Champions League 2009/2010

Champions League set to start again tomorrow I've been waiting for my favourite tournament to kick off for quite some time already Here is some more information on CEV's website:

http://www.cev.lu/mmp/online/w…ne/755/1711/16035_EN.html

They are mentioning some problems that Jihostroj Ceske Budejovice are facing before the opening game tomorrow evening. Their key player this season Radek Motys (opposite) is currently injured and will probably miss the game. However, it's strange that two of the teams with most problems this year are opening the campaign because Dinamo is far from its best shape, they are ranked 9th in the Russian Superleague at the moment with a record of 2 victories and 5 defeats, so they will need to work a lot to make sure not to disappoint in the IECL against Olympiacos and Trentino.

There are also many more interesting games in the first round, but we will discuss them soon. I hope the streaming at Laola1 will be great this year again to follow the games and especially the big clashes in the first round - Olympiacos vs. Trentino and both games in Pool E in Germany and Poland!

btw, it's nice to have the IECL prediction game for a second consecutive year

is anyone watching Jihostroj - Dinamo on www.laola1.tv at the moment? It does not show anything for me... and I will be very disappointed if that happens again tomorrow

İstanbul B. Şehir Belediyesi 3 - 0 Paris Volley
25-17 , 25-19, 25-23
İBB played so well .....

I agree, and even if I don't like Paris, it was painful to see the team looking so bad compared to IBB.

CAI Teruel 3-2 PGE Skra Belchatow

.....
you guys are pathetic. Skra Jastrzebie no comment Resovia played awful match in the first 3 sets but thank god Wika saved their arses

Congatulatin for CAI Teruel, they were on wave in three last sets.

Wlazly is not in his optimal shape yet, Falasca played awful today, Kurek and Antiga- I expected much more.

Good play of Bąkiewicz, Możdżonek and Wnuk only.

Anyway, I dont know how it happened we lost

Panathinaikos played without 3 starters (Agamez, Christofidelis & Pantaleon) and without substitute middle blocker Chatziantoniou. And because of that, their 4th outside hitter (Minoudis) played as a middle blocker for the first time in his career.
Can somebody, who watched the game, tell what happened and Jastrzębski lost. Because I am very surprised from the result. Did Jastrzębski underestimate Panathinaikos?

I watched the game (thanks to Justyna ) and the truth is that PAO played relatively well even without half of their squad. Lappas made a great game, Samica very convincing as usual, the second opposite Ntonas also made a lot of points, but I personally didn't like his style of attacking.. the guy seems to jump very little. But he was stable enough to help Zagumny and as a result Panathinaikos won. On the other side, I should also say that Jastrzebski played awfully. I hope they can show much more than that. Lomacz made some mistakes, both their opposites were not lucky today, I know Yudin is a good player in general, however, it's the first time I see Pedro Azenha in action and I was far from impressed.. I can say positive things today only about Szczygiel and Czarnowski in the middle, and maybe Pecherz, the rest didn't play convincingly enough. In this pool, where Friedrichshafen demolished Piacenza, it's hard to see Jastrzebski reaching the next round, but who knows...

I want to comment two games - Zenit - CSKA 1:3 (24:26 25:23 25:19 25:18)

and Olympiacos - Trentino 2:3 (28:26 25:19 18:25 22:25 9:15)

Zenit was equal to CSKA im the game without the americans. Cheremishin, Panteleymonenko and Tetyukhin were not enough.
Nikolay Ivanov is much better setter than their second setter. Todorov killed them with 5 blocks in the first two sets.
At 19:16 for CSKA Ball and Clayton entered the game. When the level of setting was equalized it was obvious that Zenit
will win this because they have 4 powerful spikers and CSKA has 2. The serve started to work and Todorov was eliminated from the
attack because of lack of perfect reception in CSKA team. Only Mayio left and then the normal thing happened.
I have to say that CSKA crushed Zenit on block (16:8) mainly because Todorov and because of the second setter of Zenit
Zenit had greate defense and catched a lot of perfectly set hits which their block didn't catch.
The game als showed that if you play lower than 100% against CSKA you can loose 3:0. Especially if you serve doesn't work.
This gives me hope for victories in home if they continue to underestimate CSKA and give them light serving.
Todorov with 7 blocks! In his first game on high level (international game). Not bad against those huge guys from Zenit. He is 208 cm after all,
not bad height for a very high jumping guy.

Olympiacos - Trentino was heading for straight 0:3 loss as it should be, but Visotto gave the first set to the greeks.
In the second set Trento didn't play as a team and lost with difference. Then the machine started working - they placed Matey as
opposite and put Herpe on the field. The polish setter with the hard spelling name was very good at the precise setting
and Matey Kaziyski and HUnatorena need only precise balls to hit over the blocks. I must say that Copra is right - without
Kazyiski Trento would be good, but not that good team, totally beatable by Olympiacos. In this game Matey played very powerful game
- all the time over triple and dobule blocks, like in the good old days

About polish teams - The last year they started the same way, but later it was very different. It is early to worry my fellow european
citizens

It was real torture to watch Polish teams yesterday. None of them played well and - it is actually even more sad - they didn't play against great teams and only one managed to win. I mean: 1)Panathinaikos is a big name, but used to be much better, than it is right now; 2) CAI Teruel... well, if Skra wants to succeed in CHL, shouldn't lose against such team, with all the respect to them; 3) I also can't see Slovenian Bled in best "8" of Champions League and Resovia had terrible problems to beat them.
Players of Skra looked like "living dead" in two last sets. A lot of players is very tired, but... well... if they want to be real power in Europe, they should get used to so many matches. Unfortunatelly, Falasca was playing much worse agfainst his countrymen, than Zagumny for example (Zagumny makes a big differenc on Panathinaikos favour)...
So, if we add both male and female CHL matches we have: 1 win-4 loses. Not bad But last year it was even worse: all Polish teams lost their first matches and it was better later. I hope for the replay this year...

P.S. YavorD has mentioned about Pedro Azenha. He showed himself as a very good substitute, had some great actions, but made several really stupid mistakes in deciding moments. He doesn't play a lot, so I think he didn't handle the pressure. Too bad - he could have been a hero of Jastrzębie.
P.S.2. In all matches I watched, there were many referees' mistakes again

Hey, where r the statistics from the champions league, I couldn't find them on the CEV site?

Quote from MAR

Hey, where r the statistics from the champions league, I couldn't find them on the CEV site?

Check the same topic in Female Volleyball section. You will find an answer there.

Quote from Justyna

VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN (GER) vs. CoprAtlantide PIACENZA (ITA) 3:0 (25-18, 29-27, 25-18 )

what a shame....
this year we lack in something, i don't know why...
no excuse for the injuries, we could do much more better than loose 2 sets 25-18 without playing...
at least the team could fight harder for the supporters who did more than 800 km in one day
these losses make me very angry, now another loss versus Wegiel would already mean almost be eliminated...

Yakovlev is back from the dead!!!