Germany - VBL 1. Bundesliga 2017/2018

  • Day of the one-sided matches...


    Aachen - Erfurt 3:0 (25:9 25:20 25:7)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/2071.pdf
    MVP: Nicole Oude Luttikhuis / An Saita


    Potsdam - Suhl 3:0 (25:16 25:15 25:9)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/2072.pdf
    MVP: Denise Imoudu / Claudia Steger


    Vilsbiburg - Münster 3:0 (25:17 25:18 25:13)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/2074.pdf
    MVP: Ilka van de Vyver / Juliet Lohuis


    Stuttgart - Wiesbaden 3:0 (25:19 25:11 25:18 )
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/2073.pdf
    MVP: Nika Daalderop / Kimberly Drewniok


    Tomorrow Vilsbiburg-VCO Schwerin and on Wednesday the big match Schwerin-Dresden.

  • Anyway, the most important result was Stuttgarts clear victory, fully deserved because of own strength, against Wiesbaden, which means the lead of the league. By the way, in this moment with the same number of matches of all three top teams.


    The next really important and big TV match is indeed on Wednesday Schwerin vs. Dresden, where I expect a three point victory of Schwerin. This would result in the table order 1. Stuttgart 2. Schwerin and 3. Dresden.

  • The race for playoff positions 4 to 7 is still rather close, regarding points (which count before victories) now also with 16 matches played each is like this:


    4. Aachen 28
    5. Wiesbaden 26
    6. Münster 24
    7. Vilsbiburg 23


    and far from being over, for example Aachen has to play in Dresden next, while Vilsbiburg has today at home kind of "free lunch" against VCO Berlin. Effectively this is the fight for the best playoff chances to get the one bronce medal, which will be left by Stuttgart, Schwerin and Dresden for the last semi final participant...


    And the gap between this two groups of teams is rather large, there is even numerically nearly no chance anymore for the 4. to get to the 3. now.


    This hints to me, that the top three has further improved also because of the tough competition against each other of them, and the remainder of clubs couldn't keep the gap, but it grew since last season, despite there were some exploits against them - but very few (Schwerin lost in Wiesbaden and at home against Vilsbiburg, Dresden in Potsdam, but this was it).

  • Better start for Dresden, but in the midth of the set Schwerin took control step by step, promoted by a strong service series of middle Barfield. So Schwerin wins not unexpected first set with 25:22. Core reason is once more, that Schwerin has more effective attackers than Dresden.

  • The third set was one sided - an easy prey for defending champions Schwerin. Also the statistics are rather clear: Dresden is too weak in several basics to keep with Schwerin or Stuttgart, if they don't have home advantage, they are inferiour. Attack efficiency was good for both teams, but Schwerin was better (47% to 43%), reception was considerably better by home team as well as the service (Schwerin had two aces more than service faults, while Dresden committed 6 service faults more than making aces) and finally Dresden made too many mistakes (Schwerin: 14, Dresden: 22).


    It is rather clear, that the playoff final series has to be expected like last season Stuttgart vs. Schwerin. Stuttgart has still one match less but one point more than Schwerin and can keep the top of the table even when losing at final day against Schwerin, if they win the next three with three points each as always until now, aside from the top matches in Schwerin and Dresden.


    Dresden has still a chance to get back to position 2, if Stuttgart defeats Schwerin at last day of league round and Dresden collects all points possible including that day. So it is far from being sure, how the order will be at the end, although I think the current one is reasonable:


    1. Stuttgart 43 points 2. Schwerin 42 points 3. Dresden 41 points. Stuttgart has two defeats so far, the other two three.


    Finally, even theoretically it is now impossible for the fourth team (Aachen) to close the gap to the first three teams in the last four matches, which shows a really big difference in strength.

  • Schwerin - Dresden 3:0 (25:21 25:23 25:14)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/2075.pdf
    MVP: Jennifer Geerties / Ivana Mrdak


    Ranking:
    1 Allianz MTV Stuttgart 16 14 44:13 43
    2 SSC Palmberg Schwerin 17 14 47:14 42
    3 Dresdner SC 17 14 44:17 41
    4 Ladies in Black Aachen 16 10 35:25 28
    5 Rote Raben Vilsbiburg 17 9 32:28 26
    6 VC Wiesbaden 16 9 31:28 26
    7 USC Münster 16 7 30:31 24
    8 SC Potsdam 16 6 25:34 19
    9 VfB Suhl LOTTO Thüringen 17 4 16:43 12
    10 Schwarz-Weiß Erfurt 17 3 13:46 9
    11 VCO Berlin 15 0 7:45 0


    Interesting news from 2nd league: NawaRo Straubing wants to make another attempt at playing 1st league. They already played one season there a while ago but got into major financial trouble and ended up being relegated due to losing ranking points because of not fulfilling some financial obligations. They'll be very careful about making another attempt but they really want to. Problem is, as in many other places, that their hall is too low for 1st league.

  • Similar news from Offenburg: the pure women's volleyball club intends to join 1. league (would be for the first time ever), but their Nordwesthalle is not conformant to the rules and could be used only for a limited time there. Also financial affairs are not sorted out completely, so the current leaders of second league south will likely postpone this adventure by one year.


    Because both Offenburg and Straubing are playing in the south part of second league and are still fighting for the first place in it, only the winner is eligible to go to first league directly. But due to wildcard rules if both would be ready, the second of them could also join first league, I'm sure, because from second league North no team is known intending to go this way.

  • This is the most close race for places 1 to 3 in the league I can remember. So I present some considerations and remainder playing schedules for all three teams, to give an impression of chances.


    First you have to know, that all three are currently playing the quarters of CEV cup, which increases load for them by English weeks of playing (at least) two times per week until end of February, Dresden having to play DVV national cup final on 4. March additionally. Schwerin is facing Casamlmaggiore, which is pretty far away from them, they will likely fly from Hamburg into the next possible airport location to Cremona. Dresden and Stuttgart are playing each other with the usual not short, but also not extremely long bus travel to each other like in the league.


    So they may have a hard time to maintain their performance all the time, when it now matters.


    In the league it looks like this:


    Dresden expects Aachen at home on Saturday, and due to the home strength and considerably lower performance on the road of both teams Dresden is the clear cut favourite, despite Aachen is best team now behind the leading three. They are supposed to take all three or at least two points at home. After that it will be fairly easy for them to close the league round: they have the both trailing Thuringia teams (Suhl and Erfurt), which can't attend the playoffs (quarters) anymore. Therefore I would expect Dresden to take 8 to 9 points from last three matches, which opens up some chances for them.


    Stuttgart has on Saturday first at home Berlin juniors, which should be easy to get three points, but already on Sunday Potsdam, which will be more difficult after head coach Carli of Potsdam found a (temporary?) solution for their weak reception. But because also Stuttgart and Potsdam are considerably better at home as on the road usually, I expect Stuttgart to take full six points nevertheless out of the weekend.


    More difficult it will get one week later for Stuttgart on the road in Vilsbiburg, despite they are still favourites of course. At home "Rote Raben" (Red Raves) are often good enough to pose a threat even to the top teams. Especially Vanessa Agbortabi helped them at last to play better and Lena Stigrot may rejoin Vilsiburg starting six also. This is not sure, how it will end, but Stuttgart should still take at least two points there. For the final match see below...


    In Münster Schwerin should take all three points despite the home advantage of the hosts, because they struggle after the loss of Lena Vedder by heavy injury. Schwerin has after that not easy home match against Wiesbaden: they should cope with it, but it is also a match, where they might not get the full three points, two should be possible anyway.


    Before the last top match points are supposed to be like this therefore: Stuttgart 51 or 52, Schwerin 47 to 48 and Dresden 49 to 50.


    And finally there will the big duel Stuttgart vs. Schwerin at the last day of the league round (TV match on Sport1): regardless how the points will really be than, both teams will fight fiercely for the victory because of the opponent alone. As you can see, there are chances, that Stuttgart has already secured (for the first time ever by the way) the first place for the playoffs in the league round, the result will influence the order of teams in this hardly predictable match, despite Stuttgart has home advantage, but injuries and the shape of the day influence the outcome considerably. Even the (unlikely) event of Schwerin winning with three points in Stuttgart this might be just enough to be second, otherwise they could get stuck easily on place three.


    Remember, that the distances of all three locations are big enough, to create a noticeable disadvantage not only by home crowd reasons for the lower placed teams. If Stuttgart wins league round, Schwerin and Dresden have to fight each other in the semis, which would be an important advantage for Stuttgart. So the last weeks including final league round match day on 10. March are pretty interesting.

  • Low TV numbers of Schwerin vs. Dresden yesterday: because the men's basketball match before also isn't visible in the top three, this may be more due to parallel CL soccer match in big public TV station. The spectators in hall: 2.000 (hardly fitting in, completely sold out) and below 120.000 at Sport1 TV.

  • The both most interesting matches today are supposed to be: Wiesbaden vs. Vilsbiburg and Dresden vs. Aachen. The first one is difficult to predict, despite Wiesbaden is the favourite at home; the second has an interesting tone, because Aachens head coach Saskia van Hintum aggressively pushed to get points out of the Margon hall. IMHO this is highly unlikely, because the home advantage of Dresden is alway huge (compare the matches there with the ones on the road against the two main opponents Stuttgart and Schwerin for example) and Aachen is still having an unfair advantage at home because of the not rule-conforming hall (especially ceiling too low), which will vanish in the playoffs, when they will again play in Maaseik in Belgium in the CL compatible home hall of Nolikos men's team.

  • Sa, 17.02.18 14:30 Stuttgart - VCO Berlin
    Sa, 17.02.18 17:30 Dresden - Aachen
    Sa, 17.02.18 19:00 Suhl - Erfurt
    Sa, 17.02.18 19:00 Wiesbaden - Vilsbiburg
    So, 18.02.18 14:30 Stuttgart - Potsdam
    So, 18.02.18 14:30 Münster - Schwerin
    So, 18.02.18 16:30 Wiesbaden - VCO Berlin


    All matches live on http://www.vbl.tv

  • The both most interesting matches today are supposed to be: Wiesbaden vs. Vilsbiburg and Dresden vs. Aachen. The first one is difficult to predict, despite Wiesbaden is the favourite at home; the second has an interesting tone, because Aachens head coach Saskia van Hintum aggressively pushed to get points out of the Margon hall. IMHO this is highly unlikely, because the home advantage of Dresden is alway huge (compare the matches there with the ones on the road against the two main opponents Stuttgart and Schwerin for example) and Aachen is still having an unfair advantage at home because of the not rule-conforming hall (especially ceiling too low), which will vanish in the playoffs, when they will again play in Maaseik in Belgium in the CL compatible home hall of Nolikos men's team.


    :aww: :down:


    You are joking, right?


    Aachen has every practice and homematch big disadvantage of the low ceiling!!!
    Can you imagine any player who prefers to play volleyball with a low ceiling???


    :wall: :wall:


  • No, the difference is, the home team is used to it, the guests are not. Insofar this is an advantage for the home team. That it is not good in general terms is rather clear.

  • No, the difference is, the home team is used to it, the guests are not. Insofar this is an advantage for the home team. That it is not good in general terms is rather clear.



    Please enlighten me...in details...how it is possible to take advantage of every homegame having a disadvantage...


    In what element of the game you see the advantage?

  • I'm wondering how bad Karolina Pisla must be if even today she doesn't replace Oude Luttikhuis :white: :aww:


    I'm wondering how bad Karolina Pisla must be if even today she doesn't replace Oude Luttikhuis :white: :aww:



    Matthias...come on...according to you, Nicole deserves a call for Dutch NT :P :P


    In fact, it is a shame...today she was again the opponent's best player...


    I really hope she will leave Aachen after this season, the same for Sunjic. They both are simply very weak players.


    I think Adams and Bongaerts will leave..they both have a very good season.

  • I do not understand the statement of Matthias as a praise for Nicole Oude Luttikhuis.


    As far as I know Nicole Oude Luttikhuis used to play as MB until she changed the position at the request of the former national coach from the netherlands (before going to Aachen). May be she would be better at her previous position? :?: