Germany - VBL 1. Bundesliga 2017/2018

  • Time for goodbyes:


    Dresden parts ways with Eva Hodanova and Marrit Jasper, which both doesn't come as a surprise at all.


    In Wiesbaden Irina Kemmsies, Lia-Tabea Mertens, Annalena Mach, Dora Grozer and Tanja Sredic leave the club.

  • Interview with Stuttgarter newspaper of Dutch captain Deborah van Daelen: she estimates chances of Stuttgart winning the championship for the first time (kind of successor of the legendary, but vanished CJD Feuerbach) at 50 to 50, and the first (home) match will be of special meaning, i.e. psychologically, to get an edge on the series. My hope is, to win all three home matches (at least).


    https://www.stuttgarts-schoens…rticles/StZ_190418_30.pdf


  • No reason given, especially no injury, and 27 is not exactly the age to cease a professional volleyball career without good reason - maybe lack of motivation now or she wants to get into "real", i.e. normal life also for earning her living with perspective?

  • What's the point of continuing? She hasn't improved in the last 6-7 years after being a great prospect in junior age, Guidetti even compared her to Fürst back then. She has come to a point where she probably had to decide if she plays for some weak team for a salary that barely allows her to live or if she calls it a day and starts into "real life", and I appreciate that she chose the 2nd option.

  • The last day before the final series starts Schwerins and Germanys head coach Koslowski also told 50:50 chances for both teams.


    Both sides consider the first match as being very important, despite it is a best-of-five series, but I think, this is mostly a psychologically advantage to win the first match.

  • So after all it IS the match everyone hoped for :thumbsup:


    Maybe not the very highest level (but still very good), but both teams play their hearts out! Sandor's defense is incredible today, she easily dug some bombs from Lippmann as if they had been tips :white:


    Lippmann needs to play better, Stuttgart being prepared well for her is one thing but she makes too many mistakes.

  • Very sad this match is decided by the referee in the end.


    The serve might have touched the line, but there was 100 % no block-touch in the following situation.


    What about Daalderop and Pusic? Will they be able to play in next matches?


    Really unfortunate for Stuttgart.

  • What a match :obey: :obey: :obey:


    Stuttgart - Schwerin 2:3 (25:21 22:25 22:25 25:21 12:15)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/2518.pdf
    MVP: Annie Cesar / Greta Szakmary


    2.5 hours of a hard fight, 107:106 points for Schwerin tells the story of the match. It couldn't have been any closer!


    Lesson of the match: we need challenge system at least for the finals :!: In fact I'm saying this not because I think the referees were bad, but to calm down the crowd. In the whole match there were unusually many very close in/out/touch decisions, and surely the referees have been wrong on some, but this is inevitable, and IMO they didn't make any terrible mistakes. Throughout the match the questionable calls were evenly distributed between the teams, but Stuttgart was unlucky to have two close calls against them at the end of tie-break. However I think both were ok, Oluic's serve probably caught a bit of the line and to me it also looked like Perovic actually did touch Lippmann's attack, but the replay quality was not good enough to tell for sure. And that's where challenge system would help...


    As for the match: it showed how important it is to have a good bench. For Stuttgart, two players who played very little throughout the season today made the difference. Young libero Annie Cesar performed extremely well, she had a few overpasses but compensated for them with a lot of great digs, I don't think Pusic would have played better. And Perovic played a hell of a match replacing Van Daelen.
    In Schwerin, Alanko was very important as backup setter, changing the rhythm and giving Hanke some rest, and in the end Hanke was back at full force. Also Oluic played an important role, first replacing Szakmary in 1st set and then serving from 10:12 to 15:12 in tie-break.


    I hope the whole series will be as tight as the first match, but that loss will be a tough one for Stuttgart to recover from. Next match on Wednesday in Schwerin.


  • This was not a decision because of being better or not, but that service of Jelena Oluic was definiteley out, a decisively wrong decision by the referees - all viewers from different seat positions agreed on it.

  • This was not a decision because of being better or not, but that service of Jelena Oluic was definiteley out, a decisively wrong decision by the referees - all viewers from different seat positions agreed on it.

    If the match had been in Schwerin, everyone would have agreed that the serve was in :whistle:


    Watch the replay :!:

  • Analysing the statistics should be not over interpreted at such a close outcome of course. But some differences are visible, which have for sure affected the match: as usual Stuttgart was once more superiour in block kills (17 to 6 !), especially Lippmann couldn't do as much damage as usual, for her 33% efficiency is a poor value. The best normal attacker was indeed Nikoleta Perovic, who played seldom this season (was about three months out due to injury at the beginning) with a really good 56% efficiency. An advantage for Schwerin was the higher percentage of positive receptions, the too low value of Stuttgart for sure also affected the fast attacks both of McCage and Tapp, which were clearly below their usual level, their Schwerin had a in-total recogizable advantage with Barfield and Dumancic. Hard to tell is, if the injury of Nika Daalderop, who couldn't play today (some injury at the left foot) was a major drawback for Stuttgart, she may have improved overall efficiency instead of Sandor at times for example.


    Altogether this series is far from being over, I think - and our players know well, that they were not weaker than Schwerin today. And Schwerin lost twice at home this season against much weaker teams as Stuttgart - so they will not get an easy home match at all on Wednesday, I'm sure.