Germany - VBL 1. Bundesliga 2017/2018

  • Rather bad match by Stuttgart, the main issue was, they had nearly no pressure in service, so Schwerin won lots of easy points. McCage shows once more, that she could easily be starting player in Italian league, but of course I'm happy, that she stays in Stuttgart.

  • I think Pia Kästner plays better than Stoltenborg today (and also already in the 1st match), I hope the coach will have the guts to keep her on court :roll:


    Annie Cesar is such an instinctively good digger! If she can improve her reception (which isn't bad either) she can be the next libero of German NT. To me she looks much more promising than Pogany/Stock/Dreblow and this was just her first season in Bundesliga.


    Cesar started in Stuttgart at the beach, but because we have a dual federal academy for both beach and hall, she tried libero and revealed quickly her outstanding capability as such. This was the reason, that she got immediately a two years contract. Because of experience Pusic were mostly used before her injury, but we knew, we have a valuable alternative.

  • Wow, Cesar is 21 years old...
    Nice to see that OSP Stuttgart presents one of their talents now! But in the age of 21???
    I don't think that Cesar will get the trust to be first Libero of Stuttgart in the next years.


    And Schwerin? Schölzel out, Krause out, Lohmann out...
    And Dresden? Petter out, Weitzel out, Maase out, Wezorke out in semi finals.


    It absolutely makes no sense for a german talent to join Dresden, Schwerin or Stuttgart before being one of the top prospects!

  • Many thanks to Potsdam for their trust in Dreblow!
    It is hard to see that she will leave Potsdam.
    Hopefully she will not go to Schwerin, Stuttgart or Dresden...

  • Schwerin - Stuttgart 3:0 (25:22 25:21 26:24)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2017-18/Women/2519.pdf
    MVP: Louisa Lippmann / Molly McCage (70% att, 7 :!: blocks)


    I watched until the middle of 3rd set, but basically the story of the match was the same from beginning to end: Schwerin was the better team. Not by much as the set scores show, but it never felt like Stuttgart could win today. Looking at the stats one may think that they are the better blocking team, but if you take away McCage's points the teams are pretty much equal in that element too. Today Daalderop was missed much more than in the 1st match because neither Sandor nor Mlejnkova posed a real threat in attack, and today also both OPPs of Stuttgart were weak.
    However I hope Stuttgart can win on Saturday because they don't deserve to lose the final series 0:3 this year after playing a very good season. They were really unlucky with losing Daalderop (I don't think losing Pusic has been a factor due to Cesar's pleasant performances) and with the questionable calls in match 1.

  • Wow, Cesar is 21 years old...
    Nice to see that OSP Stuttgart presents one of their talents now! But in the age of 21???
    I don't think that Cesar will get the trust to be first Libero of Stuttgart in the next years.


    And Schwerin? Schölzel out, Krause out, Lohmann out...
    And Dresden? Petter out, Weitzel out, Maase out, Wezorke out in semi finals.


    It absolutely makes no sense for a german talent to join Dresden, Schwerin or Stuttgart before being one of the top prospects!

    Many thanks to Potsdam for their trust in Dreblow!
    It is hard to see that she will leave Potsdam.
    Hopefully she will not go to Schwerin, Stuttgart or Dresden...


    I'm in two minds about this. Seeing the performance of Pia Kästner and Annie Cesar in the final series for me shows that they were absolutely right to join Stuttgart's team even though throughout the season they didn't get to play very often. But now they show what a full season of training with excellent teammates did to them and to me this is a much better choice than playing for a weak team where they might play more but practice on a lower level.


    As for the players you mention above: Schölzel had her chances in the beginning of the season and she didn't use them, then Dumancic got hers and used them better. That's sports, if another player is better then she plays and I don't think it helps young players to get a guarantee to be starter even if they don't perform well. Krause and Lohmann are still young and to me both aren't super-talents, but it's hard to judge their level since they never play. As for Dresden, Petter and Maase also aren't very talented players for me. Petter got to play more in Suhl and was weak, so I was really surprised that Dresden took her back. Weitzel will be a key player very soon, and for a young MB I consider it very important to practise with good setters, and whenever Weitzel came on court I was really impressed. However I agree that she should have played more. Wezorke - same as Schölzel. She got her chances throughout the season and she did fairly well, but when it counts, the best players have to play and those were Mrdak and Planinsec, as simple as that.
    Also Dreblow...she got really a lot of trust in Potsdam, but the coach eventually was punished for it because the team didn't perform, and once he turned an OH into a receiving libero to replace Dreblow, the team performed better. It's simply not enough to be young and talented, you also have to show at least an acceptable level of performance, in other words actually earn yourself the right to be on court :!:


    For me, Münster's young talents are in a very lucky situation: they get to work with a very good coach and some very good teammates, plus they got a lot of playing time this season. But let's be honest, with less injuries in the team we wouldn't have seen Alsmeier and Keller on court nearly as often as we did :whistle:

  • So it will be interesting, what a domestic player rule similar to Poland and Italy will do to the league - it is only postponed, but not cancelled. The number required will be essential for it; three would lower the level of the league considerably, even two will be not easy for many teams in the beginning. As van Daelen proposed, they should begin with one domestic player as minimum for any time and later increase to two, to make a rational transition.

  • As team director Kim Renkema said, the posture of most players of Stuttgart was just not acceptable yesterday. Aside from McCage and Cesar, nobody performed on their usual level; this was especially clear, when in both first sets nothing worked in the beginning and Schwerin could in both cases build up a decisive early advantage.

  • Regarding Annie Cesar: traditionally Allianz MTV Stuttgart hires high-class libero players and pays them relatively well, even compared to clubs with higher total budgets like Dresden and Schwerin, considering this position as one of the most essentially. Often we had the best libero of the league, starting with legendary Evelyn Delogu from Brazil for many years. This might indeed give Cesar a hard time to get much playing time also next season...

  • I just discoverd an article regarding Schwerins Palmberg arena on NDR: https://www.ndr.de/sport/mehr_…-Spiel-Verbot,ssc668.html


    The hall is indeed too small and is lacking some functional areas, they might be not allowed to compete in European cups at all. Fire protection is nearly non-existant (in December I already thought, having some experience with it, this situation is not acceptable regarding protection against fire). Maybe they will also get no more TV matches in future (!). The city of Schwerin has offered two million Euro to improve by additional constructions/extensions (there is space available at the site), but for some reason the (poor) state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has to allow this investment (this is a surprise for me, because Schwerin is in the higest class of citys below city states im Germany, despite lacking a full big city population currently, i.e. less than 100.000 inhabitants).

  • I just discoverd an article regarding Schwerins Palmberg arena on NDR: https://www.ndr.de/sport/mehr_…-Spiel-Verbot,ssc668.html


    The hall is indeed too small and is lacking some functional areas, they might be not allowed to compete in European cups at all. Fire protection is nearly non-existant (in December I already thought, having some experience with it, this situation is not acceptable regarding protection against fire). Maybe they will also get no more TV matches in future (!). The city of Schwerin has offered two million Euro to improve by additional constructions/extensions (there is space available at the site), but for some reason the (poor) state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has to allow this investment (this is a surprise for me, because Schwerin is in the higest class of citys below city states im Germany, despite lacking a full big city population currently, i.e. less than 100.000 inhabitants).


    I now double checked the financial status of state capital Schwerin, and they are clearly in the red numbers - this is the reason, why they are not eligible to give 2 million Euro to the hall without allowance by the superiour state authority. And the state has no juristic base to finance this (even partially). But this is a spotlight, how the team is treated there: they have full support of the public representatives despite serious lack of free money... in Stuttgart we have a splendid financial situation, but nearly no support.

  • Here are also some (good) news about Aachens new future hall.


    http://www.aachener-nachrichte…acebook&redir=checkmobile


    If the council decides to do so, this should save Aachen the first league license for now, but they must finish also the construction afterwards in relatively short time, to avoid license withdrawal by the league. So the race for keeping first league is definitely not over for Aachen.

  • Yesterdays TV match had less than 100.000 spectators on Sport1 - not good, but the match was also not really good and also short because of the too feeble performance by Stuttgart. The infamous soccer CL match on another TV station was later, so it was no reason for low numbers, I guess.

  • StefanS  Matthias
    Whats your opinion of Giannis Athanasopoulos?
    McCage>Tapp
    She is ready to play in Italy or Turkey!


    McCage stays in Stuttgart, Paige Tapp has not decided (we would like to keep her too).


    I talked a while with Athanasopoulos, he is a coach with clear opinions and much knowledge and remarkable connections even to Belorus, keeps contact to former head coach Hernandez (now with Targoviste from Romania), from whom he learned a lot. Finally you have to ask the players, what they think about him, and what I heard so far from them, is very positive. The athletic coach is also from Greece (despite speaking German very good opposed to the head coach) and is also longer in Stuttgart. Don't underestimate the others of the coaching staff, for example Tamari Miyashiro was herself libero also in Stuttgart and can teach also the libero playes Pusic and Cesar a lot, also the OHs in reception and digging. And I think, Hernandez and Athansopoulos were already a very good duo last season and Athansopoulos for sure gave good impulses than.

  • I just discoverd an article regarding Schwerins Palmberg arena on NDR: https://www.ndr.de/sport/mehr_…-Spiel-Verbot,ssc668.html


    The hall is indeed too small and is lacking some functional areas, they might be not allowed to compete in European cups at all. Fire protection is nearly non-existant (in December I already thought, having some experience with it, this situation is not acceptable regarding protection against fire). Maybe they will also get no more TV matches in future (!). The city of Schwerin has offered two million Euro to improve by additional constructions/extensions (there is space available at the site), but for some reason the (poor) state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has to allow this investment (this is a surprise for me, because Schwerin is in the higest class of citys below city states im Germany, despite lacking a full big city population currently, i.e. less than 100.000 inhabitants).

    The government of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has already released a statement that they are going to support SSC Palmberg Schwerin and are currently figuring out possible ways to do so.

  • I'm in two minds about this. Seeing the performance of Pia Kästner and Annie Cesar in the final series for me shows that they were absolutely right to join Stuttgart's team even though throughout the season they didn't get to play very often. But now they show what a full season of training with excellent teammates did to them and to me this is a much better choice than playing for a weak team where they might play more but practice on a lower level.

    I don't think this is the main point. Pia Kästner is a very talented setter but this was known before. Also in the beginning of this season she played on a good level. I saw chances for her to be first setter because Stoltenborg had some problems to get a good connection to McCage in first matches. So I don't think that Kästner profits so much from the training in Stuttgart...
    Annie Cesar joined first team of Stuttgart in the age of 20. We both don't know how good she has really been before this season and if she really learned so much in training.


    But you are right that "getting better" is not only "playing" - but also "training with better players". It is a mixture of both and this is a big problem for talents of VCO Berlin but also for talents at Schwerin/Dresden/Stuttgart.


    The league should really work together more - in the aspects of talents!

  • Today 15.30 CET live on http://www.vbl.tv and on Sport 1 - the 3rd and possibly last final match Stuttgart vs Schwerin :super:


    Schwerin leads the series 2:0 and can become champion with another victory today, but Stuttgart is certainly not willing to give up, especially not at home, and the first two matches have been anything but clear. No changes in the injury situation, Daalderop is still out :S