor in the long run. They seem to be at their peak performance now, but the question is how long they can keep that. They'll need their peak performance on Wednesday too because Wiesbaden showed today that they're a serious opponent for everyone.

  • I don't think, that Stuttgart has already reached its peak performance - there is potential to play even stronger. Especially the several short phases with opposite Nikoleta Perovic looked very promising to increase our firepower in attack and Paige Tapp can be better developed and integrated into the team too. And we have enough good players now to do useful substitutions, so they should maintain a strong performance for large parts of the season.


    Regarding cup matches: Stuttgart is an extremely eager cup team and we have an huge home advantage on Wednesday. Of course reception of Wiesbaden is much better than of Vilsbiburg, so this will not be that easy as in the last league match. But we won safely even in Wiesbaden a few weeks ago...


    Dresden and Schwerin are preparing for sure the tough and highly anticipated (TV Sport1 aired) other cup semifinal. But a team like Schwerin should not do this bad in an important league match, they lost seriously ground in the championship against both Stuttgart and Dresden dropping to third place this way.

  • Concerning Stuttgart: As Stefan mentioned Perovic showed some promising signs yesterday, however Van Daelen is playing extremely well at the moment, better than I've ever seen her (there are still stronger opps. in the league of course). She's serving well too. So it's a tough choice who should play.


    The middles are great and one reason why Stuttgart is having long serving streaks at the moment. Stoltenborg has found her touch, the excellent outside attackers are back in shape and Pusic is doing very well too, strong in reception (this applies to Mljenkova and Sandor too) and defence and she's an excellent setter too.


    However, as shown by Schwerin who seemed unstoppable at the beginning of the season a lot can change. VCO (who fought bravely against Stuttgart) have shown that the team has some weaknesses when the bench players are playing.

  • Münster once again is giving a lesson in terms of fighting spirit, winning 3rd set against Aachen 28:26 after being down all set. At 17:23 they scored 7 pts in a row and then also managed to finish the comeback :obey:


    This match deserves a tie-break, let's see if Aachen can recover from the 3rd set shock.

  • And in the end...
    Münster - Aachen 2:3 (20:25 25:23 28:26 23:25 13:15)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/2039.pdf
    MVP: Mareike Hindriksen / Nicole Oude Luttikhuis


    In the tie-break a serving streak of Britt Bongaerts from 8:10 to 12:10 turned out to be decisive. For Münster Ivana Vanjak was very good in attack and Lina Alsmeier with 17 years was their best receiver today despite some mistakes. Aachen with a very balanced performance. I was a bit surprised of the MVP choice because McKenzie Adams impressed me more while watching than Oude Luttikhuis, but in terms of stats they were about equal.


    Ranking:
    1 Stuttgart 9 8 26:7 25
    2 Dresden 9 8 26:9 23
    3 Schwerin 9 7 24:9 21
    4 Münster 10 6 22:16 20
    5 Wiesbaden 9 6 21:15 17
    6 Aachen 9 6 20:14 16
    7 Potsdam 8 3 13:18 9
    8 Vilsbiburg 9 3 13:19 9
    9 Suhl 10 2 9:26 6
    10 Erfurt 9 1 6:25 4
    11 VCO Berlin 9 0 5:27 0

  • Congrats to both teams for a great fight!!


    Münster without Bathen is a big loss, so I think Münster deserves credits.


    On the other side: Aachen should already have won 3rd set...17-23 up...OMG...


    3rd set, and almost 4th as well, are symptomatic for Aachen's roster...they have NO go to-player in difficult moments (like Daalderop last year).


    Knip, Bongaerts, Adams and Polder should play always IMO...all the others are very inconsistent...

  • Concerning Stuttgart: As Stefan mentioned Perovic showed some promising signs yesterday, however Van Daelen is playing extremely well at the moment, better than I've ever seen her (there are still stronger opps. in the league of course). She's serving well too. So it's a tough choice who should play.


    The middles are great and one reason why Stuttgart is having long serving streaks at the moment. Stoltenborg has found her touch, the excellent outside attackers are back in shape and Pusic is doing very well too, strong in reception (this applies to Mljenkova and Sandor too) and defence and she's an excellent setter too.


    However, as shown by Schwerin who seemed unstoppable at the beginning of the season a lot can change. VCO (who fought bravely against Stuttgart) have shown that the team has some weaknesses when the bench players are playing.


    It's always good to have a strong alternative especially for the opposite. I guess, Deborah van Daelen, a very intelligent and experienced player, is rather consistent in her display, better as ever, taking responsibility for her team (therefore being captain), making good choices all the time. Nikoleta Perovic is more like the high-risk attacker, which can pose a bigger threat especially against strong, well defending opponents, but we will see, how it develops. Anyway, it is a clear advantage to have both together in the roster.

  • Today: the both DVV cup semis.


    18 CET on Sport1 free TV Dresden vs. Schwerin
    19 CET internet stream only: Stuttgart vs. Wiesbaden


    While Dresden vs. Schwerin can't be predicted IMHO, Stuttgart is the clear-cut favorite in the other match. Anyway, all four teams published optimistic press releases, but Wiesbaden is certainly wrong in one assumption: they claim, Stuttgart MUST win - no way, they already won this cup three times and have nothing to prove anymore, but they are also eager to go to Mannheim again (would be the fourth cup final for them in a row, and the third, therefore always so far in Mannheim). And home advantage has proven to be always a strong advantage in the last years in the matches of the relatively nearby teams Stuttgart and Wiesbaden.

  • Quote

    Wiesbaden is certainly wrong in one assumption: they claim, Stuttgart MUST win - no way, they already won this cup three times and have nothing to prove anymore


    Nobody MUST win, we MUST only die - so yes this claim is wrong.
    I think the pressure to win is higher for Stuttgart than for Wiesbaden.
    Stutgart are the favourites and it would be a huge disappointment for them if they lose at home.

  • Today: the both DVV cup semis.


    18 CET on Sport1 free TV Dresden vs. Schwerin
    19 CET internet stream only: Stuttgart vs. Wiesbaden

    Links: http://www.vbl.tv, https://tv.sport1.de/sport1/ (only from Germany)


    Meanwhile, in lack of money for a transfer to replace the injured MB Jennifer Keddy, Wiesbaden adds 31 year old MB Julia Osterloh to their roster. She played for them until 2015 and in the last two years played in 2nd league. No official info yet from the club if this is a temporary or permanent solution but she is on their roster on VBL site now.

  • Really dull match between Dresden and Schwerin so far :down:
    As soon as Schwerin gets their serves over, Dresden is a mess. Nobody can receive and only Korhonen can score reliably. Schwerin is by no means any impressive either but Lippmann gets more support from her teammates than Korhonen.

  • And the big final is, rather surprisingly, Dresden vs Wiesbaden :cup: :super:


    Stuttgart - Wiesbaden 1:3 (25:21 19:25 24:26 19:25)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/8112.pdf
    MVP: Pia Kästner / Karolina Bednarova


    Dresden - Schwerin 3:2 (17:25 25:23 18:25 25:21 15:10)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/8113.pdf
    MVP: Barbara Wezorke (82% att., 5 blocks, 3 aces :obey: / Jelena Oluic


    Aaaand Karma strikes back at Stuttgart after their complaints over the bad level of the league below the top 3 teams :rolll: :rolll: :rolll:
    Even though I like Stuttgart's team I am really happy about Wiesbaden winning today. The key was Stuttgart with 31 errors in 4 sets and Wiesbaden only 16.
    The other match was rather disappointing for 3 sets, then Alex Waibl finally found his best line-up with Strumilo adding some power from pos.4 and Wezorke playing a great match. Louisa Lippmann hurt her shoulder in 4th set and went out for some rallies, she returned later but it was obvious that she wasn't feeling well, she was great before and invisible after, and it was also clear that Schwerin's setters gave her far less balls than usual. Also Szakmary disappeared in the 2nd half of 4th set, so Dresden got a chance to win and used it. Schwerin without Geerties due to a skin inflammation in her face combined with a bad cold that made it impossible for her to play today and she was missed a lot in reception and defense.