Champions League 2008/2009

totally expected and deserved, as said before tournament Trentino is european champion. by far best team in Europe. But now they need to conqueer italy again which will be harder cause they cannot play in domestic championship with full team like in CL. Congrats!

TRENTINO!!!

Quote from Brunnoxw

TRENTINO!!!

TRENTO champions of Europe , MATEY kAZIYSKY, TRULLY AMAZING ONCE AGAIN, Rado Stoichev - great coach, Trento - great team. Congratulations for Iraklis, they were good opponent.

Amazing final, amazing Trentino, great Iraklis, but the Italians were simply superb in Prague! There was no way for Trentino to lose this title! The services of the Greeks were better than Trentino's, excluding Kaziyski from that number, Iraklis's reception also better than what the Italians showed, but the big difference came from the block and the setter Grbic! I am so sorry that Iraklis has lost all their three finals so far, they deserve to win the IECL, Kravarik deserved to lift the trophy at least once in his great career for this club! I do not admire the behaviour of their fans, especially yesterday when the story with the lasers happened, but the support they show to this team is incredible! Iraklis deserves its first historical trophy, I hope they can win it in the near future! On the other side, I am very happy about Kaziyski's MVP award, he did whatever he wanted during the last two days, supported by the outstanding Winiarski, Vissoto Neves and Riad, this team was simply unbeatable (in fact, they finished unbeaten )! The only thing I didn't like was the nomination of Butko for Best Setter... I don't know what the statistics says about it, no one can convince me that Grbic played less efficiently during the Final Four! He was the first reason which made Trentino champions! He IS the best setter of this year's IECL!

Simply awesome tournament to watch! From the first till the last points! That's why it's my favourite one Maybe really the four best teams this season reached the final stage... but now I will have to wait for half a year until the next one starts

when a player...ehm...no, actually not a player, a MONSTER like Matey Kazyiski plays for your team...things are very easy...

last week Trento was loosing 10-14 in the tie-break in Italian Playoffs before 4 aces of this champion...

yesterday he closed the game with another 2 aces...

so finally congrats to trento...but without Kazyiski they would become a normal team. strong of course but not like they're now, almost unstoppable.

Congratulations, Trentino

Congratulations for Trento It was a great final! Bravo to all Itas's players and coaches - they all did a great job and absolutely desereved the cup. But also congrats for Iraklis which excluding the first set were on a high level level. The way that the match ended (with the two aces) was increddible. Really great Kaziyski - the MVP

So now we are looking forward to the next IECL edition

The best blocker of the Final Four - Michał Winiarski

Men’s CEV Indesit Champions League 2008/09

Gold medal match: Iraklis THESSALONIKI vs. TRENTINO Volley 1:3 (12-25, 25-21, 26-24, 25-22)
Bronze medal match: Iskra ODINTSOVO vs. Lube Banca Marche MACERATA 3:2 (25-23, 25-23, 28-30, 21-25, 17-15)

Final classification
1. TRENTINO Volley
2. Iraklis THESSALONIKI
3. Iskra ODINSTOVO
4. Luba Banca Marche MACERATA

Best Player Awards
Best Receiver: Plamen Konstantinov (BUL, Iraklis THESSALONIKI)
Best Server: Emanuele Birarelli (ITA, TRENTINO Volley)
Best Setter: Alexander Butko (RUS, Iskra ODINTSOVO)
Best Libero: Alexey Verbov (RUS, Iskra ODINTSOVO)
Best Blocker: Michal Winiarski (POL, Trentino Volley)
Best Spiker: Martin Lebl (CZE, Lube Banca Marche MACERATA)
Best Scorer: Jochen Schöps (GER, Iskra ODINTSOVO)
MVP: Matey Kaziyski (BUL, TRENTINO Volley)

Quote from volley super fan

Best Blocker: Michal Winiarski (POL, Trentino Volley)

WINIAR!! heh i would expect best receiver award best servev maybe even spiker but blocker??
congratulation

but what about the Best Server - Birarelli wtf??? How come a guy with a serve like his becomes the best server of a competition but who cares?! Trentino is the champion!!!

What can I say? I was very sad about yesterday's result. I was in Prague and I can't describe my emotions after the final. But today I realise that this weekend we proved once more that we are among the best teams in Europe, and that makes me feel a little bit better.
I want to congratulate all of our players. Simon Tischer, Marcus Nilsson, Aleh Akhrem, Plamen Konstantinov, Andrej Kravarik, Nikos Smaragdis, Denison Conceicao, Giannis Charitonidis, Evgenios Gkortsaniouk, Freddy Brooks, Gerasimos Kanellos and Giorgos Koulieris.
Of course, congratulations to Trentino. They played very well.
Unfortunately for my team, Konstantinov played injured and he couldn't help in attack. It was like we were playing with two liberos and that made our game predictable. That's why Trentino scored 18 points from blocking.
Now we are looking forward to our next final 4. I hope it will be next year!!

I was in Praha. Matches were rally good, but I would Macerata to win a 3rd place match. Other scores are OK.
For me, Winiarski wasn't the best blocker, but he played good at reception.
I hope in next Final Four we will see Bełchatów.

Quote from mateo

i think it's a scandal what Iraklis's fans just did during match Iraklis-VFB ,first of all no one should even allow them to enter to hall with flare and they fire it before even match finish CEV should consider some penelty for Greek club

The CEV is considering disciplinary measures against the Hellenic Volleyball Federation and Iraklis.
The greek teams definitely have to find a way to make some washing up into some so-called "fans" who are making their team and nation look so bad. I just hope that it won't penalize the real volley fans who want -and deserve- to see good volley and cheer for their team. That's probably won't be easy, but some measures have to be taken, that's for sure.