France - Pro A 2008/2009

The links you need to follow the championship:

The french National Volleyball League (Ligue Nationale de Volley-ball)
- The program and results
- The rankings
- The players
- The videos (including possible live broadcast)
- Broadcast program (not up to date but it will probably be soon, right now you only have the 2007/2008 program) including Championship Internet and TV broadcast, and European Cup TV broadcast.
- livescore / livestat supposedly for every championship game. (but it will take some time for some team to work the software properly). For now, you can't access the livescore/livestat from another page, and only at the time the game is played. I hope this will improve. Last week there was a problem because of too many connections on the LNV website, I hope this problem is solved now...

The boards (in french):

- multisports : one of the most prolific boards with discussions about pro B, pro F, amateur championship, France NT, and so on
- Tours Volley Ball's board : the oldest french VB board, remaining one of the most active.
- Poitiers's fan board: like Tours's but not as good !

Others fans boards (Cannes, Tourcoing, Paris, Sète, Beauvais, Toulouse, Narbonne, St Quentin) exist. I'll post the address progressively ...

Livescore a french fan developed a livescore software. This software is used by:
Poitiers's fans
Tourcoing's fans
Tours's

If the LNV livescore don't work properly, you might want to check them. It's doubtful (but possible) that there will be a livescore when these teams are playing away. And with the LNV livescore/livestat on mercury it's doubtful that the fans will keep on doing livescores at every home game...

Pictures:
Tours's gallery
Poitiers's fans gallery
Tourcoing's fans gallery

Paris Volley

2 Yannick Bazin
3 Raphaël Attie
4 Victor Rivera (Puerto Rico)
5 Christophe Szenberg
6 Marcos De Oliveira (Brazil)
7 Dennis van Der Veen (Holland)
9 Clément Bleuze
10 Jiri Nivak (Czech Republic)
11 Nicolas Aubrun
12 Carlos Antony
13 Moïse Kahlemue
14 Romain Bonon
15 Stepan Smrcka (Czech Republic)
16 Fabien cantamessi
17 Marcelo Hargreaves (Brazil)
18 Filip Reljek (Czech Republic)

Stade Poitevin Volley Ball (Poitiers)

1 Glenn Tuifua
2 Teixeira (POR)
3 Ondrej Boula (Czech Republic)
4 Julien Lecoq
5 Sébastien Frangolacci
6 Damein Van Den Eshof
8 Romain Kreisz
9 Christophe Songolo
10 Marcelo Barreto (Brazil)
11 Florian Kilama
12 José-Miguel Caceres (Dominican republic)
13 Kamil Baranek (Czech Republic)
15 Brice Thesee
16 Martin Jambon
17 Oliver Kieffer

A.S. Cannes Volley-Ball

2 Samuele Tuia
3 Gérald Hardy-Dessources
5 Jean-François Exiga
6 Leonardo Alves (Leozao) (Brazil)
7 Gary gendrey
8 Ludovic Castard
9 Romain Vadeleux
11 Rusmir Halilovic (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina)
13 Pierre Pujol
14 Loïc Geiler
15 Armin Mustedanovic (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina)
16 David Feughouo (Cameroon)

Tourcoing Lille Métropole

1 Alexandre Sloboda (France / Brazil)
2 Camille Danel
3 Simon Aurejac
4 Bojidar Slavev
6 Jean-Stéphane Tolar
7 Nicolas Maréchal
8 Pascal ragondet
10 Luka Sugaljic (Montenegro)
11 Benjamin Tetauvira
12 Yann Lavallez
14 Philippe Barca-Cysique
15 Jonathan Wynder (USA)
16 Bernardo Alves Gilson (Brazil)

Beauvais: BOUC volley

1 MIlos Balandzic (Serbia)
2 Geir Ethun (Norway)
3 Sefi Azoulay (France / Israel)
4 Florian Lacassie
5 Matti Oivanen (Finland)
6 Aleksandar Milivojevic (Montenegro)
7 Ivaylo Barutiv (Bulgaria)
8 Martin Bruneau
9 Rajko Jokanovic (Serbia)
10 Eden Sequeira (Portugal)
11 Miroslav Javurek (Czech Republic)
12 Ivan Knezevic (Montenegro)
13 Paul-henri Wager
14 Olivier Lannoy
15 Raanui Roomataaroa
16 Tom Mouche
17 Pavel Bartik (Slovakia)
18 Clément Deshayes

Rennes Volley

1 Ivan Laszick (Hungary)
6 Freddy Saelens
7 Thomas Bernard
8 Andrej Patuc (Slovakia)
9 Kristjan Sikaste (Estonia) => He was recently diagnosed a heart defect and had to stop his career. Rennes is looking for an other opposite.
10 jenia Grebennikov
11 Christian Fuahea
12 Marat Imangaliyev (Kazakhstan)
13 Sten Esna (Estonia)
14 Evgueni Tsvetkov
15 Jiri Zadrazil (Czech Republic)
16 Quentin Marion
17 Alexandre Gaumont Casias (Canada)

Montpellier Volley

1 Jean-François Pérez
2 Sébastien Tournier
4 Baptiste Geiler
5 Rija rafidison
6 Pierrick Lyneel
7 Itamar Stein (Israel)
8 Yoann Jaumel
9 Ondrej Hudecek (Czech Republic)
10 Jean-Philippe Sol
13 Jan Umlauft (Germany)
15 Mathieu Gabaudan
17 Alexander Shafranovich (Israel)
18 Renaud Ventresque

Arago de Sète

1 Jakub Vesely (Czech Republic)
2 Johann Maillard
4 Julien Anton
7 Xavier kapfer
8 Alfred Granier
9 Remi Groussiaut
10 Tommy Senger
12 Lyes Ould Ammar (Algeria)
13 David Ferguson (Australia)
14 Gavin Schmitt (Canada)
16 Emmanuel Ragondet
18 Edouard Rowlandson

Spacer's Toulouse Volley-Ball

1 Loïc Lacroix
2 Toafa Takaniko
3 Vicent Duhagon
5 Maxime Milhau
6 Enrique Escalante (Puerto-Rico)
7 Lubomir Stanek (Czech Republic)
8 Adrien Efferneli
9 Marien Moreau
11 Franck Lafitte
12 Loic Pottier
13 Gaël vandaele
15 Sébastien Noirot
16 Adrien Clément
17 Diogense Zagonel (Brazil)
18 Maxime Poyer

Tours Volley Ball

1 Petr Konecny (Czech Republic)
2 Kristian Knudsen (Denmark)
3 Marc Schalk
4 Guillaume Quesque
5 Brock Davidiuk (Canada)
6 David Konecny (Czech Republic)
7 Hervé Boulc'h
8 Atanas Tarkalanov (Bulgaria)
9 Earvin Ngapeth
10 Vicent Montméat
11 Loïc Le Marrec
13 Julien Delgard
14 Yan Kikulski
15 Nicolas Anot
16 Jeremy Merat
17 Frederic Saint-Jacques
18 Pierre Villemaine

Narbonne Volley

2 Ward Coucke (Belgium)
3 Olivier Lamoise
4 Mathieu Labadie
5 Junot Mistoco
6 Alexandre Tartero
7 Vicent Mandrou
8 Romain Delpech
9 Viktor Sharaliev (Bulgaria)
10 Julien Bely
11 Arnaud Arquié
12 Mauro Miletic (Croatia)
14 Petr Zapletal (Czech Republic)
16 José Trèfle
18 Carlos César Da Silva (Axé) (Brazil)

St Brieuc CAVB

1 Grégory Feret
2 Mory Sidibé
4 Francis Nganga
6 Vladimir Radovic (Serbia)
7 Iouri Boriskevitch (Croatia)
8 Valentin Brouck
9 Jean-Charles Monneraye
10 Guillaume Marion
11 Vladislav Mandic (Serbia)
12 Cyrille Weick
16 Nicolas Le Jeune
17 Etienne Temgoua(Cameroon)
18 Olivier Digaire

Club Alès en Cévennes Volley Ball

1 Mykhailo Kukhar (Ukrainia)
2 Jaromir Kolacny (Czech Republic)
3 Rogerio Brizola Damasceno (Brazil)
4 Alexis Farjaudon
7 Jérôme Corda
8 Amine Besrour (Tunisia)
9 Guillaume Ochala
10 Wolfgang Kuck (Germany)
12 Ludeck Cernousek (Czech Republic)
13 Arnaud Soleilland
15 Benjamin Amsellem
18 Fabrizio Basta Doreto (Brazil)

St-Quentin Volley-Ball

1 Jérémie Hebert
2 Majdak (Montenegro)
3 Brice Donat
4 Marko Zlatic (Serbia)
5 Fakafetaï Tupou
6 Danail Mihaylov (Bulgaria)
7 Dario Dukic (Belgium)
8 Igor Juricic (Croatia)
9 Florian Beclin
10 Dimitri Ferlay
11 Francis Tonemassa Sombang
14 Florian Gosselin
15 Medhy Anthony
16 Yaniss China

OK, thanks for your explanation.

In the document (presenting last week "tournoi de la ligue") I used to make this list, he was registered as "american". I though maybe he was switching nationality for some reason, and I did not really bother about it. But I did not know that Puerto Rican were US citizen with their own VB federation.

So my guess is that this "american" simply refers to Rivera's citizenship, not to its VB federation.

By the way, today is the first championship day. I wanted to post my impressions about the new season after attending the "tournoi de la ligue" last week, but I did not found much time to do it and I'm not over right now.
Plus I want to add a few links on the first post (but that can wait a bit).

I don't really know for internet broadcast, I think there won't be a lot of them, if any this year.

But for livescore , there should be a livescore (and even livestats) for every Pro A, pro B, and Pro F game this year ont the LNV website.
The problem is that the software used (mercury) is quite complex and most people in charge of the stats are far from being able to use it perfectly right now.
For tonight (and yesterday) only two matches out of 13 are live, But I hope it will improve.

For tonight you can only follow Narbonne vs Alès and St Brieuc vs Toulouse on the LNV website, plus Poitiers vs Montpellier on the Lawson Club website (Poitiers's fans).

And Tours's president is posting the score of Sète vs Tours from time to time on Tours's board .

That's all we have for tonight ...

1st day results:

Beauvais 0/3 Saint-Quentin 22-25 20-25 19-25 P2
Tourcoing 3/2 AS Cannes 25-17 19-25 25-17 18-25 15-11 P2
Sète 0/3 Tours 21-25 19-25 15-25 P2
Narbonne 1/3 Alès 23-25 26-24 22-25 21-25 P2
Poitiers 3/1 Montpellier 25-20 27-29 25-23 25-20 P2
Paris 3/1 Rennes 27-25 21-25 25-21 25-17 P2
Saint-Brieuc 0/3 Toulouse 26-28 22-25 25-27 [b] P2

Ranking:

1. Tours 3
2. Saint-Quentin 3
3. Toulouse 3
4. Paris 3
5. Poitiers 3
6. Alès 3
7. Tourcoing 2
8. AS Cannes 1
9. Narbonne 0
10. Montpellier 0
11. Rennes 0
12. Saint-Brieuc 0
13. Beauvais 0
14. Sète 0

Some links added to the first message.

2nd day results:

Toulouse 3/2 Paris 18-25 24-26 26-24 25-23 15-11 P2
Rennes 0/3 Poitiers 18-25 14-25 21-25 P2
Montpellier 3/1 Narbonne 25-20 25-21 20-25 25-23 P2
Alès 1/3 Sète 31-29 25-27 19-25 18-25 P2
Tours 3/0 Tourcoing 25-23 25-23 25-19 P2
AS Cannes 3/0 Beauvais 25-21 25-15 25-22 P2
Saint-Quentin 3/0 Saint-Brieuc 25-20 34-32 25-21 P2

Ranking:

1. Tours 6
2. Saint-Quentin 6
3. Poitiers 6
4. Toulouse 5
5. AS Cannes 4
6. Paris 4
7. Montpellier 3
8. Alès 3
9. Sète 3
10. Tourcoing 2
11. Narbonne 0
12. Rennes 0
13. Saint-Brieuc 0
14. Beauvais 0

Quote from YavorD

Armel, did you have the chance to watch some games of the new championship?

Not from the championship, but I watched most of the team at a tournament one week before the start of the championship. I'll post a recap of it when I'll get the time ...

Quote from YavorD

Beauvais don't seem to be ready for the IECL yet. They started awfully with two consecutive 0-3 defeats. Is there a main difference between last year's cup holder and this year's team? Some players arrived like Barutov, Oivanen, Sequeira but still... They are going to suffer against Itas Trentino and ACH Bled.

You're ritgh, they're definitely not ready .
There was a lot of changes in Beauvais. More than half of last year starters leaved the team. And remember that Beauvais was the cup winner, not the championship winner. The club is making major changes in its organization. Last year, Beauvais won the cup without any french player in the starting lineup. This will remain for this year, but at the same time, they recruited a lot of young french player (18/19) and are building a very strong project to shift from an almost "all foreigner" to an "all french" policy.
I don't think they will ba a title contender for this year. And it's going to be tough for them in IECL. But playing in IECL is a good way for players to show of. Maybe some of them will be more motivated and play better in IECL ...

Quote from YavorD

Poitiers seem strong as always

Unlike Beauvais there was very few changes in Poitiers. Only the setter (Kevin Hansen replaced by Ondrej Boula) and the libero (Jose Luis Lobato replaced by Carlos Teixeira) are different this year. So they are one of the most certain title contender for this year.

Quote from YavorD

Tours VB finally with a good start and some hopes for a good season though they have a young squad.

They started quite good last year too (victory at Cannes) but yes they are appearing as the most fitted team right now.

Quote from YavorD

I thought Saint-Quentin are going to be anonymous, but their results are impressive after the first two rounds!

Don't be mistaken, they defeated a very weak Beauvais's team (plus Beauvais and St Quentin are two city of the same region so there is a rivalry between the two) and St Brieuc who is going to fight to remain in pro A exactly like them. St Quentin plays with a lot of heart, but sooner or later they'll lack the physical and technical skills to match with the best teams. To give you an example, St Quentin's setter, Brice Donat, is only 1,75m tall !

Tonight, the LNV website will broadcast the game Arago de Sète vs Montpellier VUC.

The game will start at 8:00 pm (local time). and broadcast will start at 7:45 pm.

3rd day results:

Paris 3/1 Saint-Brieuc 18-25 25-19 25-21 26-24 P2
Beauvais 0/3 Tours 17-25 32-34 21-25 P2
Tourcoing 3/1 Alès 26-24 17-25 25-20 25-20 P2
Sète 3/2 Montpellier 23-25 29-31 25-17 25-18 15-13 P2
Narbonne 0/3 Rennes 19-25 24-26 15-25 P2
Poitiers 3/1 Toulouse 25-21 25-20 25-27 25-16 P2
Saint-Quentin 3/1 AS Cannes 19-25 25-18 25-23 25-18 P2

Ranking:

1. Tours 9
2. Saint-Quentin 9
3. Poitiers 9
4. Paris 7
5. Toulouse 5
6. Sète 5
7. Tourcoing 5
8. AS Cannes 4
9. Montpellier 4
10. Alès 3
11. Rennes 3
12. Narbonne 0
13. Saint-Brieuc 0
14. Beauvais 0

Due to the Copa America, Wynder wasn't able to play with Tourcoing before the championship start.
That's why he was not the starting setter for the first games.

But he had some playtime and made quite an impact, so he will probably be the starting setter very soon. (By the way I just found out he was the starting setter last week)

As for Gilson, he had some injuries that made him unable to take play until then. He will probably be back this week or the next one.

4th day results (games played October the 25th)

Alès 3/2 Beauvais 23-25 22-25 25-21 28-26 15-12 P2
Montpellier 1/3 Tourcoing 21-25 29-27 25-27 21-25 P2
Rennes 2/3 Sète 28-26 22-25 22-25 25-20 10-15 P2
Toulouse 3/0 Narbonne 25-22 25-18 25-18 P2
Saint-Brieuc 0/3 Poitiers 22-25 23-25 19-25 P2
Tours 3/2 AS Cannes 17-25 25-18 16-25 25-21 15-12 P2
Paris 3/2 Saint-Quentin 25-15 23-25 25-22 26-28 15-11 P2

Ranking:

1. Poitiers 12
2. Tours 11
3. Saint-Quentin 10
4. Paris 9
5. Toulouse 8
6. Tourcoing 8
7. Sète 7
8. Alès 5
9. AS Cannes 5
10. Montpellier 4
11. Rennes 4
12. Beauvais 1
13. Narbonne 0
14. Saint-Brieuc 0

5th day results:

Beauvais 3/1 Montpellier 25-16 25-23 19-25 25-19 P2
Tourcoing 3/1 Rennes 23-25 25-19 25-23 25-16 P2
Sète 3/0 Toulouse 25-22 25-15 26-24 P2
Narbonne 3/1 Saint-Brieuc 25-23 19-25 25-22 25-18 P2
Poitiers 2/3 Paris 20-25 19-25 25-21 25-18 9-15 P2 => This game can be watch online on the LNV website
AS Cannes 3/1 Alès 22-25 25-13 25-21 25-20 P2
Saint-Quentin 2/3 Tours 22-25 24-26 25-22 25-13 09-15 P2

Ranking:

1. Tours 13
2. Poitiers 13
3. Paris 11
4. Tourcoing 11
5. Saint-Quentin 11
6. Sète 10
7. Toulouse 8
8. AS Cannes 8
9. Alès 5
10. Montpellier 4
11. Rennes 4
12. Beauvais 4
13. Narbonne 3
14. Saint-Brieuc 0

Interesting fact:
- first defeat for Poitiers against Paris.
- Tours remains the only team undefeated and is therefore back in the lead.
- St Quentin recorded its second defeat in a row against Tours, but like last week against Paris they were able to win two sets and score 1 point. So far they are definitely the good surprise of the season.
- Beauvais won its first game after scoring one points last week at Alès. It looks like the team is playing better and better and may be able to keep up with Vienna in IECL next week.

6th day results:

Rennes 1/3 Beauvais 25-20 23-25 21-25 19-25 P2
Toulouse 3/1 Tourcoing 25-23 25-22 22-25 25-22 P2
Saint-Brieuc 0/3 Sète 20-25 18-25 16-25 P2
Paris 3/0 Narbonne 25-20 29-27 25-17 P2
Montpellier 1/3 AS Cannes 23-25 25-16 22-25 21-25 P2
Alès 0/3 Tours 18-25 13-25 23-25 P2
Poitiers 3/1 Saint-Quentin 29-27 25-19 20-25 25-21 P2

Ranking:

1. Tours 16
2. Poitiers 16
3. Paris 14
4. Sète 13
5. Toulouse 11
6. Tourcoing 11
7. Saint-Quentin 11
8. AS Cannes 11
9. Beauvais 7
10. Alès 5
11. Montpellier 4
12. Rennes 4
13. Narbonne 3
14. Saint-Brieuc 0

Interesting facts:

Tours and Poitiers are still leading the league, though Poitiers lost one set to St Quentin in a tough game following a difficult win over Famagusta in CEV cup. Tours registered a much easier victory with very impressive stats ( 16 blocks against 3 for Alès, and an amazing 80% of perfect receptions without any error of Tours's reveivers !) even with David Konecny quite struggling. Young Earvin N'Gapeth (still 17) replaced him and played really well (more than 60% attack efficiency !), and Guillaume Quesque also played most of the third set.
St Quentin is slightly stepping back, but this evening they show one more time how they will fight for every point the whole season!
Paris won quite easily despite some players not being in perfect shape and are still quite close from Tours and Poitiers.
Beauvais registered its third victory in a row after last week vtictory in championship and the victory in IECL at Vienna. It looks like the team is in better shape than ever.
Cannes lost one more set at Montpellier's (that has a lot of player missing due to injuries right now), but they scored 3 points which is the most important. It looks like Cannes plays well against good team (Tours with a short defeat 2-3, or Cuneo with a victory 3-2) but can't manage to play at the same level against weakier team. If the player can't get the same commitment on every match this is going to be a problem...
The most interesting result is probably Tourcoing's defeat in Toulouse. Toulouse is proving they can be a problem for good teams, and with this defeat, Tourcoing is now 5 points behind the leaders...